Okay, here it is. I've had this Green Terror for about 6 months now, he seems to be growing well and up until two weeks ago was healthy. At that time, white spots started to show up on his fins and body. I decided it was probably ich brought in on another recently introduced green terror (who later died with white spots on him). I've been using this stuff called Cure Ick for about 6 days now, and have raised the temp to 80 degrees. Some white spots are gone (i think) but there are still many left... Should it take this long to get rid of ich? I'm afraid the medicine may be weakening him because today i noticed he has pop-eye as well. What else can i do to help him survive? Also, if its not ich he has, what is it?
Help! Sick Green Terror
- Thread starter greenguy
- Start date
Okay, ich is on the body of the fish and is generally almost microscopic. Since its on the fins to, its a fungus/bacterial infections. Green terrors are bad for that, stupid fish, always fighting. Since your boy also has popeye, I betcha dollars to donuts its bacterial, but that doesn't really matter cause they're one in the same. General, I can catch a fungus growth pretty quick and start treating with Melafix and Pimafix to heal them up the holistic way. But this seems to be really set on, so start them on the 5 day Maracyn regiment (one tablet per 10 gallons). Since this is the first time sick, there's really no need for Maracyn-2. You can use other antibiotics if you can find them, erythromycin or tetracylin. Before you start the regiment, do a go 25% water change, but don't change or rinse out the filter media. At the end, do another water change and really watch the water quality. Again, don't rinse or change filter media. The good bacteria that lives in the tank will not totally disappear with the use of antibiotics, but they're numbers will drop, so we have to give them a good start at the beginning of the medication and a chance to recover at the end. I have brought a lot of Green Terrors back from this stuff, they seem much happy and active after words, much more fun to watch.
Brian
Brian
oh yeah, just noticed you said you raised the temperature, take it down a bit. 75 or 76 would be better, bacteria and fungus are like us, they thrive more in heat. Thats why we refrigerate cheese, leave the cheese on the counter, moldy in a day, in the frig, takes a little longer.
Brian
Brian
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If he has popeye it is most likely due to water quality, as for the ick if was introduced into the tank from another fish then it would be best to remidy the situation as quick as possible. And in your case without knowing your water parameters it is hard to say but it sounds like you have a build up of wastes in the tank which is producing excess ammonia/nitrite, your filter is not doing the job it is supposed to do or you have not done enough water changes and your nitrate is high. Any one of these could cause popeye. In a well maintained tank with good water quality even if a fish is introduced with ich, the other fish have a good chance of not comming down with ich. How often and how much do you do water changes and vac the gravel?( eg 30%) Do you know ammonia,nitrite and nitrate levels? What filter ,flow rate are you using? How big is the tank?greenguy said:
As for treatment I would treat the popeye the same as I would treat ick, change 40-50% of the water and raise the temperature to about 84-86 degrees and add salt about 1-3 teaspoons/ gallon. Keep up the water changes, if possible twice weekly each time adding the required salt to compensate for what you have taken out with the water change. If you need any more info read this article by Daveedka, http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759
I'd go the water change/salt route too. I'm just not convinced yet that the melafix is good for parasites/fungus ... blahblahblah. It's pretty great for war wounds though
