From bad to worse

[garyroach]

About a week ago one of my silver dollars got what appears to be cloud eye. So I started treatment with melafix and pimafix in addition to water changes. Which seems to have stressed out more of the fish so that another silver dollar came down with cloud eye. So I continued melafix and pimafix and water changes which seems to have stressed out the fish even more. So much so that it looks like some have ick. Now I've got to get ick medication. What would you recommend for ick? Thanks. :help2:

[echoofformless]

Have you introduced any new fish without quarantining them first in the last few weeks? That is the only way to get ick - new arrivals. It's not something that just lives in the tank and waits for an opportunity like fungus or bacterial issues.

Is your tank properly cycled and is the biofilter in good working order?

Check for ammonia, nitrite to make sure.

Check nitrate levels - high nitrates will cause enough fish stress to set the stage for issues like cloud eye.


Mela and Pima are wonderful medications but they are very mild and should only be used in light cases or as a preventative. If you are dealing with serious infections you might have to resort to stronger medications. Personally I have never dealt with cloud eye so I cannot be a reliable source of information on that as far as particular medications and treatment options. Hopefully someone will come along with better info.

Hope this helps as much as it can. Good luck.

[garyroach]

I did a fishless cycle which took six weeks to complete before adding any fish. One angelfish, four silver dollars, and a rubbermouth pleco. All juveniles. Added second filter. Each filter is rated for 60 gallons. Tank is 55 gallons. Still test levels every day.

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
pH 8
Temp 80
30% water change twice a week
Melafix and Pimafix once a day
Feed flake food twice a day
Feed algae discs and sundried shrimp once a week

The tank has been set up for about ten weeks. I bought two angel fish the first week after the cycle finished. One angel died after two days with no apparent cause. The next week I bought the four silver dollars. All appeared healthy until last week. I bought the pleco last week. The pleco appears healthy. The angel also appears healthy. It's just the silver dollars that appear to be affected.

I have been having a problem with cloudy water even with water changes. And I've described in other posts white specs floating in the water. I thought that it might be a bacteria bloom. But, could it be ick?

[satanpie]

i have a situation that went from bad to worse too, i brought in some new plants and didnt realize they ahd snails, the sniales died and all ym fish got body fungus, its everywhere in my tank. i did a huage water change when i relized my water had high ammonia levels, after the change of about 75%, my water was couldy and still has high ammonia, maybe you should raise the temp up a little bit and try some aquarisol

[echoofformless]

If you didn't quarantine the pleco I suspect that the nasties got in with him.

Ick would be salt like parasites on your fish. Otherwise, you can't see it.

Nitrates are a okay but slightly more than they should be for a well kept tank as you indicate. Does your tap water have nitrates? Test it. If so, try to add more plants to alleviate the issue.

Cut back on feeding. In fact most of us veterans don't even feed every day. I sometimes go over a week without feeding fish in my more established systems.



Check out some disease databases and try to be absolutely sure of what the issue is, then treat. You might try to take a good picture or two and put them up here to see if anyone else can tell you the exact problem.

[SmallFishi]

My SD's had ick from bringing in another fish I felt terrible.
I noticed it very quickly, I have had a bad experience (personally) using salt so I wanted to give a medication a go.
I used Maracide I think I may have gone an extra dose with it just to be sure otherwise followed the directions.
Maracide contains an ingredient called Malachite Green that can harm/kill some scaleless fish and snails etc. So use caution if you use it.
edited to add...All my fish survived and are thriving some 6 months later.

[garyroach]

It seems like the more I do to try to fix the problem(s), the worse it gets. I did a 30% water change last night and now the white water cloud is worse than ever. (Yes, I added conditioner.) Although the angel does not show any illness, I can tell that it's behavior has changed. When I first got the angel it would stick it's nose in a corner and stay there. After I put the silver dollars in with it, the angel started swimming around and showed no aggression. All was well for a few weeks. Now it's back to the corner. Although the silver dollars are the ones showing physical symptoms, their behavior has not changed. And all are still eating like pigs.