emergency sick fish

[Marcotte]

Well, I have learned the benifits of a QT tank the hard way :wall: I recently added 4 pairs of fancy guppies to my planted 55 gallon tank who promptly died with white patches on the skin that seemed to dissapear after death. everyone else seems okay except my sailfin mollie who is not showing any external signs of sickness but is swimming erratically on and off, sometimes he seems okay though. My LFS recomendded dosing with melafix and pimafix and I have been doing this for 3 days, Water parameters are amonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates ~7, I'm thinking about setting up a hospital tank for the sailfin mollie, but I need to know is whatever this is going to stay in my tank will it be forever infected? or will it just run its course if no one else gets sick.
Any advice would be appriciated, sorry no pictures but my camera is in the shop , I will be checking every hour so please post asap.
thanks,
Lee

[Marcotte]

any one?:help::help::help:

[~Kswords~]

I would consider treating the tank. Even though you can't see the disease doesn't mean it isn't lurking in your tank waiting for a fish for it to "prey" on. However I would also isolate the molly and treat him separately so that he cannot cause any more problems in the tank.

[Marcotte]

Thanks for the prompt response, I've been treating the tank with the Melafix and Pimafix recomended by my LFS as a general all purpose "cure" . I don't know if it will get rid of whatever this is though or if it will be lurking still after the meds run thier course.

[J double R]

did the fish get acclimated properly? what is your pH? did you notice the molly become ill before or after the death of the guppies?

lastly.. you may have just gotten some bad stock, it happens.

[Star_Rider]

I would be hesitant to treat without knowing what you are treating. tho melafix and pimafix are mild meds.
the readings look good i guess you are using a sailfert test(drops)?

if not you should coinsider this when diagnosing the water.

how long has this tank been set up? is it established?

[Marcotte]

The fish were acclimated by the drip method, PH 7.2 the molly started acting wierd after the guppies died, although after talking with my wife she said he is acting normal now and is very hungry.
I was hesitant to treat as well but the LFS said these were mild meds and wouldn't really cause trouble for anythin healthy in the tank. I am using the API liquid tests, should I look fo Sailfert? The tank has been up and running almost a year now so I think it is pretty well established ( I still consider myself new to this particular brand of animal care) definatly still learning.

[Marcotte]

thanks for the input J double R and star_rider

[Marcotte]

Well I got home from work and everybody looks happy and active, do I keep dosing the meds or stop and do major big water change?

[Marcotte]

Any body got an idea how long to wait after illness seems to have cleared up before adding new livestock? Quarintined first of course. I was thinking 4 months, am I thinking too long not long enough?

[msjinkzd]

i would wait a minimum of one month. also qt new additions for a month of health.

[Marcotte]

:grinyes:Thanks Jinkzd, if your not careful your going to end up bieng my hero!:grinyes:

[silentskream]

i agree with msjinkzd..
you always want to finish the recommended dose on the package medication, even if your fish look OK.

once your fish are healthy, you can probably go ahead and buy the new fish and put them in QT Then after the QT period, the main tank should be ready for them.

[Marcotte]

Hadn't thought about the timeline bieng the same:wall: Thanks for pointing that out silent, that makes me happy no so long waiting time>:)

[redragon]

not sure if anyone will agree but i recently treated my fish with melafix & pimafix (after some sound advice) but i still lost a lot of fish. afterwards i was told by someone else that because they primarily treat internal probs & are mild meds, the fish dont take in enough of the meds just by swimming through them, so i was told to soak the fish food in the meds too.
please dont do this though before getting some better informed opinions as i am no expert and it may be an insane thing to do!