View Full Version : Tetras and white spots
:help:
I stocked my cycled 10 g. tank with three rummy nose tetras and two panda corys (very small) from the LFS last Friday. All was cool until last night when one tetra was dead, the other two were hovering at one end of the tank speckled with white spots. Went out to dinner, came back and second tetra was near death. This morning, that one and the third were dead.
Is this ick? Whatever it was it was very quick. (quick ick). Is that because they were so small? Or, was it something else.
Now, will the corys become ill? What's the next step. I plan to go to the shop this morning. If nothing else to get medication/advice for the the remaining fish. The shop is very well taken care of in my opinion. The owners are very knowledgable.
Rbishop
11-08-2008, 8:05 AM
Do the spots look like raised grains of salt on their body? If so, it is probably ich.
All you need is table salt and to raise the heat to 84 degrees. Do the temp change slowly.
Dose for 2 teaspoons per gallon, dissolved in warm water, adding abouta fourth of it every 4-5 hours.
Maintain this concentration for a full week after all visible signs of the ich are gone.
How was this tank prepared for putting fish in it?
Hi, yes, I began the salt treatment after reading the article on freshwater ich. Yes, the white dots looked like little grains of salt.
The tank had housed a healthy goldfish who was moved to a 38 g tank. I vacuumed and did 50 % water change; added a heater; waited a week to ensure the temperature was constant; adjusted the ph to 7; ammonnia was already at 0. Ammonia remained at 0. Biowheel was running entire time; changed the carbon filter at the time of water change.
I thought the fish were doing very well. I only noticed on Thursday that the tetras seemed to be out of sorts. I do not see the white spots on the corys (yet?) They seem active and interested in food.
Just reading a bit more about ich...the tetras were not scratching on the substrate or anything. The only change in behavior was their staying at one end of the tank rather than swimming throughout the tank. And, that was Thursday.
If not ich...what else?
OldMan47
11-08-2008, 2:48 PM
The what else could possibly be a partially cycled tank. After a week of no ammonia input to keep your filter alive, some of the bacteria will have been lost. When you restocked, the need for those bacteria came back and it takes time for them to grow their numbers again. Do you have a set of test results after you added the fish back in so that you can look for that?
Another thing that can happen is that you adjusted the pH with some kind of chemical treatment and what usually happens next is that the pH bounces back. Before you try adding any more fish, give your water a quick check and let us know the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH levels. There may be something there that needs attention.
In general, cories are more resistant to ich than many other fish so they actually may not be affected. If you had a chemistry problem it probably slowed down once the tetra bioload was gone so that also may be recovering.
Just in case you had ich in the tank and not something else, don't add any fish until your cories have looked healthy for at least a week.
Thank you for the reply.
After looking at several web site and books, I'm nearly 100% certain it was ich. The fish had white little grains all over them. It sure was a quick thing!
I did test the water on Wednesday evening for ammonia. It was zero. The ph also tested again at 7. I did not test for nitrite. This is before the fish died.
The cories are not terribly active today. They did eat this morning.
If I understand you correctly you are suggesting that they might not have ich. So, since I did add salt to the tank, should I begin changing the water over the next few days?
Will the salt affect the water tests? If not, I'll check my levels tomorrow and report back.
LeahK
11-08-2008, 10:46 PM
Just a quick word of warning, be careful that you don't cross-contaminate your goldfish tank. The ich parasites can be transferred from one tank to another on anything that's wet--water vac, buckets, your hands, etc.
Edit: I should say, too, your cories may not have ich yet, but if your tetras had ich, then most likely your tank has it. During certain stages of their life cycle, the ich parasites will be either free swimming, or living as cysts on your gravel and on other surfaces in the tank, or living as other kinds of cysts on your fish. You need to keep up treatment until they hatch from their cysts, because treatment only affects them during the free-swimming stage. Just google "ich life cycle" and you should get some good information about how long you need to treat. I believe it's usually 8 to 10 days, depending on temperature.
darkmindzz
11-08-2008, 11:22 PM
does anyone have a picture of a fish who has ich??
Hello. Just checked my water parameters for the 10 g tank:
Ph - 7
NO2 - <0.3
NH/NH4 - 0
GH - 7
Currently, the temperature is 80. The corys are not terribly active. One is a little more active than the other. They don't seem to have any white spots; is the salt bothering them?
Oh, there are lots of web site with photos of fish with ich. I believe the sticky article on AquaCentral.com regarding fish health includes three photos.
An update on my tank situation. Since Saturday treating the tank with the two small cories with salt. Increased the temperature. The cories seemed fine; a little less active which I attributed to heat and salt. I lowered the water level to allow more splash/oxygen from the filter flow (read that on a web site about ich treatment).
Yesterday, noticed they were not hanging out together. This morning, one looks very stressed; breathing heavily, floating a little on its side.
I panicked because I can't stand to see them stressed. I took out about 1.5 gallons of water; replaced it with treated/room temperature water to dilute the salt content.
I hope, when I get home from work, that they both are alive. Any suggestions of what to do, not do? They don't appear to have any white spots from ich.
Thanks.
ateeq
11-13-2008, 12:05 PM
Hi, I to have the same problem. I have 6 Blood fin tetras and 2 australian rainbows. and Ich. do you thin the salt will harm the tetras ? i have the temp raised up to 82.
havent added any salt yet.
How did you add the salt and how much ? mine is a 55 g tank
I am by no means an expert. I googled "ich" as suggested by one of the folks on this forum. It provided the dilution levels and frequency. If you don't do something, the fish will die from the ich. It happened in two days with the tetras in my tank. I believe there are medications you can purchase at the pet store...perhaps some forum members can speak to that??