walmart employee needs help guys...

[Harlock]

I buy fish from Wal-Mart if I have to. No one else in town had Otocinculus cats and one place actually said, "Oughtta what?" So, go figure, I picked up three of them from there and they seem to be thriving well in my 29g planted tank. So, I am part of this "evil empire" now, having fueled its lust for filthy lucre .

Having said that, obviously Wal-Mart has its problems. Of course, so does my LFS. They both overstock, they both kill fish and they both want to make money, such is life. I'm over it. Now, on to your problems, cougar.

You're doing the right things so far. I would go ahead and put a heater or two into that sump. The higher temp makes the ich more uncomfortable from what I understand, and more likely to abandon a host. Pull the gavel and all, as others have said. You can treat with salt, if you want, or you can treat with ich meds. The meds are probably your best bet at this shot, since the chiller is going to keep the temp sub-par for proper salt/heat treatment. Still, the meds combined with the warmer temp will hopefully reduce the amount of time you have to dose and get the fish over it more quickly. If treating with meds, remove ANY activated carbon in the filter system.

Another option is a diatom filter (I think that's the one) but I have no idea what your budget for this little project is. I am assuming it's likely on your dime if Wal-Mart doesn't carry the item, and I've never seen a diatom filter at Wal-Mart. Hope this helps and you stay strong.

 

[OrionGirl]

Just another option--can you designate one tank for new fish? This will help restrict where the cysts hatch into, meaning intense cleaning of the substrate in this tank will be more beneficial. I would maintain salt in the system, but raising the temp to an effective area will be hard on the fish, regretfully. Warmer temps will speed up the lifecycle of the parasite, though, creating that window of effective treatment sooner for each new batch. Ideally, obviously, would be to have 2 separate systems, where you could quarantine the new stock and medicate it first, but I understand that's not reasonable in this situation.

And, I as well, would like to commend you for your efforts. It's unfortunate that you feel targetted by those who'd be happier if Walmart did not sell fish--the goal of this board is to help everyone with an interest in fish, not just the home hobbyist.

 

[Cloud-9]

Ich

I just wanted to return to this thread and say an additional comment or two. You might want to look for a product called Quick Cure. It can cure ich very quickly. Because you are multi-tasking and not just taking care of the fish, it is unlikely that you can give too much labor intensive methods to solve this problem. That is why I suggested Quick Cure. I have not tried that on goldfish, but I have used it before on a Synodontis cat that got ich and it worked very well. Just make sure that you do not use it in a tank with plants. It killed my floating plants.

Also, please don't give up. You're doing the right thing. I would not mind buying fish from Wal-Mart. Being an advanced aquarists, I can usually pick out the healthy ones, and if there are less than perfectly healthy ones that are hard to find elsewhere, I would still buy it and nurse it back to health. I have done that before, when I bought fish from a dealer that accepted a returned Jaguar that was just too beautiful to pass up. I took it home before they put it in a tank with some other mean rascals. I took it home, quarantined it, treated it for parasites first, internal and external to cover all the basis, and then for bacterial and fungal. I wasn't sure what was wrong with the fish. It just did not look as active as other Jaguars that I've seen. Being pro-active type of person, I treated immediately. After the very long shotgun treatment period, it ended up being a beautiful specimen. Which yours truly had to return due to having to relocate for a job.

 

[anonapersona]

I have been told twice by Walmart employees to hold the bag of fish above the security gates for the energy used will damage fish. I dunno if that is true, or if it was just a made-up reason to explain anticipated fish deaths.

 

[cougar]

I have been told twice by Walmart employees to hold the bag of fish above the security gates for the energy used will damage fish. I dunno if that is true, or if it was just a made-up reason to explain anticipated fish deaths.

This is not true, the electronic field doesn't affect fish anymore than it affects you or I.

We do not have a quarantine area with our system like many pet stores do. We get our shipments in every week and they come in in such a variety that we couldn't put them all in one tank because we'd have a mix of aggressive and non-aggressive fish.

We've been using salt treatment and medication treatment on the ick since before we even took the rocks out of the tank. Quick Cure is what's supplied to walmart and is the designated brand treatment for ick and other parasites effected by malachite green treatments.

Since we've taken the rocks and plants out of the goldfish wall it appears as though the larger fish in the bottom tank don't have as much or hardly any at all ick on them. We carry Koi, and Id also like to say that both large and small koi are extremely hardy fish and are least likely to get ick compared to most other coldwater fish. They are the fish that were swimming around an ick infested tank without any on them themselves.