Fish Keeping for a little over a year, but still learning every day...

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jeffcoatbs

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Jun 12, 2013
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Lexington, South Carolina
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Brent
Hello all. I have frequented these forums for some time to browse existing threads and just glean as much information as I can, but now I need some very specific advice. I recently went on a 5 day vacation and bought automatic fish feeders for my 29 and 125 gallon freshwater tanks. I set them up a day in advance to make sure they were working properly, and they seemed to have worked ok in my absence. HOWEVER, I returned to find 2 dead fish in my 125, a female betta that was thriving before we left, and a rubber lip pleco that was added to the tank a few weeks back, but seemed to be doing fine nevertheless. Now my tank looks to be infested with Ick. My three Pictus Cats and one remaining Pleco (a Clown Pleco) have it really bad. My other fish seem stressed, especially my Bala Sharks, but I don't see any white spots on any of the other fish. I have read to treat this naturally by raising the tank temp to 86 degrees and leaving it there for two weeks. I've started gradually raising the tank temp by a few degree increments every couple hours, and now one of my Pictus Cats is breathing super heavy and not moving a lot. I have a 10 gallon that I can setup quickly and treat this guy with Ick Guard, but I'm just not sure what to do. I've already done a 50% water change after removing the dead fish, and I'm going to do another 25% water change tomorrow. My ammonia measured less than 0.25 ppm after the water change (I didn't measure before) with an API liquid test kit. I don't want to lose any more fish, but I feel that it is inevitable with the way some are stressed (especially my Pictus Cats). In addition to the 3 Pictus Catfish and 1 Clown Pleco, I also have a weather loach, 6 denison's barbs, 3 rosy barbs, 3 congo tetras (I know both the rosies and congos are schooling fish but that's all the LFS had when I purchased them, and I plan to complete the schools when they get more of each in stock), 6 bala sharks, and our favorite fish in the tank are a pair of Kribensis Cichlids. All of the barbs, tetras, and the weather loach seem to be the most unaffected right now, while the kribs and balas are stressed with no white spots. The Pictus Cats and Pleco are lethargic and not looking good. I guess my plan is to continue to increase the temperature of the tank to 86 degrees and hold it there for 2 weeks with frequent 20-25% water changes. I've added an extra airstone in addition to my two emperor 400 filters and bubbling volcano for a little extra aeration. I also have several live plants in the tank, so they should help with the aeration as well. I'm mostly worried about the weather loach with the high temp, since he's more a cold water fish. My normal tank temp is set at 75 degrees, so 86 seems like it will be quite an adjustment for my fish. I hope I'm doing the right thing. I treated with Seachem Prime and added a small amount of Seachem Neutral Regulator with my 50% water change. I also added a couple cap fulls of API Stress Zyme to help with the ammonia levels. I purchased some Ick Guard from PetSmart to treat if necessary, but I'm afraid to resort to medication if I can cure this naturally. My LFS was unfortunately closed by the time I got home this evening, so I couldn't go to them for advice.

I've educated myself as best I can using the internet as a resource, but any advice from seasoned fish keepers is greatly appreciated.
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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Welcome to AC!
 

authmal

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Aug 4, 2011
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Phoenix, AZ
Maybe move this thread to illness?

Have you added anything (fish, decor, driftwood) to the tank recently? If no, the good news is that it's not likely to be ich, as it's a parasite with a definite life cycle and does *not* spontaneously appear in tanks. The bad news is that you still need a diagnosis.

Ammonia should be at 0 in cycled tanks. The only exception is the false positive if you're using Prime to dechlorinate. With an API test kit, I always show as having .25, even though I know it really must be 0.

Pictus are pretty active, in my experience, so the higher temperature is probably reducing the amount of available oxygen in the water. If you can, either increase surface agitation from your filter, or run an airstone. That'll help get more gas exchange.
 

jeffcoatbs

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Jun 12, 2013
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Lexington, South Carolina
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Brent
Thanks for the response authmal. Yeah, I've noticed that the API ammonia kit reads a little high to start (0.25 ppm), and then over a few hours will change to yellow (zero). It dropped to zero as usual late last night. How long does it take for ich to show up then? I added the Pictus Catfish about a month ago, and the Congo Tetras and Rosy Barbs about 3 weeks ago. Everyone was healthy before I left for Vacation last Friday, and now there are white spots (looks like ich to me) on the Pictus Cats and the Clown Pleco. Everyone made it through the night, and the Pictus Cats looked much better this morning (more active with less white spots). My Male Krib was really lethargic though, but I'm assuming that's due to the temperature increase. I hope I'm doing the right things. As I said I really don't want to lose any fish. I added an air stone last night, along with about a half dose of aquarium salt (which I also purchased on my emergency trip to the pet store, but have never used before).

I will try to move this to illness, or submit a request.
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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I left his thread going in FW Newbie...he will get more responses there.
 
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