Well, I am so glad to have found a forum such as this one - I'm new to keeping a tropical tank and I have found some great ideas here for what to do with mine. However, since I am new to all of this I have a question about what I should do with a possible Ich breakout...
My tank is a little over a month old - it's a 25g, live plants, heated to 78/79 degrees. I have 4 zebra danios, 2 dwarf gouramis, 3 tetras (1 flame, 1 serpae, 1 black skirt). Everyone was healthy - I had only one instance of cotton mouth on the black skirt when I first got him, but I used Melafix and got rid of that real fast.
Last weekend I decided to add 3 more danios to increase their school a bit. I unfortunately didn't use a containment tank. When I added them I made sure to limit the ammount of store water that got into my tank .
The new danios were fine for the first two days - then one morning one of the new danios was dead, and I noticed a small white spot on one of the other danio's fin - so pulled both of the remaining new danios out, managed to set up a hospital tank with some supplies from my brother's. (10g, heater, air stone) I added a half dosage of Formalin/malachite green medicine (since they were small I didn't think I should do a full dosage)
Within two days the white spot had gone away, they looked healthy - then they both up and died. Then one of the other danios in the main tank got what looked like what pictures of enteric red mouthlook like. I removed him...kept treating the main tank with Melafix. Everyone had been looking good - I did a nice big water change. I had seen no new health issues until last night. The black skirt has a single 'grain of salt' on his one side and he was very stressed (almost all grey). Right now I have him pulled out into a new hospital tank set up. I don't see anything wrong with anyone else - they are all acting normal.
I don't know what I should do though - should i treat everyone even without visible signs? Should i just treat the black skirt and the let the others sit in the main tank? If i just treat the black skirt do i wait until the cyst falls off to treat because the meds are rough on him? I don't want to stress the other tetras if i don't have to...and from what i've seen so far the serpae tetra can't deal with the high heat from the heat/salt treatment for ich.
Sorry for being so long...I know to give the best advice people need a good background...
Thanks in advance for whatever help you can give...
My tank is a little over a month old - it's a 25g, live plants, heated to 78/79 degrees. I have 4 zebra danios, 2 dwarf gouramis, 3 tetras (1 flame, 1 serpae, 1 black skirt). Everyone was healthy - I had only one instance of cotton mouth on the black skirt when I first got him, but I used Melafix and got rid of that real fast.
Last weekend I decided to add 3 more danios to increase their school a bit. I unfortunately didn't use a containment tank. When I added them I made sure to limit the ammount of store water that got into my tank .
The new danios were fine for the first two days - then one morning one of the new danios was dead, and I noticed a small white spot on one of the other danio's fin - so pulled both of the remaining new danios out, managed to set up a hospital tank with some supplies from my brother's. (10g, heater, air stone) I added a half dosage of Formalin/malachite green medicine (since they were small I didn't think I should do a full dosage)
Within two days the white spot had gone away, they looked healthy - then they both up and died. Then one of the other danios in the main tank got what looked like what pictures of enteric red mouthlook like. I removed him...kept treating the main tank with Melafix. Everyone had been looking good - I did a nice big water change. I had seen no new health issues until last night. The black skirt has a single 'grain of salt' on his one side and he was very stressed (almost all grey). Right now I have him pulled out into a new hospital tank set up. I don't see anything wrong with anyone else - they are all acting normal.
I don't know what I should do though - should i treat everyone even without visible signs? Should i just treat the black skirt and the let the others sit in the main tank? If i just treat the black skirt do i wait until the cyst falls off to treat because the meds are rough on him? I don't want to stress the other tetras if i don't have to...and from what i've seen so far the serpae tetra can't deal with the high heat from the heat/salt treatment for ich.
Sorry for being so long...I know to give the best advice people need a good background...
Thanks in advance for whatever help you can give...