Infected Tank!

[neilsarah]

OK.... I Bought a Lemon Jake from my LFS about two weeks ago. It was a male female combo. As soon as i put them in the male started geting picked on big time. The next day i could tell he wasnt going to make it, swimming sideways, and his head and gut were terribly bloated. I seperated him in his own tank and treated with salt but he didnt make it. Earlier this week one of my haps stopped eating, He seems like he is holding eggs but i am pretty sure its a male. Now two days ago i noticed the female jake i bought had white spots all over it so i immediatly started treating for ick. I did the second treatment today but now all of the fish are freaking out and rubbing on the rocks and doing what i can only call seizures. I tested the water and everything seems normal, PH, Nitrates, and ammonia. I took the carbon out of the filters like the package said to do. Is this just a normal reaction to the meds or am i in trouble?

[Marty]

Both the rubbing against rocks and "seizures" sound like they have ick or some type of external parasite.

To treat for ich, do a water change of at least 25 percent.  Then raise the temp in your tank to over 80 degrees, and add 1 tablespoon of salt per 10 gallons of water.  If you have fish that are salt sensitive like corydoras, you're going to want to remove them prior to adding the salt.

By raising the temp, you speed up the life cycle of the ich, and the salt makes for an inhospitable environment for ich to reproduce.  The water change also removes some of the ich from the water column.

I would also catch the hap that looks like it's holding eggs.  It may have a fungus in it's mouth, which could prevent it from eating.  If this is the case, you may need to treat with an anti fungal medication as well.  If there is a fungus in it's mouth and you're not squemish, you might have to remove the fungal growth with an exacto knife if the growth is too big.

[neilsarah]

I did turn the temp to 83 two days ago when i noticed the white spots. I didnt add salt because i always put alt in my tank at every water change. I did two treatments of ick gaurd with a 25% water change between each dose. I think i will do one more since they are still rubbing on the rocks. I just wanted to make sure they werent all going to die on me. How long do you think i should use the ick gaurd for?

[Marty]

The bottle will typically have instructions for how long to treat the tank.

[neilsarah]

Well i think i got the ick cleared up but i believe you were right about the fungus. I noticed white spots under the hap that isnt eatings mouth and i also noticed that my yellow lab has a growth on its eye. I treated with fungus meds. I sure hope it works i will be very upset if i lose fish over this. Sad how one purchase can affect a whole tank full of expensive fish! Thanks for the help.

[Ron]

Sad how one purchase can affect a whole tank full of expensive fish! Thanks for the help.

It's a good example of why the often spoke of "quarantine tank" is a good idea. I must admit though, I think few of us practice it in the strictest sense because we ended up finding permanent residents for it, LOL.

So as a solution for that problem, having a few tanks is a great idea, then when you get fish from a questionable source you can shuffle the current occupants to make room for the new additions in a tank of their own for 2-4 weeks and make sure they are healthy before being mixed with the rest. 

[neilsarah]

I actually was going I do that bit changed my mind t the last minute. The sad thing is this source should not be questionable. It's a small lfs that I get all my fish from. Just have to hope for the best. He is going to replace the jake for me. I think I will quarantine this one for sure.

[linuxrulesusa]

It's a good example of why the often spoke of "quarantine tank" is a good idea. I must admit though, I think few of us practice it in the strictest sense because we ended up finding permanent residents for it, LOL.

So as a solution for that problem, having a few tanks is a great idea, then when you get fish from a questionable source you can shuffle the current occupants to make room for the new additions in a tank of their own for 2-4 weeks and make sure they are healthy before being mixed with the rest. 

Because it's too tempting to have that nice empty space when you can put something in it, right?

For me, the temporary solution is no more fish from CraigsList ('rescues') or from places where I know their fish are sick (including a couple LFS near me, not just the big box stores). 

Plus, the problem with shuffling fish in my case is that some of them will tear each other up if I do that.  Guess I should remember to pull out my dividers, or set up a temporary tank for quarantine.

Even the best of LFS occasionally has problems.  Glad it sounds like the fish will get replaced for you, neilsarah.