Sick Fish

apres

Registered Member
Oct 4, 2004
1
0
0
West Columbia SC
On saturday morning I noticed that my flame angel had some white spots about sugar sized on him. Then I noticed that my royal gramma had the same thing later that day. I went to the lfs and got some medicine for ich, this is what they recommended. Treated the tank when I got home. Woke up sunday morning and both fish were dead. What could this be? Does ich kill that fast? Just trying to figure out what happened. Had flame angel for 1 month and royal gramma for about 3-4 months.
 
The problem is that by the time ich is visible, it's already heavily infested the gills, and the fish may have been sick for several weeks. Some medications, IMO, add to the problem by stressing the fish even further. What medication did you use?
 
He's a friend of mine...

he used a combo of Melaflex (sp?) antibacterial to help with any open sores, and Kick-Ich (reef safe)

This same combo was recommended to my work place for our blue tang who got the ich and was scratching and swimming funny and had lost her color. She had visible spots for almost a week before treatment began and a week later she was back to normal.

This flame angel had spots for 2 days before treatment and died the next day. Also the specks on the flame angel did not look powdery, they looked to be the size of salt crystals.
 
Melafix is likely the culprit--it reduces the dissolved oxygen in the water, and for fish that are already struggling to breath due to the ich, this can be a serious problem. Does the tank have a skimmer?
 
How big is the tank? It might be a build up of metabolic wastes from all the fish. Especially the tang they can be real bullies when they are stressed out and well it's sort of like the proverbial snow ball rolling down a hill. I've found that the usual cause of sickness or parasite out break is poor water conditions lowering the resistance of your fish. I might be wrong but, it's worth looking at.
hth
 
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