Help! think my fish have ich and ammonia levels are thru the roof!

Did you cycle your tank?! most ammonia stopping products generally dont work!

water change water change and more water changes

chuckandliz said:

We have had a 10 gal tank for about 1 month. We started with 4 mollies and 2 planty mickey mouse fish. 1 mollie gave birth 2 days after we got her and 2 of our mollies have died since. We have done weekly water changes and have tested weekly. Ammonia levels are always high and have considered using ammo lock. As of tonight I see my fish have white spots all over their tails and 2 plantys are swimming strangly (staying in one place but wiggling quickly). I went out and got maracide to treat and am turing up the heat as I see that helps. I just need help as to what to do next. Some hand holding I guess, I don't want to lose anymore fishies

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I am a newb too so I am subbing to this...

i have found quick cure works well on ich.only downfall turns all rubber stuff in tank blue.

Get Seachem Prime as water conditioner. It is highly praised by the gurus here on AC because it not only removes chlorine and chloramines but it detoxfies ammonia and nitrite for about 24 hours, giving you some breathing room and safety for your fish as you do big water changes to keep your ammonia, and then nitrites, down to less than .25 and as close to 0 as possible. Even if that means every day. Your fishes lives depend on it.

You need to get a good liquid test kit such as the API Master test kit. Test strips are very unreliable and inaccurate. You can't count on the strips to give accurate readings, and besides, the strips are much more expensive as the bottle doesn't contain many and the liquid kit lasts for months and months. Cost saving big time.

Do you know about cycling the tank. There's a good sticky at the top of the forum regarding the nitrogen cycle that is necessary for your tank to be healthy and maintain good parameters which would be: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates 20 or less.

I would immediately get Prime to help you as you go through the cycling process. It doesn't interfere with the cycling process.

I'm treating a fish for Ich right now using Kordon Ich Attack. It is an organic compound that kills the Ich protozoan and won't harm fish, inverts, or plants.

Most folks are proponents of the heat and salt method, but Ich Attack works, too.

EDIT: I just looked up Maracide and it IS good for Ich. I would stay with that med. The heat helps speed up the life cycle of the protozoan to the free swimming stage, which is when it is vulnerable to the medication.
I think around 86 degrees F is where you should put the temp. I would crank up the bubbles and add a bubbler if you don't have enough. Water that is warmer does not hold as much O2 as your fish need, so the added areation is needed.

You are so very welcome. You will find that AC is full of kind, generous, helpful people that love fish and aquaria and want nothing more than to see you succeed in your hobby.

That's what I found. They helped me so much!!! You can count of the folks here. Never be reluctant to ask for help or ask any questions. There is no such thing as a dumb question. Every single person on this forum was, at one time, a total noobie and relied on help from others.

We are all here to learn more about our hobby and help others as we have been helped.

Wishing you the best!!! And, welcome to AC.:thm:

EDIT: Please do keep us posted, we are all very interested and hope your fish will be feeling better soon.