Ich Disaster Diary

Thought I'd share my experience of an apparently treatment resistant form of ich. Any further advise appreciated.

Thursday

Saw some cute South American puffer fish in local fish shop, decided to get 2 after being informed they were fine in community tank.

Sun
10 Neons,
6 Green Tiger Barbs,
1 Upside down catfish,
2 Cory Doras
2 South American Puffers
1 Red Tail Shark

Un quarantined Puffers have developed some white spots, decide to get hold of ich treatment, and perform water change tomorrow.

Mon

Population as before
25% Water Change, First Treatment for ich, everyone seems quite happy, puffers unphased by ich spots, and darting up and down the tank enthusiastically. New diet of bloodworm seems quite popular with most inhabitants.

Tuesday

Wed
Thursday Puffers starting to look a little less spotty, aim to add second dose tomorrow.

Fri
25 % Water Change, second treatment. One puffer hanging around surface gasping for air periodically.

Sat
Tiger Barbs Appear to have started to acquire spots. Shark now has some on his tail, as do a few of the neons. Puffers have suddenly taken turn for the worse. White spots have returned with a vengeance, completely covering both puffers, One gasping for air at surface. Looks like struggling to survive, but perks up a bit when fed.

Sun
Things are starting to fall apart, neon population down by three, unsure where they have gone though, can’t find any floaters. Nothing particularly energetic other than puffers, although even puffers are not as active as before.
Found reason for absent neons after Catching Puffer Biting a Neons head off while the neon was prone, consider it a plus point that puffer still has it's appetite. Both puffers fighting over remains. Tiger Barbs are starting to bob about drunkenly, turning somersaults and flaking out periodically. Neons not moving much, some getting sucked into filter vents, I opt to help them out of the vents when I find them, and mostly they swim away after, although puffers are knocking off the others one after another.

Afternoon, panic visit garden centre to get different white spot treatment, as not convinced the one I have is working.

Evening Water Change and dose. Temp at 80 Degrees, 3 neons left out of 10, tiger barbs still flaking out, but a little more perky than before, decide to lower the temp by a few degrees as presume heat may be too much for tiger barbs. Assist Tiger barb that has managed to get itself stuck to the filter inlet.
Water quality looks appalling, though nitrite is at 0.3, PH at 8, slight greenish blue tinge from ich treatment, and thousands of white flecks in the water, uncertain what the flecks are, but assume that they can’t be trophonts or anything to do with the whitespot, as they wouldn’t be visible at that stage of the life cycle.

Mon
Find first dead Tiger Barb, Water Change, Fresh Treatment, Find Decomposing Cory Dora under a rock, hadn’t seen him for a while, presumed he was just hiding away miserable like the others. Presume that problems may have been combination of white spot and raised ammonia from dead Cory. Not sure what the initial cause of death of the cory was, possibly higher temperatures. No indication that corys or u/s/d catfish have contracted whitespot.

Buy a small tank off ebay, after vowing to quarantine all new arrivals in future. Will pick it up on saturday.

Tues
1 Neon,
4 Green Tiger Barbs,
1 Upside down catfish,
1 Cory Dora
2 South American Puffers
1 Red Tail Shark

Morning, one neon left, 2 more apparent puffer victims, also another dead tiger barb. Make note to perform a 50% water change tonight after work, to deal with residual ammonia, will add second dose of new ich treatment tonight. Puffers seem to be coping fairly well considering, more active than the other fish. Possibly their new diet of neon tetras. Am hoping that now that source of ammonia located and removed, situation may improve following water change tonight, although am expecting more fatalities among Tiger Barbs, and don’t expect remaining neon to last the day.

Tuesday evening

Got home to find remaining neon and tiger barbs all dead, which I expected. Both puffers huddled together in corner, every now and then they find the energy to swim around and attempt to shake/rub off the trophonts. But both appear to be losing the battle to stay alive. Sushi has a little more energy than Fugu who still just has enough energy to come over to the glass and look at me whenever I enter the room, which is making me feel worse as there's not much more I can do to help him.

Upside Down Catfish still appears fairly unaffected, as does the remaining cory dora, Red tailed shark is spending most of his time hiding by a rock, but otherwise appears reasonably healthy.

Done another 25% water change, and added second dose of Ich treatment, both puffers refusing to eat now.

Population

1 Cory
2 Puffers
1 Upside down catfish
1 red tailed shark

OrionGirl said:

All require a good diet of crunchy foods--fish are not a normal part of their diet, and will not be effective in keeping their teeth in shape.

Click to expand...

The neon tetra diet was not a planned thing, it was something the puffers chose to try.
I have read the thread on ich, and followed the advise given, although by the time I discovered the other options like salt, things were already looking pretty bad.
The new ich treatment seems to be doing the job of preventing new outbreaks. However it seems to be too late to make a difference. I think that the week I wasted with the first treatment was what killed my fish, it gave the ich an extra week to spread.

Weds

Woke up to find Fugu had clung to life throughout the night, and had tried to shed his dead skin, but didn't have the energy to complete the shed. He died shortly before I left for work this morning. Sushi is still hanging in there, but unless things get better rapidly, I give him 2 days maximum. No sign of red tailed shark, will hunt around for him tonight. Remaining Cory, and U/Sd Catfish still look fairly strong. Usd catfish came out into the light for the first time in a week, and I could see he has a few white spots on his eyes. but none anywhere else.

Weds Evening

Added the 3rd dose of treatment, 4th and final dose is Saturday. Sushi is still alive, and seems to still have enough energy to swim around the tank. No further casualtys since this morning.

Thursday
Sushi was dead on the bottom of the tank this morning, and the red tailed shark when I got home tonight.

Found the upside down catfish floating on the suface at 23:00 so decided to fish him out, as I put the net in the tank he sprung into life and darted back under the filter, much to my relief.

Population
1 Upside down catfish
1 Cory Dora

The tank is 50 gallons, given that neither of the last two inhabitants are showing any signs of ich, I'm going to finish the course of medication. Leave the tank another week, and then perform another water change.

I'll be leaving it as is for about a month before I consider attempting to start restocking it, and I'm going to take my water to get it tested more thoroughly than my test kit allows.

Upside down catfish appears to have a slight red sore mark on his side near his tail.