Here for Platy help

[monkeyskunk]

Sorry this will be brief! But I totally love my fish (dwarf platies) because they are so wiggly Now I'm freaking out because tonight (the night before I go home to San Diego for a week) I noticed one of my fish had ich.

They had been acting a little lethargic for a couple of days, and they had been having a power struggle over what I now believe to be a female.

But I did a change of ~1/3 of the water (in a five gallon tank), everything tested alright. Then I put in the ich medicine and they have been like FREAKING OUT. It was the API Super Ich remover or something (the local pet store in town is closed and since I leave tomorrow at 7am, I had to get what they had at Fred Meyer (aka Kroger).

Now they are like swimming around like they are on crack, they're super wiggly and keep on wiggling around the bottom, and then going into little hiding spots and like not moving at all. I really hope I didn't kill them...

Any help would be great.

Mo:help:

[spunjin]

Welcome to AC. I have no experience with Ich meds so I can't help you with that. In my experience, I slowly raise the temp to 84 degrees and add about 2 teaspoons of aquarium salt. Keep the tank that way for up to 10 days after all the signs of Ich have gone. When you do water changes replace the salt you removed from the tank. And when you are removing the salt from the tank completely make sure to do it very slowly.
Sorry for your stress.

[ksane]

Was the tank cycled? And how many did you put in there? A 5 g tank is terribly small. Nothing but a single 1" fish would be comfortable in there. And if the tank wasn't cycled 1st the fish have ich on top of ammonia posioning to deal with. So let us know, I bet someone can help :-)

[jm1212]

dwarf platies are fine in a 5 gallon...they are very tiny

how large of a dose did you put in the water?

[kj5kb]

ditto Spunjin's comments...I'd go a little higher on the salt tho.

I'd crank the temp up to 84-85 and slowly add 1 TEAspoon aquarium or kosher salt. Then add another TEAspoon in the morning.

I normally work my way up to at least 1 teaspoon salt per gallon for ich.

HOWEVER..the API super ich cure is, well...95% salt!

see:
http://cms.marsfishcare.com/files/msds/superickcurepowder_2980.pdf

...so you already have SOME salt in there...that's why I'd only add 2 tsp more.

You might have added too much meds or added it to fast and shocked them. for meds (including salt) it's best to add gradually. dissolve in a jar or a cup of water and add a little at a time...over an hour or more if you can.

Might want to do another partial WC if you have time. that may give them some relaif. you could do the WC with slightly warmer water, too, helping the temp increase.

Edit:...I see you've left already, perhaps you can have whoever's watching the house watch the temp for you?