platies look like ich! help with treatment ---

[BLASK]

got a 20gal with 3 tux platies all showing symptoms of ich, one has a really small white dot on back fin, all 3 are rubbing against leaves of plastic plants, suction cups and the gravel, showing irregular swimming patterns, all have been at the very top for the past 2 days. ( i introduced a sunset platy and it was really aggresive towards them so i returned her)


should i just use ich medication in the tank or quarrantine - i dont have a seprate tank only 5 gal buckets i could use with a heater and water changes?

the tank mates are 2 albino cory platys that seem fine and 2 khuli loaches that also seem fine

i think my tank has finnaly bugun to cycle since ammonia was dropping from 6ppm down to 3ppm, nitrite 4ppm, nitrate 5ppm ph 7.4

their fins are clamped and it looks like they are just dragging their tail + fins

but then they extend all their fins from time to time - they are being really weird, i mean they are like 1.29$ fish - all this stress im getting is not worth it


should i just pour the med in the main tank and destroy the bacteria im starting ??

help!

(also have been doing water changes 10 to 30%)

 

[sunflower]

Can you actually see the white spots? I'm not convinced it is ich you're suffering with. If you are cycling with fish, could they just be stressed out by the ammonia spikes etc?

Fish flick against ornaments and substrate when something is irritating them and odd swimming is not a symtom of ich.

If it is ich you need to treat the whole tank with ich treatment. ich is always present in your water in its dormant state, therefore the "awakened" ich will be affecting the whole tank not just the fish with visible symptoms.

 

[BLASK]

i see a small tiny white spot on the tail fin of one of the platys

the usual behaviors are playful swimmers - now all 3 of my platys are still at the very top of the water - so the ammonia could be right, but before when the ammonia had readings of 6ppm they were fine, now its down to 3ppm and they complain?

also when they are sitting still all the way up top their whole tail is like drooping downwards, it looks like its just hanging. but only for a few minutes, they are grazing on the glass( eating the green)

also my albino cory cats just sit still at the bottom for a longer amount of time then usual

im hoping this all just stress related since i had really aggresive fish that was bitting them all, how long do u think it would take for the stress to go away?>

plus i have been doing alot of water changes in the mornings and evenings totaling almost 25 to 30% every 2 days

i have not put any medication in yet, if i am to do so, do i have to turn the water filter off and take out the cartridge? how long can the tank be w/o the filter on?

thanks

 

[snwhawk]

sounds like you are in the same situation as me
The advice I have received is this - treat the tank and do water changes. You need to leave your filter running but take out any carbon that you have in the filter - with the cartridge cut it open and shake out the carbon, then put it back in the filter. I also have a box filter at the bottom , if you have this also you need to remove the carbon from that as well. I have been treating my tank for a little over a week now - the lfs said that I could stop - but all the other directions I have read for treatment says 14 days, unfotunately the aquarisol (which is what I am using) does not have specific directions on it. Also slowly raise the temp to 82 F, I have also been told if you raise it to 30C it will kill the ich and you dont need to medicate. I guess that option is up to you. I think it may be wiser now that I am thinking about it to maybe go with that solution (as to not destroy bacteria that is forming) If you can get some filter media from your LFS or a friend that is from an already cycled tank that will help to impregnate your tank with bacteria. I nicely asked my LFS for some of his filter media, and he gave me enough to replace all the filter media in one of my filters. If you are going to a LFS that is more of a hobbyist - your chances are pretty good to get some. hmmmmm anyone else have an opinion as to treat and destroy bacteria already forming? Or turn the tank up so you dont kill the bacteria?
Hope this is helpful to you. Dont stress yourself to bad.


Kinda funny that we try so hard to maintain something that nature takes care of all by itself. Makes you wonder......lol

 

[xWendyx]

Can Aquarisol be used at full strength with Kuhli loaches? Normally you have to use medicines at 1/2 strength with 'scaleless' fish.

 

[Leslie]

Get Ich-X. It can be used full strength with scaleless fish and is a 4 day treatment with 30% water changes each day.

 

[sylvia]

Treating for ich won't harm your bacteria as ich is a protozoan parasite. Other than that Well just treat with the med. but first do some big water changes. Your fish will realy appreciate that. Also, do turn up the temp. but not too much - it'll speed up the ich lifecycle, so making the whole treatment quicker. I suggest you keep treating for at least a week after the last symptoms are gone as you can only actualy kill ich in the stage of its lifecycle where you cannot see it. Good luck

 

[sylvia]

Oh and keep the filter on - the only thing you need to take out is the black carbon which would otherwise removes meds from teh water. If you switch the filter off you will likely end up indirectly poisoning your fish because of ammonia build-up and you'd be killing off all those beneficial bacteria...

 

[snwhawk]

wendy - I asked my lfs if i could use full strength aquarisol because I do have a cory - he did say that it was fine. My cory is doing super with it.

Here is a question for someone - it is advised to remove the carbon during treatment, however aquarisol can be used as prevention once a week - the bottle says removal of carbon is not needed if using as preventative Dont get it - thought the carbon absorbed the med?

 

[BLASK]

i removed the carbon from the filter cartridge, there was still some carbon granules left in there, but very little -

my last important question before i put in the ich treatment (Rid-Ich+ Disease Treatment by Kordon)

i have a mini tank inside my main tank with 4 platy fry - it has slots in it for the water to flow freely but not big enough for the fry to swim through

will this treatment be ok for fry? i mean how is their resistance? they are about 2.5weeks old

thanks

 

[snwhawk]

Just found this on a site and thought I would post it for you:
Begin treatment with an Ich medication such as RidIch+ by Kordon that contains malachite green and formalin in combination. RidIch+ contains a less toxic form of malachite green that works synergistically with formalin to safely and effectively eradicate the Ich parasite. The full RidIch+ dosage is 1 teaspoon (5ml) per 10 gallons of water and we recommend that you administer the full dose and observe for signs of distress. It is very unlikely that you will experience any problems at the full dosage, even when treating “scaleless” fish like loaches or sensitive tetras. Very sensitive fish such as baby whales, elephant noses and small fry as well as fish with gill disease should not be treated with RidIch+ (their treatment is outside the scope of this article). The malachite green and formalin levels in RidIch+ are already at about half the strength of other malachite green/formalin Ich products, which lessens the toxicity of both medications. If your fish are showing signs of distress after dosing such as gasping, abnormal or erratic behavior, you can quickly give your tank a couple of good squirts of Amquel to neutralize the malachite green, add the carbon back into your filter and perform a series of partial water changes to normalize the situation.

Not sure what to do with the fry

 

[BLASK]

tyvm, i have begun treatment this morning and while I was at work one of my two females gave brith to some more fry, i was only able to find one so far, i put in the tank with the other 4 fry which are 2.5weeks old and they were attacking the poor guy, unfortunetly i was not able to save him

but the important thing is that my main fish are looking better fins up and since they give birth every 4 weeks its not like a big loss

thank you all so much for the help!!!

and thx snwhawk for the post with the med i used

 

[snwhawk]

YVW! Hope all goes well for you - keep us posted.

 

[BLASK]

::UPDATE::

left for class at 8am all fishes were fine - except the male platy had been really close to my orange platy and swimming with her, and i mean really with her, every turn she took, he took, every dive she took, he took, each stop - he followed. But he chased the other skinny platy away.

I come back at 2pm and the male is dead.

Tested the water and the results: Am:0,Nite:2,Nate:5,pH:7.3

Went out and bought 5 female and 1 male platy so for a grand total of 7 females and 1 male platys.

The thing is - the new male is bitting the original orange platy (she has history, when I bought a sunset platy once she was bitting the orange gal as well so I returned her. She also had two white dots on her tail fin - i treated the entire tank with rid-ich+ for 4 days with the temp raised to 82F and also removed the carbon. The dots went away and everyone seemed fine.) So now the original 2 female platys, the orange and red, are both sitting in the corner of the tank not really interacting much with the new fishes.

Do you guys think they are still sick? man i should really purchase a quarantine tank and get this sh*t settled - im sick of sick fishes!

P.S.
im not really sick of it, its one of the struggles as a begginer aquarist I guess, its the ugly part

 

[snwhawk]

Dont know how to quote - ummmmmmm hmmmmmmmm what does this button do??? I will get it um lemme try again....