Help... my tank has the plague!

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haydenm315

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Feb 14, 2005
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I've got a small green terror, 2 red jewel cichilids, and a pleco in my 40 gallon breeder. I noticed yesterday that the green terror was acting somewhat strange. It wasn't swimming around as much and the fins looked a bit clamped. The jewels seemed not as bad, but definately not as active. They didn't eat their regular amount yesterday. Water quality is decent. I've been doing a lot of changes since the tank isn't 100% cycled. 0 ammonia, almost 0 nitrite and 20-40 nitrate for the past week. I put a better light in yesterday and noticed the green terror has some white stuff on it's fins. It's powdery looking in appearance I think. I also noticed some pronounced white spots on the plecos body about the size of a grain of salt. I went on the forum and searched around. From what I gathered, I believe it's Ich. After reading about the flashing, I can tell you I've seen the green terror scrape against various decor a number of times, starting with the day I brought it home. I've also noticed that the green terror's color has gotten much darker. I began to slowly raise the temperature in the tank. It was up to 80 this morning, from 78 last night, and I'm going to bring it up to 84. I also began the salt treatment. A closer look at the jewels fins reveals extra slime I think. I really dont' know what to make of it or the best way to treat it. Should I buy some sort of medicine from the store? What are the chances I have something other than ich based off my symptoms? The green terror is just sitting on the bottom of the tank right now. It doesn't look to be breathing heavy, just kinda chilling.

One thing I forgot to add.... one of the red jewels has a red spot that I dont' think was there before.
 
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mvigor said:
Please don't take this the wrong way, but I bet a lot more people would stop and read your entire post if you separated it into some more paragraphs.
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I hear what you're saying. It just seems so frustrating to diagnose this stuff. Heck, I've only had the fish a couple weeks and have been doing all the water changes. From surfing around here is what I'm thinking I might have.

Ich... obviously. Raised white spots on the pleco's body. White dusty looking stuff on the green terror and red jewel's fins. The fish WERE scratching around. Now they seem to be worse off.

dropsy... The fish are sluggish, hiding, and not eating well. There is one red spot on a red jewel.

Chilodinella... The jewels seem to have excess mucous/film on their fins.

So that's where i'm at. I can't identify what I have, and am just trying to figure this out before everything dies.
 
cyberbeer65 said:
Read this article,IMO it is the easiest,safest,cheapest way to cure ich.....
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759
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I read it before posting which led me on to the flashing stuff. Unfortunately I think I've got a combination of ich and something else. The pleco definately has ich, but he doesn't seem to mind much. He's doing the best out of everyone, and doesn't exhibit the leprosy that the others are showing.

The cichilids are looking pretty bad. The red jewels aren't looking bad as the green terror though. The red jewel with the red splotch, no longer has the red splotch whatever that means, but they look to be shedding their fins and dusted with some sort of cruddy white stuff. It doesn't appear yellowish to me, but what do I know.

The terror is the worse. It hasn't really swam in two days and sits on the bottom of the tank. I noticed this morning that it's dorsal fin looked a bit stringy towards the rear, and seemed to be rotting away. The jewels at least were swimming around more. Breathing appeared a bit heavier this morning. The green terror and one of the jewels are hiding in a cave/death bed. The jewels exhibit more of the dusty crap all over them, while it seems almost localized to the fins on the terror.

I don't know how else to describe it. I put some medicine in that's supposed to clear parasites, and I also dosed it with melafix for the bacteria. The temperature is now around 82f and I've also been adding salt like the post said.

I'm kinda at a loss, and frustrated. I've been meticulously monitoring the water and doing the changes like I'm supposed to. I thought everythign was going well, and now it looks like I'm going to have to start over. Life goes on.
 
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I'd start by treating for the ich with raised temp and salt. Increase the surface agitation as well--that's a lot of fish in a 40, and the raised temp will increase their O2 needs.

It sounds like most of the fish are suffering from secondary infections that the ich weakened them enough to get. The salt will help with some of the bacterial infections as well, so that's where I would start. I wouldn't mix treatments, though--run carbon to remove any medications before using salt.
 
OrionGirl said:
I'd start by treating for the ich with raised temp and salt. Increase the surface agitation as well--that's a lot of fish in a 40, and the raised temp will increase their O2 needs.

It sounds like most of the fish are suffering from secondary infections that the ich weakened them enough to get. The salt will help with some of the bacterial infections as well, so that's where I would start. I wouldn't mix treatments, though--run carbon to remove any medications before using salt.
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Ok... should the kind of salt matter much? I've been using the iodized table salt which that post said was fine. The amount it says to add seems a bit excessive. 1tsp per gallon has got me all but dumping the container in there. So... it's bad to use the salt with some sort of secondary medication such as melfix? As for air, I'm not sure it it's enough. I have a pretty big pump, but it's only running out of one line and a single stone. it's pumping lots of air and there is a ton of surface agitation. Do you think that's enough o2?
 
hte air pumped in doesn't actually add O2 to the water, but when those bubbles reach the top of the water and break the surface tension, then gases from the atmosphere can be dissolved. you probably have enough in there, but getting a bubble bar that spreads out the bubbles will allow more area of the water surface to be agitated, thereby increasing gas exchange. unless you're really strapped for cash, or the current is going to throw your fish all over the place, you may want to pick one up, or get two and a few feet of airline tubing (if you have a second connection of your pump) and put them on opposite sides of the tank. for regular operation you won't need both, but while the fish are sick it might make life a bit easier for them.
 
well.... things are looking pretty grim for the green terror. I'm beginning to think it's dropsy but I am no expert. The fish now appears much worse in terms of fins rotting away. It can swim around but moves with great lethargy and it appears the bottom fins are paralyzed. The red jewels look about the same, though they're moving around better than the terror. The terror has some crap on it's eye now. I want to say it's a goldish white dust but I can't be sure. The crap on the fin almost looks like fungus. It's kinda stringy and white now. Man am I irritated. I feel so helpless as my fish appear to die a slow and miserable death.
 
The problem with mixing treatments is that while the bacteria in our tanks can often handle one stressor (say salt), two or three can often overwhelm them, killing off the biofilter and exposing the fish to nitrogen toxins.

What you're seeing are secondary infections--the salt will help, but you need to go slow at adding it--the article gives you a timeline for adding the salt, and how to do so. Table salt is absolutely fine.
 
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