My fish and ich.

P

pab

AC Members
Dec 12, 2004
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Dangerously close to Branson
Ok, so when i saw little white spots on my two tetras i searched around here and am quite certain i have a ich problem after only a week with fish. I went out and bought a heater, and after about two days have the tank to 84ish, no salt yet. Anyway last night the fish were at there worst sooo many spots and i was worried, but then i get home from work today and most of the spots have dissapeared, there are still a few but more than 3/4 are gone...is this a sign that they are gonna be ok, or is this problem gonna come back in a day or two. Should i get salt in there asap, or will the elevated temp be enough.
thanx much
 
Um, from what I know, raising the temp to 84-86 doesnt kill it -it speeds up their life cycle!
Get in there and do some water changes! Also do some gravel vacs if you have one; this removes many parasites in the gravel and water. I dont think tetras handle salt well, so you should go and find a medication containing copper. There will be plenty at your LFS
 
oh yeah, i did about a 40 percent water change yesterday as well, i havent got any meds yet because some ppl said they were more stressfull on the fish than the salt, but if the tetras dont take well to salt then it is something ill have to look at.
 
Ick issue

This is the most important time to do this, turn off your lights even go so far as covering the aquarium with a sheet/towel-total darkness. Change 30% of the water every day, and add 1/4 tsp non-iodized salt during the water change. You can feed a bit just before each water change as youll have room light shinning on the tanks to do it. Keep this up for four days or so.
After this do a fifty percent WC and at all WCs make sure te water is the same temp and ph. If the ich persists try using clout, which you can use with the above techniques at the same time(recommended).
 
The answer is very simple for your ich problem. Read the exciting new article by Dave in the article forum. It perfectly lays out the different treatments for you to choose and the myths associtated with the treatments. And you will want more like 1 tsp per gallon of salt (iodized is fine and not at all harmful in the small doses) and 86F. Tetras are fine with short term addition of salt.
 
So i read the article, did a water change added a bit of salt last night when my fish were in pretty good shape. I get home from work tonite and my fish are doing very badly, the two tetras fins are like coming apart, i will probably change the water tonite and add some more salt since i didnt do the full dosage all at one time. Good news is it seems to have no effect on the zebra danio, he must just be tough. I promised myself before i started this tank that i wouldn't kill any fish and its not looking good at the moment.
 
Just something I noticed that another poster said that they think tetras don't handle salt well. Now their fins are damaged. A link maybe? I am not sure being a newbie but it sounds very fishy, pardon the pun.

Maybe a more experienced person may shed some light on this.
Anyone like to chime in? Seems to be varing opionions on tetras & salt.
 
Tetras seem to handle salt just fine. I have salt in the tank most of the time as well as a variety of tetra, including neons. This is salt @ 1 teaspoon/USgallon... Although in actuality I use about 1 tablespoon of coarse salt per 10litres (you get less coarse salt in a spoon). I am going to move to grams/litre shortly to clarify this a bit as it seems a vague area...
 
the two tetras fins are like coming apart, i will probably change the water tonite and add some more salt since i didnt do the full dosage all at one time. Good news is it seems to have no effect on the zebra danio, he must just be tough. I promised myself before i started this tank that i wouldn't kill any fish and its not looking good at the moment.
Click to expand...

A few thoughts:
Take a good look at the fins, it could be a secondary infections from ich damage, or it could be ich damage itself. it takes a lot of ich to do more than slightly tatter a fish fins. Also the ich damage will be leftover after the ich is off of the fish, and will really not be highly noticeable while the ich is still on the fish growing. But secondary infections aren't uncommon with ich, and sensative fish.

Zebra's and most danios are about as close to cast iron as a tropical fish can get. Short of setting them on the counter while you clean the tank, there isn't much you can do to hurt them. They should still be treated nicely, but they are a great begginner fish because they are close to impossible to accidently kill.

Many of us have set gaols to never kill a fish in our tank, I for one have killed more than most people own in a lifetime. I get better at keeping my fish safe and healthy everyday, but the goal seems unobtainable in reality. Each time A fish dies because of something stupid I did, I reset the goal to never prematurely see another fish die in my tank. Tetra's can be very difficult sometimes as well, which makes the goal harder.
dave
 
My tetras really had no problem with salt in the tank, and using it to kill ich worked great for me. I don't think that 1 tsp./gallon is too good because it would be a little too much. Maybe if you would do water changes the day after, but otherwise use like 1 tablespoonful per 5 gal. I think that should have enough of an effect, and not really bother the tetras. Also if you have plants and you add salt, they will probably die....
 
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