Tank disaster overnight - Tiger barb dead, ich.. HELP!

H

Hungriee

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Jan 24, 2008
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NYC
Last night my fish (5 Tiger, 1 Albino barb, 1 GBR, 1 Cory catfish ) looked very active and was still eating, swimming very happily. I fed them and moved one of the rocks and plants around so they would have a better hideout. This morning when I woke up I looked at my tank and I found one tiger barb floating head up and several other tiger barbs with white spots, so I assumed it was Ich and found one tiger barb dead.

The tank currently has 5 Tiger barbs (originally 6), 1 German Blue Ram and 1 Cory catfish. The catfish looks very active still dwelling for food. 4 of the tiger barbs all have white spots on the fins. The German Blue Ram does not have white spots but is turning very very black, assuming it is very stressed. I did a 50% water change after testing my paramters, .50 Ammonia, 5.0 Nitrate, 0 Nitrite, 6.8 PH, Temp at 80deg.

I put in one tablespoon of table salt to treat the new water after putting in Prime, then raised the temperature to 82 degrees. Is there anything else I can do? I'm not really sure how my tiger barbs got infected with Ich or how the barb died when he was the most active swimmer.

Should I continue to use the heat/salt method or should I use medicine, which ones? can anyone provide me any help to treat my tank and help my GBR?
 
you shouldn't have ammonia in your tank at all. the fish can stress out and get ich that way. also, don't use meds for ich just use salt, make sure you doze properly and gradualy. using Prime is a good thing as far as ammonia goes, and continue doing water changes when you read ammonia. also, get something like bio-spira or cycle to help the tank with ammonia issues. how many gallons is your tank?
 
20gallon

I've used table salt for now and raised my temperatures. Should I get aquarium salt ?

I'm unsure how my tiger barb died, when i picked it out of the tank, he didn't look like he had white spots on his body.
 
if you would buy FW aquarium salt it would give you dozes. i think 1 table spoon is not enough. there are more posts on ich problem. don't use epsom salt and don't use iodine filled salt. i think your fish is dying because of ammonia spike and they got ich for the same reason. (salt is salt, unless it's epsom salt which is different kind of salt), so table salt is fine as long as it doesn't have iodine in it. i think you can go up to 1 table spoon of salt per 5 gallons. count the decorations and doze for about 15 gallons, so you'll need another 2 table spoons, just add slowly with many hours apart.
 
I did a 50% water change, the fish looks much better ; the tiger barbs don't have ich no more. but unsure if my tank is fully treated, probably not. The german blue ram is coloring up but got a little black when I did a water change. I added some more prime after checking the parameters with my water test kit (API):


.25 to .50 Ammonia (light green)
0 Nitrite (light blue)
<5 Nitrate (Light yellowish redish orange)

Temp set at 86Degrees, continually treating it with salt with 1 - 2 tablespoon ( 1 tblspoon every 5 Gallon ) I'm unsure if I put more it'll harm the fish. Since I dissolved it in the new water before I changed it into the tank.

I then waited an hour and tried feeding them with tetramin flakes - tiger barbs started eating again. The German Blue Ram began fighting for food, I'm thinking he was starving all day. Then I threw in some more Tropical Granules to make sure he had enough. 5 Minutes the food was gone, leaving scraps for the cory catfish. =)

During this time, I did notice they look better through more active swimming but right now they all seem settled and found a corner or hideout in the tank and are just floating with their fins flapping. Not sure if this is normal.. The cory catfish stopped eating and just sits on the gravel, and I've noticed he has quite a feel pinkish marks on his body and near his left gill only - could this be the ammonia hurting him? I've done water changes 50% levels and hasn't really helped, even with Prime.

Please help wiht my ammonia levels, could the dead tiger barb cause this ? Since his death ; i only have 5 now - and one of the barbs starts picking on the young GBR while the GBR is still holding up in a nipping fight.
 
Hungriee said:
I did a 50% water change, the fish looks much better ; the tiger barbs don't have ich no more. but unsure if my tank is fully treated, probably not. The german blue ram is coloring up but got a little black when I did a water change. I added some more prime after checking the parameters with my water test kit (API):


.25 to .50 Ammonia (light green)
0 Nitrite (light blue)
<5 Nitrate (Light yellowish redish orange)

Temp set at 86Degrees, continually treating it with salt with 1 - 2 tablespoon ( 1 tblspoon every 5 Gallon ) I'm unsure if I put more it'll harm the fish. Since I dissolved it in the new water before I changed it into the tank.

I then waited an hour and tried feeding them with tetramin flakes - tiger barbs started eating again. The German Blue Ram began fighting for food, I'm thinking he was starving all day. Then I threw in some more Tropical Granules to make sure he had enough. 5 Minutes the food was gone, leaving scraps for the cory catfish. =)

During this time, I did notice they look better through more active swimming but right now they all seem settled and found a corner or hideout in the tank and are just floating with their fins flapping. Not sure if this is normal.. The cory catfish stopped eating and just sits on the gravel, and I've noticed he has quite a feel pinkish marks on his body and near his left gill only - could this be the ammonia hurting him? I've done water changes 50% levels and hasn't really helped, even with Prime.

Please help wiht my ammonia levels, could the dead tiger barb cause this ? Since his death ; i only have 5 now - and one of the barbs starts picking on the young GBR while the GBR is still holding up in a nipping fight.
Click to expand...
Doing series of water changes can help bring down your ammonia. As for the ram, provide several thickets of plants for it to take refuge. A very important thing to do while battling ich is avoid all stress-related factors.
 
Lupin said:
Doing series of water changes can help bring down your ammonia. As for the ram, provide several thickets of plants for it to take refuge. A very important thing to do while battling ich is avoid all stress-related factors.
Click to expand...

:clap::iagree:
 
besides the water changes, get "bio-spira" or "cycle" to help with the spike. make sure to use air stone for more oxygen because of high temp. don't continue adding salt, just have 1 table spoon per 5 gallons 10-15 gallons worth and just keep it that way for like 10 days. is your tank new?
 
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