blur411
Fish Fanatic
I'm going to journal my journey of fighting this disease. Please feel free to comment and give advice, since this is my first time.
Backstory:
I have a 55 gallon with male guppies, 1 female guppy fry/young adult (that I got on accident and it was super small and grew into a female). I didn't want to get rid of her so I decided to get some females so I could keep her. I went to where I usually go, PetCo, and another LFS that I haven't had any trouble at and neither of them carried the females. I ended up going to another store a user on here recommended, though they hadn't been there in a few years. The store was pretty dark, and small areas. I bought 5 female guppies, and left the store only to find out that they had ich (or at least by my diagnosis). The store closed 15 minutes after we left, and in addition they didn't take returns on livestock. I got home, and posted on the forums hoping for some answers, but I was running out of time. It was 7PM on a saturday night, and if I was going to do something, I had to act fast because the chain pet stores closed within a couple hours. I didn't have a quarantine tank, I know silly me, that was my first mistake.
Since I didn't get any help quickly, I decided I should go ahead and buy what I needed to have a QT. I didn't want to flush innocent fish, and I couldn't take them back, and I sure as hell wasn't going to put them in my established tank. So I bought a 10 gallon, with a hood light, HOB filter and 50W heater, and thermometer. It was a packaged deal for 50 USD.
I came home, set it up, and took the filter sponge from my established tank (it has a dual slot, so I only used one...cut it and placed inside the filter of the new QT filter. I didn't want to take the actual charcoal/carbon from the filter because carbon nixes the medication I was going to add to the tank. I had just added the carbon 2 days ago, because my drift wood had made the water a little brown in the main tank, and I wanted to try and clear it up a little (I soaked it for 3 weeks before putting it in, but it still leaked some tannins). I also used tank water from my established tank, instead of fresh water since it was already warm, and hopefully had a few bits of bacteria in it.
I floated the fish, then added the fish only, not the water to the tank, I added some old plastic plants I had still...which are pretty much just floating since I didn't buy a substrate.
The females mostly looked pregnant to me, I just felt so bad for them, they were nearly covered in tiny white specs. I added the medication Coppersafe from Mardel, and turned the lights off and left them over night. I should have taken before pictures, because already by today they have significantly less spots on them. The initial temp was 79 degrees F, but I increased it to 81 over night, because I heard that helps increase the life cycle of the ich.
Day 2: All guppies are still alive, looking a little happier, and one had her fry (I saw about 10 at one point, but there is only 1 left) I fed them today as well, and all of them ate. I did a water test about 24 hours after the tank was set up and the ammonia is .25, Nitrites are 0ppm and I didn't test the other stuff yet. I'm not sure if that filter sponge was enough? Any suggestions there? I did a water change of 50% and it was less than .25
Here are my pictures from so far:
Backstory:
I have a 55 gallon with male guppies, 1 female guppy fry/young adult (that I got on accident and it was super small and grew into a female). I didn't want to get rid of her so I decided to get some females so I could keep her. I went to where I usually go, PetCo, and another LFS that I haven't had any trouble at and neither of them carried the females. I ended up going to another store a user on here recommended, though they hadn't been there in a few years. The store was pretty dark, and small areas. I bought 5 female guppies, and left the store only to find out that they had ich (or at least by my diagnosis). The store closed 15 minutes after we left, and in addition they didn't take returns on livestock. I got home, and posted on the forums hoping for some answers, but I was running out of time. It was 7PM on a saturday night, and if I was going to do something, I had to act fast because the chain pet stores closed within a couple hours. I didn't have a quarantine tank, I know silly me, that was my first mistake.
Since I didn't get any help quickly, I decided I should go ahead and buy what I needed to have a QT. I didn't want to flush innocent fish, and I couldn't take them back, and I sure as hell wasn't going to put them in my established tank. So I bought a 10 gallon, with a hood light, HOB filter and 50W heater, and thermometer. It was a packaged deal for 50 USD.
I came home, set it up, and took the filter sponge from my established tank (it has a dual slot, so I only used one...cut it and placed inside the filter of the new QT filter. I didn't want to take the actual charcoal/carbon from the filter because carbon nixes the medication I was going to add to the tank. I had just added the carbon 2 days ago, because my drift wood had made the water a little brown in the main tank, and I wanted to try and clear it up a little (I soaked it for 3 weeks before putting it in, but it still leaked some tannins). I also used tank water from my established tank, instead of fresh water since it was already warm, and hopefully had a few bits of bacteria in it.
I floated the fish, then added the fish only, not the water to the tank, I added some old plastic plants I had still...which are pretty much just floating since I didn't buy a substrate.
The females mostly looked pregnant to me, I just felt so bad for them, they were nearly covered in tiny white specs. I added the medication Coppersafe from Mardel, and turned the lights off and left them over night. I should have taken before pictures, because already by today they have significantly less spots on them. The initial temp was 79 degrees F, but I increased it to 81 over night, because I heard that helps increase the life cycle of the ich.
Day 2: All guppies are still alive, looking a little happier, and one had her fry (I saw about 10 at one point, but there is only 1 left) I fed them today as well, and all of them ate. I did a water test about 24 hours after the tank was set up and the ammonia is .25, Nitrites are 0ppm and I didn't test the other stuff yet. I'm not sure if that filter sponge was enough? Any suggestions there? I did a water change of 50% and it was less than .25
Here are my pictures from so far:
