I'm stumped
, worried
, and frustrated beyond belief:wall:, please help:help:!
Before I get to the coppersafe issue, it seems to me I should give a detailed history since that's what most posters are asked to do eventually....so here goes.
I've had a 20G tank for almost 3 months. The first 2 were spent cycling with 3-5 danios. Unfortunately, right after I went on my honeymoon a naively used a feeding block while I was gone. So, I returned to a couple of very stressed out danios with ammonia sickness. I can't imagine what would have happened if I didn't have an airstone. I did a lot of water change and got the ammonia back down to .5 at which time the LPS people told me it was okay to get 2 mickey platys. I had them for a week during which 2 of my danios died (I assumed from long term ammonia issues). After a week with the platys I got a clown pleco, a week later a peppered cory and 3 red phantom tetras. This is when things starting going awry.
THE CRAZY PLATY ISSUE:
My platys had always been pretty rambunctious in the tank, bullying the danios, etc. But the danios stayed hidden or far away and it seemed okay. After the tetras had been there for about two days, one died and I figured it was just general LPS fish loss. But then the next day, another died and the third was missing bits off its tail (Upon examination, I saw it was missing much of its tail). I immediately put the living fish in QT where it died shortly. I did some research and found some posts that described some platys as being aggressive and nipping the slime coating and tails off of other fish. So, I took the platys to the LPS and asked them to exchange them. Since I was outside my 2 week limit, they said no, but recommended I get 2 dwarf gouramis to put the platys "in their place." So I did. (H2O conditions at this time: all normal w/ slight .5 ammonia).
THE COPPERSAFE ISSUE
When I got everyone home and back in the tank things were good for a couple of days and then I realized my platys colors were dulled by some white slime and one of them had white stringy things coming off of its underbelly. The Mardel diagnostic chart said it was body fungus so I made plans the next day to go to the LPS and get Maracyn. Unfortunately the sickest fish died overnnight. I also noticed white spots on my remaining platy (although no rubbing against rocks), so I dosed the entire 20g tank with Coppersafe (5 mL), upped the temp, removed my platy to a QT (filled with some of the dosed water), and dosed only the QT with Maracyn.
The next day (yesterday), I come home and the gouramis and pleco are covered in white spots (although still not really rubbing against stuff), and my tank is covered in red algae (I assume from the heat and my sick pleco). So, I scrubbed off the algae, vacuumed the gravel thoroughly, did a 25% water change, put back 1mL of Coppersafe to replace the stuff I took out, added 10mL of water conditioner) and dosed the entire tank with Maracyn (for 2ndary infection). The gouramis spent the entire night hiding in the decoration.
This morning I tested the water and while the GH is high (it always is, living in Baltimore), everything checked out (except ammonia, which I don't have the test strips for). But, my gouramis and pleco are still covered in spots and seem generally timid.
Here are my questions:
1) Should I just stick with Coppersafe? I don't plan to do anymore water changes (I only did that one to get the algae out in the hopes to keep ammonia down to a minimum). My heater doesn't seem to want to get my water up to anything past 80 degrees (I think because its the cheap one I got with my TopFin tank kit) so I don't really want to try the salt plan. I also don't want to to use salt until I'm sure the Coppersafe is not working.
2) How long does it (theoretically) take Coppersafe to visibly get rid of the ICH?
3) If that time passes and the ICH doesn't seem to get better, when next plan of attack should I take?
4) Is there a particularly good "how to" book for this kind of information? I feel like following the advice of different people every time maybe part of the problem or confusion and definitely the frustration. I would love to have one "authoritative voice" supplemented by others opinions would give me a more consistent approach to these issues.
Thank you for any advice!
P.S. The platy in QT is doing swimmingly after only two days.
, worried, and frustrated beyond belief:wall:, please help:help:!Before I get to the coppersafe issue, it seems to me I should give a detailed history since that's what most posters are asked to do eventually....so here goes.
I've had a 20G tank for almost 3 months. The first 2 were spent cycling with 3-5 danios. Unfortunately, right after I went on my honeymoon a naively used a feeding block while I was gone. So, I returned to a couple of very stressed out danios with ammonia sickness. I can't imagine what would have happened if I didn't have an airstone. I did a lot of water change and got the ammonia back down to .5 at which time the LPS people told me it was okay to get 2 mickey platys. I had them for a week during which 2 of my danios died (I assumed from long term ammonia issues). After a week with the platys I got a clown pleco, a week later a peppered cory and 3 red phantom tetras. This is when things starting going awry.
THE CRAZY PLATY ISSUE:
My platys had always been pretty rambunctious in the tank, bullying the danios, etc. But the danios stayed hidden or far away and it seemed okay. After the tetras had been there for about two days, one died and I figured it was just general LPS fish loss. But then the next day, another died and the third was missing bits off its tail (Upon examination, I saw it was missing much of its tail). I immediately put the living fish in QT where it died shortly. I did some research and found some posts that described some platys as being aggressive and nipping the slime coating and tails off of other fish. So, I took the platys to the LPS and asked them to exchange them. Since I was outside my 2 week limit, they said no, but recommended I get 2 dwarf gouramis to put the platys "in their place." So I did. (H2O conditions at this time: all normal w/ slight .5 ammonia).
THE COPPERSAFE ISSUE
When I got everyone home and back in the tank things were good for a couple of days and then I realized my platys colors were dulled by some white slime and one of them had white stringy things coming off of its underbelly. The Mardel diagnostic chart said it was body fungus so I made plans the next day to go to the LPS and get Maracyn. Unfortunately the sickest fish died overnnight. I also noticed white spots on my remaining platy (although no rubbing against rocks), so I dosed the entire 20g tank with Coppersafe (5 mL), upped the temp, removed my platy to a QT (filled with some of the dosed water), and dosed only the QT with Maracyn.
The next day (yesterday), I come home and the gouramis and pleco are covered in white spots (although still not really rubbing against stuff), and my tank is covered in red algae (I assume from the heat and my sick pleco). So, I scrubbed off the algae, vacuumed the gravel thoroughly, did a 25% water change, put back 1mL of Coppersafe to replace the stuff I took out, added 10mL of water conditioner) and dosed the entire tank with Maracyn (for 2ndary infection). The gouramis spent the entire night hiding in the decoration.
This morning I tested the water and while the GH is high (it always is, living in Baltimore), everything checked out (except ammonia, which I don't have the test strips for). But, my gouramis and pleco are still covered in spots and seem generally timid.
Here are my questions:
1) Should I just stick with Coppersafe? I don't plan to do anymore water changes (I only did that one to get the algae out in the hopes to keep ammonia down to a minimum). My heater doesn't seem to want to get my water up to anything past 80 degrees (I think because its the cheap one I got with my TopFin tank kit) so I don't really want to try the salt plan. I also don't want to to use salt until I'm sure the Coppersafe is not working.
2) How long does it (theoretically) take Coppersafe to visibly get rid of the ICH?
3) If that time passes and the ICH doesn't seem to get better, when next plan of attack should I take?
4) Is there a particularly good "how to" book for this kind of information? I feel like following the advice of different people every time maybe part of the problem or confusion and definitely the frustration. I would love to have one "authoritative voice" supplemented by others opinions would give me a more consistent approach to these issues.
Thank you for any advice!
P.S. The platy in QT is doing swimmingly after only two days.
