Every Aquarists Worst Nightmare

Hello everyone, I'm here to air my guilt and shame for doing something incredibly stupid that cost me the lives of several of my fish. I've posted on here a few times in the past sharing pics and on occasion battling fish illnesses and asking for advice and help, but this time I really blew it. I have a 60 gallon tank that HAD 4 13 year old silver dollars, 2 9 year old kissing gouramis, 1 13 year old blackskirt tetra, and a 20 year old pleco. A few months ago my pleco suddenly bloated up and died rapidly, I had no idea what could have caused it but I chalked it up to the fact he was 20 and maybe it was just his time.... that's an old fish in my book. Months went by and all my other fish were healthy and happy and so I decided about a week ago it would be nice to buy a new pleco and maybe a few new blackskirt tetras to replace the ones that died of old age. Where I made my critical mistake was I did not put the 4 new fish (from Petsmart btw) into a quarantine tank, thinking "Hey they look very healthy and energetic, they should be fine." I can shoot myself for this, but I won't. I have not bought new fish in a good 16 years, so I really didn't think that this was a bad, bad idea.

About 3-4 days after I acclimated them and put them directly into the main tank, two of the new blackskirts had ich spots appear. I have only ever dealt with ich once in all the years I've been in this hobby, so I immediately read up on ways to treat ich and right from the getgo I screwed up again. After I removed the carbon from the filters, I had a mixture of malachite green and methylene blue, I accidentally put too much, so I immediately did a 50% water change and (not being prepared) made the water temp drop to the low 70s from 76 degrees, which in turn stressed the fish and made the ich blossom into full on disaster within a day, covering ALL of the fish in tiny white cysts. My next course of action (trying not to panic, too late for that) was to put in a tank heater and slowly raise the tank temp to between 80-82 degrees F, and add aquarium salt. There seemed to be no benefit to doing any of this, and no benefit from the meds, as the parasite would not leave the fish. I also have been vacuuming the gravel to suck up any ich spores and I took out all the plants and ornaments to give the ich as little to latch onto as possible. I resumed doing water changes and re-medicating as directed and in doing all of this I believe I may have uncycled the tank. The water parameters have been fine though from my testing, no nitrite or ammonia, but yesterday when I got home from work the water was cloudy, smelled awful, and two of my fish were dead. Lumpy, my 13 year old silver dollar who always had an inexplicable lumpy skin condition was all bloody from scratching himself to death... and tiny, my 13 year old blackskirt was dead covered in ich. I immediately did a large 50% water change after removing the dead fish, the water smelled awful and I figured it was a toxic bacterial brew by this point. The remaining fish were lethargic, but I still had hope I could save them.

This morning I woke up at 7am and jumpy and Louiso, my other two male silver dollars, were also dead, along with three more blackskirts. Also the new pleco I added was dead, stomach bloated. I'm worried I have a columnaris outbreak going on and by raising the temp to kill the ich with salt and meds, I allowed this bacteria to fester and rapidly murder most of my fish. Right now only my female silverdollar, Thelma, and the two kissing gouramis and one blackskirt remain. I did another 50% water change, careful to keep the temp the same as it was, added new salt, put the carbon back in the filters and Stability cycle bacteria to help stabilize the tank, but I feel like it's too late now. The kissing Gouramis slime coats seem to be sloughing off, they're getting red sores on their fins, and the silver dollar is breathing rapidly, but none of the fish are gasping at the top and the parameters still check out as okay in terms of nitrite, nitrate, etc. Does anyone know what I can do at this point to help them? If the tank is uncycled, and I start up more meds like maracyn 2, I'm afraid it's just going to kill them all. I'm thinking if I can just get the water quality back to normal with no meds, give them a breather, maybe it'd help.

Any advice at this point is appreciated, I royally screwed up and now I might lose all my fish :<

Update: The smaller of the two kissing gouramis is dying as I speak, I don't know what to do. This is all happening so fast, the fish are just having their slime coat peel off and string off them like spaghetti. They are producing excessive amounts of their own mucus/slime... and then their skin gets all blotchy, they are getting weak and then belly up dead. I've never seen anything like this happen before. Can anyone tell me what on earth is going on and if there is anything I can do at this point to save the few fish I have left? This is incredibly heartbreaking!

These are questions I need answered ASAP:

1. I only have a 10 gal hospital tank, but the fish I have needing treatment (1 silverdollar and 1 kissing gourami) are 6-7 inches long and big for that tank. Should I set it up and put them in it anyway?

2. At this stage, with the hospital tank, should I put a dose of Kordon rid-ich plus in the water? Will it help? I think what the fish are developing now on top of the ich is costia (slime disease) which is from another form of ich protozoan. This kordon medicine says it treats ich and costia.

3. Should I continue with using salt and keeping water at 80 degrees? Is it too much to use these two means on top of medicine?

I would always do 25% water change each week, once a month I'd do a gravel vacuum, always careful not to let the good bacteria die (clean one filter at a time etc). I have a penguin biowheel and a magnum 350 canister filter. I use Kordon Novaqua whenever I do water changes, the water is from the tap, but I do treat it as soon as I put it in. I also always add some aquarium salt after water changes, just the right amount based on how much water I removed. I've had these fish for 13+ years and never had issues like this. This only began after I added the new fish and started the malchite green methylene blue meds with no carbon in the filters (plus raising temp to 80 degrees and salt, and water changes) :<

Byron Amazonas said:

Some of what you describe is likely due to salt burns. How much salt was used?

My advice now is to do a major water change, by which I mean 3/4 of the tank, and use nothing but a good conditioner. Raise the temperature to just above 80F (for the ich). Use water from the tap at the temperature, add the conditioner to the tank.

I will leave it for others to suggest treatments. But forget removing fish to a QT, as the ich is in the main tank. Do not dump medications into the tank, this can have more harm than good, until this has sorted out and something that will do the necessary treatment is suggested. And, never use more than one medication without a major water change. Mixing treatments adds even more stress to the fish, plus some of these products can interact for the worse.

Byron.

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Thanks Byron, I'll do the water change now and this time not add anymore salt. I'll turn on the tank heater and get the temp to 82, I'm afraid to go higher than that especially since the fish are already under so much stress. I notice they did perk up a bit with the 50% water change, but the one smaller kissing gourami is dead now :/ I hope more people chime in with more advice, this has my anxiety through the roof.

Byron Amazonas said:

Raise the water temp during the water change, up to 82F is fine. This will not harm the fish, and not put extra work on the tank heater. You mention Kordon's NovAqua, that is OK (I use this myself).

BTW, there is absolutely no benefit to using salt generally, meaning after each water change. Salt can be useful to treat specific issues, but as a general additive it is more harm than good. I won't bog this thread down with all the reasons. B.

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I've heard mixed reviews on the salt, it's hard to know what's right and what's not since a lot of aquarium info is contradictions galore, which makes it hard for me to ever know what to (and not to) do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hope I can save my fish, only three fish left :/ I feel so guilty, if I had put the new fish in quarantine none of this would have happened.