Uh Oh!

[GAB99]

ok before i start i like the new website!

nyway, i have a twenty gallon tank with 5 plants : 1 anubais, 1 moneywort and i think 3 amazon swords.

fish: 2 balloon mollies, 5 gold barbs, 1 striped raphael catfish (i know), and 6 praecox rainbow fish.

problem: i recently (fri.) bought 6 very small praecox rainbow fish and they have been doing fine and were showing tremendous color up until sunday, i noticed one had a very small white speck on its fin (which sent me into a craze concerning what happened last time it was just a little speck) and this morning i turned on the heater (it got cold, and the rainbows were showing more specks now, one on each at least) when i got back from school the fish had even more specks (still just the rainbows, wierd) and one is swimming against the current of the filter. the other fish seem fine. i do have one med called nox-ich but im worried of theses things: 1. it doesnt work like last time. 2. i accidently kill my older fish by not realizing that i need to lower the dose (do i?). 3. it kills the good bacteria and have to go back into a cycle.

other info; i have forgotten to change the water this past 2 weeks, should i do it tomorrow and at what %? could it be that they arent use to the somewhat dirty water?


please help! and respond as quick as possible,

eternal gratitude, mojo.



edit: i forgot to mention that i know its ick and the water temp has reached to 80 farenheit up to now. money is no limit, ill do anything to save these fish. (they have tripled in size since i got them, well except for the rainbows, and i think the molly is pregnant and the male is a spectacular specimen.)

edit: oh yeah and my tank is cycled for 3.5 months so ammonia0 nitrites0 and nitrates i woud asume to be at 30ppm sinc its been two weeks. do planys absorb anu of this stuff?

 

[GAB99]

please help my fish need help too!

 

[Newgee]

Hi mojo dojo
Yes i would do a water change between 30-50% depending on the condition of the water
and use a dechlorinator.
Do you have a hospital or spare tank?
I have had excellent results using Methylene Blue, i have used this on both my tropical fish and my koi pond.
If you do use Methylene Blue be sure to use it in a spare/hospital tank as it will stain the silicone blue, and
ornaments etc so not great to use in your main tank unless your not to mythered.
It should clear between 5-14 days.
Also you could use salt i use rock salt from local supermarket (much cheaper than aquarium salt from a pet shop), what ever you use make sure there is no iodine in it or additives and it is pure NaCl.
Dosage = one table spoon to every 5 gallons of water.

If you have to setup a new hospital tank use the water from your main tank and take some of the crap from the filter and add to
filter of new hospital tank and you have instant cycled tank, ready to put the fish in.

Hope this helps and your white spot is cured soon.

Regards
Scott

 

[WILDER]

Check your water stats.

Whitespot looks like the fish has been sprinkled in salt. or spots the size of a grain of salt.

It might take longer to get rid of the whitespot with only half dosing.
Some brand of methylene blue can wipe the beneifical bacteria out in the filter.
Don't move fish just treat the whole tank.

Increase aeration as the high temp and med reduce 02 in the water.
Remove black carbon from filter if you use it.
Good Luck.

 

[Newgee]

Hi wilder,
I only suggested removing if he used methylene blue as the staining is terrible.

Regards
Scott

 

[WILDER]

Hi wilder,
I only suggested removing if he used methylene blue as the staining is terrible.

Ok.
I know what you mean I had a bottle of the stuff once and it is bad for staining.

 

[GAB99]

i used a brand called nox-ich the last tim this happened. (in fact, wilder you actually helped me with that one) it is 50% sodium chloride and 50% malachite green, i did use it in te main tank with no staining, should i dose the tank today just to be safe? i dont want to stress them out more, my vacuum pump broke and i cant chang the water till friday, will they be okay by then? will my brand of meds destroy the tanks bio filter? it says remove carbon fromfilter during treatment whats that? thankyou

 

[Newgee]

Hi mojo dojo

Yes remove the carbon from the filter if using meds, as the carbon will remove the meds from the water.

Could you not use a jug and a bucket or something similar to do the water change? i know it will not
clean the gravel but it will help getting clean water into the tank...use dechlorinator also.

As for the ich ive never used nox-ich so i couldn't suggest anything about it only that it has malachite green in it and
that is not good for your catfish.

Salt is a great cure for ich

Take a look here its all about the striped Raphael catfish and getting rid of ich. it has dosage for salt and temp to go to.

http/www.#121###.com/index.php?showtopic=21045


Regards
Scott

 

[GAB99]

ok here is an update, i have yet to change the water and apply the med(i had lots of homework and the fact that the med could hurt my catfish) the male preacox is still the only one with like one "grain of salt" on him, the tank temp is 80 degrees. what should i go from there? i found a spare pump so i MIGHT be able to to a wc. is malachite green lethal to the catfish or will it just increase the liklihood he'll get sick whie every one gets better? what brand of med would you recomend thatbasically treats visible illnesses and does not hurt anything (even the cycle)? and if there is a good ed but it hurts the cycle, how can i store the filter bag so i wont have to cycle again? btw the fih thats sick is eating a swimming with his friends and still want s to mateso i guess it dosent bother him that much, i just hope no one else gets it. thanks for the help

 

[WILDER]

I would only go in with half dose with having sensitive fish.
Keep avery close eye on them when you add the med.
Good Luck.

 

[GAB99]

is the carbon the same thing as the filter cartridge?

if so, how can i take out the filter cartridge without killing the bacteria?
i have no friends that can give me filter media.

everything isstable and he is eating which is good.he still shows color as well

 

[GAB99]

hello?

everyone is fine, unfortunatley i cant change the water till friday.

however everyone except the sickfish is hapy shiny. even he is too, so i think im gonna get a little plastic fish tank, get a tiny filter, get some meds methalyne blue, and treat himby himself. o yeah how do you get stuff from the cycled filter and put it in the new one? thanks. hopefully hell get better by himself when friday comes along,but im still gonna get the stuff anyway so i dont risk my whole tank.

is there a possibilty that i can use this tank as a breeder tank?

 

[Newgee]

Hi mojo dojo

Carbon filter is charcoal so it will stand out if you have any if your filter.

I think the malachite green is harmfull to your good bacteria as alot of meds are.
if you are willing to purchase another tank and filter here is what you could do.

get a small tank about 10gallon is good bigger is allways bettr tho, and try to get a filter either the same size or the exact same model would be better.
fill the smaller tank with water from your older tank then if the filter has 2 or more filter pads inside it take 1 of the old dirty filter pads from the old filter and swap it with one of the new filter pads so each has 1 old and 1 new filter pad and both tanks will be cycled.
if it is just 1 filter pad in each you could cut each pad in half and swap that way.

it does sound like your white spot is clearing so thats good,
If you get a 2nd tank put the catfish into that tank and then treat the new tank with the meds, and if you switch some of the filter pads when the meds are done and fish are clear you just swap the filter pads around again, and if the malachite green did kill off the good bacteria then you still have some good bacteria in the old pad.

raise the temp in your old tank to about 82-84 slowly and keep it like that for a few more weeks whilst doseing with the meds,
you might aswell use the nox-ich seen has you already have some, and with the catfish in the other tank you can full dose the main tank, and half dose the catfish in new tank.just be carefull with the catfish tho.

you will need to keep ontop of the gravel cleaning as ich falls off the fish and goes into the gravel, so you could end up with an outbreak again if not done gravel cleaning.

And yes you can use the new tank as a breeding tank in the future.

I think i have covered everything .lol

if not just ask.

Regards
Scott

 

[GAB99]

ok sorry about this as this might be a REALLY stupid question... but does the charcoal come standard with any filter? in my filter i have: 1 fiter cartridge. plz explain it to me like i was some 5 year old kid, cuz im obviusly not getting the jist of what your saying

also i can at the max get a 6 gallon tank/plastic thing with a filter and some cover. and i went to their website and it said to quarter dose the catfish.

and would i need to get a test kit too to find out whether or not if the malachite green killed the bacteria (good)?

sry about the stupid qs!

 

[Newgee]

Hi mojo dojo

They are not stupid questions if you simply don't know, so don't worry about asking, everyone has to learn these things at some point.

Ok is your filter in the tank or outside of the tank?

Can you take a look at it and look for the name of it exactly as it says?

Some filters come with carbon and some don't so it would depend on your filter.

Are the dimensions for the plastic tank roughly (16" in Length 9" in width 14" in Height )

Kind of like this
http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=3857&cmpid=03csepg&ref=3475&subref=AA&srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=23-62931708-2

What size is the catfish?

Also everyone who keeps fish should really have a test kit.

Regards

Scott