Please Read If You Are Starting Or New To Fish-Keeping!

[deanoce]

Hi all, My main 230l tank recently became infected with ich after I introduced some cardinal tetras, I am not new to fish-keeping, just wish I had made this precaution when I was. All 4 of my zebra loaches died within a few days, all 6 of the corys (not simultaneously) died shortly after, all of the 9 new cardinals died around the same time and only 1 of my 13 black neon tetras died (but I am still in the process of treating the tank).
I strongly suggest to anyone who Is new to fish-keeping (or even anyone who isn't) who doesn't have a quarantine tank, please get one. It will potentially save you money in the long run, and save you the depression of watching all your fish slowly die.
Thank you.
Deanoce

 

[chrisrm]

Hi all, My main 230l tank recently became infected with ich after I introduced some cardinal tetras, I am not new to fish-keeping, just wish I had made this precaution when I was. All 4 of my zebra loaches died within a few days, all 6 of the corys (not simultaneously) died shortly after, all of the 9 new cardinals died around the same time and only 1 of my 13 black neon tetras died (but I am still in the process of treating the tank).
I strongly suggest to anyone who Is new to fish-keeping (or even anyone who isn't) who doesn't have a quarantine tank, please get one. It will potentially save you money in the long run, and save you the depression of watching all your fish slowly die.
Thank you.
Deanoce

nice one

 

[Curiosity101]

Healthy fish should never die from ich (whitespot). I would suspect an underlying factor added to the fish dying. I'm not disagreeing that quarentine tanks are a good idea, but for alot of casual keepers they wont bother with quarentining and will never have an issue.

Another good bit of advice would be to always check your purchases before you leave the shop. You have to have a good check over them to make sure they've got no visible signs.

But like I said... normally ich should never result in deaths. I've had ich brought into my tanks before, and it's not exactly a rare disease (so plenty of other cases). Deaths are rare if the fish are healthy to begin with, water is clean, they have a good diet and are treated quickly.

 

[deanoce]

well the water was clean 0 nitrites and <10 nitrates, and ammonia was low-0, the water was fine (I had a test before I put in the treatment), all fish were well and healthy before the addition of cardinals, I cant think of anything else to cause the problem. I started treating it when my first loach died, which was a day or two after the cardinals came. And i'm no breeder and have never felt the need to use a quarantine tank until now. I have also heard that ich is " probably responsible for more fish deaths than just about any other disease ".

 

[Curiosity101]

Only because it's so common and because there are so many other things that contribute to a lowered immune system. Ich tends to go hand in hand with new uncycled tanks. It's present in alot of tanks and can flair up in tanks which have had no recent additions but that HAVE had a lapse in water quality which has then caused the fish to become suceptible to infection.

If you only noticed something was up when a loach died then either that loach was infested with ich and in which case you medicated far too late. Or the fishes health was already comprimised.

People don't like to admit when their actions may have contibuted to their fishes death. And I'm not saying that in your particular case that you're too blame or anything like that. I don't know anywhere near enough to be able to say anything like that.
But going by the number of posts I've seen on here about ich... healthy fish with observant keepers don't die as they have the strength to fight the parasite and also are medicated quickly. More often than not the people who have deaths from ich have more than 'ich' going on in the tank... or simply didn't pay enough attention and missed the early stage of the infection.

 

[deanoce]

I check my tank all the time, I know what to look for with ich, and the first thing I saw was the dead loach. Bear in mind it was 1 day or two after adding the cardinals.
The fish wera all completely healthy before this, no overfeeding, no underfeeding and no symptoms of any other disease.
Oh and this isn't an uncycled tank either.