Help... my tank has the plague!

OrionGirl said:
Give the pleco some good greens--if he hasn't been getting them, could just be constipated. Squeeze some raw peas out of their shell, and put in for him.

Hope the others pull through. With any kind of ailment, it's tough. Compound that with multiple problems, and it gets tougher.

And yes, you're right that the salt will stay in the tank until removed by water changes.
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I've been starving the pleco of greens for the past 3 days because I thought maybe the cucumber caused a problem in the tank. As of this morning, one red jewel was at the top of the tank looking for air. No sign of the other one. I had to go to work so I just let it be. I didn't see anything on the floor, so it's probably in there somewhere, hopefully not dead in the sunken gallion.
 
things are beginning to look better now for the jewel cichilids and the pleco, however I don't know what is helping. Salt, pimafix, melafix, or the higher temp. Should I back off the meds, do my water changes, and keep the salt up? I'm just a troll Looking for newbie suggestions.
 
After what seemed like the plague, I think there's finally some light at the end of the tunnel. It looks like the ich is cleared up and the cichilids are no longer covered in that slimy crap. One of the cichilids developed some sort of secondary infection, but it also seems to be clearing up. I'm just wondering when I can start to bring the temperature down and remove the salt from the water.

I've been watching the ammonia/nitrite vitals closely and it seems like the chemical cocktail of medicines hasn't done too much damage. I was building up a small ammount of ammonia (.25-.50ppm), with no nitrites present and only 20ppm nitrates.

Unfortunately I happened to infect the small tank with ich, but that also seems to be doing better. Much thanks to the instructions on here.
 
I would keep treating for at least 2 weeks after the last visible sign of ailment. In otherwords--once all the fish look healthy, treat for 2 more weeks!
 
It's been about a month and I think the plague has subsided. I managed to save the 2 red jewel cichilids and the pleco. Not that the leopard sailfin pleco was on his death bed though. What a tough sob he is.

I've been cycling the salt out and have lowered my temp back around 80F. Here is what concerns me. My 2 red jewels are very skittish and lame. Most of the time they are hiding underneath the plastic rock wall or sitting on the bottom of the tank. Sometimes they don't even appear to be sitting up straight. The food is disappearing from the tank, so I'm assuming they are eating it. They are very skittish and hide from what seems to be the slightest of movements.

Even though they are both red jewels, they look quite different from one another. One is more yellowish, while the other has more pronounced black spots on the gills and a redder tail. I'm assuming male and female.

My tank is cycled. Even with all the meds, it seemed to only get slightly disturbed with .25ppm ammonia a couple weeks ago. I've been at 0amm, 0nitr, 10nitr for the past 2 weeks. I've been 25% a week to get rid of the meds. Any idea why my fish seem so tired and frightened?
 
It's interesting to note the complete difference in physical characteristics between my 2 jewel cichilids. They are both acting lethargic and hang out on the bottom most of the time.

One is almost yellow looking. There does appear to be some reddening on the body around the tail fin and the side fins. The other one looks more normal compared to my observations at the fish store today, but it too is lethargic.

Something is still not right. These fish shouldn't be sitting on the bottom of the tank, then again, they do eat their food.
 
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