I just bought a young (3 1/2 inch) flowerhorn 5 days ago. She is currently in a 70 gallon tank that was cycled with 6 giant danios for 5 weeks. The danios were removed just prior to me putting her in the tank. She was terrified and not eating from the moment I brought her home. After some discussion on a hybrid fish board we determined that she had hex due to white stringy poop. So last night I gave her the first dose of metronidazole and focus mixed in frozen plankton which she actually ate heartily (advice from my local fish store). Now this morning it is very apparent to me that she has ich. She just has a very few spots, but she is also scratching on the gravel so I feel sure that is what it is. So, can I use a heat only method to kill the ich since she is already on metronidazole? Her tank was at 82 degrees, I have just raised it to 84 degrees this morning and I hope to have it to 86 by the end of today. I am afraid that using too many medications will harm her. And I am honestly terrified of using aquarium salt because my son has tried it twice in the past in other tanks and it seems to have killed fish rather than helping them. So, my plan is to do a 30% water change after feeding her the metro this morning (I don't want to stress her before she gets the meds). Is it safe for flowerhorns to get the temperature up to 89.5 which is where it kills the ich? Is it better to use the salt? Should I go ahead and use ich medication instead? I really don't want to kill this fish. I have both salt and ich meds on hand. API test strip - nitrate-20, nitrite-0, pH-7.5, KH-120, GH-180, liquid api ammonia - 0 I also removed the carbon from the filter before I gave her the food dosed with metronidazole. Also, I have an aquaclear 110 filter and two heaters. Thank you for any help!
Sick young flowerhorn?
- Thread starter AGFish
- Start date
AG- welcome to the site! You've got a lot going on there. Like Bob said, you need a good liquid test kit. Most of us use the API master test kit to verify our water parameters.
It sounds like your flowerhorn was not kept well at the store. Not uncommon at all. I would focus more on keeping it in pristine water (under 20 ppm nitrates), in a calm environment and keep a close eye on the fish rather than medicate the tank for the first week or two. Sometimes the poor buggers are too far gone and you'll loose them in the first 7-10 days or so no matter what you do.
Even a single flowerhorn by themselves in a 70g tank will probably require an 80% to fin-level water change once per week once they're adult sized. Even right now, I would do more than 30% weekly.
It sounds like your flowerhorn was not kept well at the store. Not uncommon at all. I would focus more on keeping it in pristine water (under 20 ppm nitrates), in a calm environment and keep a close eye on the fish rather than medicate the tank for the first week or two. Sometimes the poor buggers are too far gone and you'll loose them in the first 7-10 days or so no matter what you do.
Even a single flowerhorn by themselves in a 70g tank will probably require an 80% to fin-level water change once per week once they're adult sized. Even right now, I would do more than 30% weekly.
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