Need experienced help!!!

J

jems

Registered Member
Feb 22, 2009
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First I want to say hello. This will be my first post on a forum.

Here is my dillema:

I have a 90 gallon established freshwater tank. About a week after buying some new fish, I noticed what appeared to be the beginning of ich on a few of them. The fish store that I frequent told me to use Aquari-sol because it will be safe for my fish including my scaless ones.

After a day of treating at the recommended dose, I noticed that my 8yr old striped raphael was not taking to the medicine too well. I also noticed that my 10 yr old Synadontis Cat seemed stressed over the medicine and my Royal Pleco also.

I called the fish store and they suggested moving my 3 scaleless fish to a 10 gallon tank that I have so that I can treat the 90 full blast and take care of the ich. I have two biowheel filters on my 90 (one double wheel, and one single) so I was able to take the single wheel and place it on the ten gallon so that I could set up an "establish aquarium'. I used some of the water from the 90 along with new declorinated water from the tap.

After a couple of hours of these 3 fish being in the 10 gallon, the striped raphael started swimming frantically on the surface and trying to jump out of the tank (at one point he did). This went on for several hours. When I woke up this morning They all seem to be somewhat ok. The only thing I can think of that may have caused this is that because I had to use alot of new water, the ph level is a little high.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I keep doing what I am doing? I don't want to stress the fish out any more than I have.

Also, will the Striped Raphael (5 inches), Synadontis Cat (5 inches), and Royal Pleco (4 inches) be ok in this 10 gallon tank for a week or two while I take care of the 90?

Sorry for the long winded post!
 
First of all... :welcome:


Second, sounds like you have a bit of a quandry...
My first though was that you keep the three fish in the 90, do a 50% water change, stop using those chemicals to treat the ich, raise the water temperature a couple of degrees (what is your water temp now?) and put some API aquarium salt in there. However, it seems like you have a bad case of ich, so I'm not posative if that would take care of your problem. The 10 gallon idea seems a bit darastic to me, but wait for some more experience users to post. =)
GL!!!
 
Last edited:
Welcome to AC!

I would recommend copying your post and starting a thread in the FW Forums where more folks will see it and be able to respond.

There shouldn't be a big difference between your tap and tank pH unless you are doing something to drive it so. Be sure to include more information such as how often your water changes are and your current tank readings from a good liquid test kit.
 
:welcome:
 
I too would stop using those chemicals if you everthink you may want to have inverts. Snails, shrimp etc. I use table salt with a mix of 1 tsp per gal disolved in warm tank water and add gradually over several hours. Also raise the temp a little but be sure to keep an eye on the temp as salt can effect the final temp of the water. I do use this in the tanks i have that house loaches and my loaches have had no adverse effects to the treatment.
Good luck and welcome
 
Update:

I have lost two rainbows and one blue ram so far. I am still treating with the aquari-sol because I was thinking I should follow the treatment through first (this is what the fish store suggested also). I had thought about doing the salt treatment and raising the temp but I have read alot of articles that say that striped raphaels don't do well with salt.

I turned my aquarium light on this morning and alot more of the fish have ich on them. My green severum looks like he has less ich but his fin's look a little rotten (does this happen after a bad case of ich?). I bumped my tank temp up to 80 when I began the treatment, and the week before this happend my water was perfect. I had not added new fish to my aquarium for years, I now know why I didn't want too!

So far, the syn cat, raphael and royal pleco are still ok. The striped raphael had one more episode the other night where he swam around frantically (not as much as before though) and was looking for a way out of the tank. He eventually calmed back down and since then he has been breathing somewhat heavy but is still alive.

The royal pleco is kind of hard to judge. He pretty much hangs out on the side of the filter tube. He did eat a piece of algae wafer last night but today his coloring looks lighter.

The syn cat has always acted funny at times. Right now he is hanging out upside down near the filter. He did eat a bit last night but I am still not sure if he is going to be ok.

I am guessing that the raphael probably is not going to make it. Maybe it is just coincidence and he is dying of old age?? It is very possible that he is 12 yrs old (I had two originally, one would have been 8 now and the other would have been over 12. One died 4 yrs ago but I don't know which one it was).

Thank you for all the suggestions, keep them coming! This is only my second case of ich in the 15+ years I have had a fish tank so I am not experienced with it.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry for your losses. The ich should get worse before it gets better. It has to do with the life cycle of ich. There are three stages. The first is when its on your fish as white spots, the second is when the spots fall off and the third is when the spots break open and the ich is free swimming in the tank. It it can only be killed during the free swimming stage. How quickly the stages take place depends on how warm the tank is and can take anywhere from 3 days to over a week to take place. I too recommend using salt and heat. Thats the only treatment I have used and I've used it with inverts, scaleless fish, and plants with great success. Stick it out and good luck.
 
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER use those chemicals to treat ich-- they are not necessary and do more harm to the fish than the ich does.

basic table salt, and heat is the best way to treat ich and dont move any fish out of the 90g when treating.. that only multiplies your problem-- you now have 2 infected tanks to treat
 
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