# My fish keep getting sick... can anybody help me please?



## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

I am in a real delima. I started my tank with 3 mickey mouse swordtails (2 female one male). everything went fine for about a month (one swordtail had fry which are now in a seperate tank). about a week ago I noticed what looked like white salty or sandy spots on my fish which I presumed to be ick/ich. I went to Jacks aquarium and told them and I purchased a medication that had malachite green and formalin in it. I treated the tank one drop per gallon daily with a 25% water change in between treatments and the fish not only all got worse, they all died *frown. I was absolutely devastated. a friend of mine who has aquariums reccommended that I drain the tank and bleach everything and rinse it well and start over. I even bleached the gravel. I started the tank back up and added one lemon swordtail(female). I checked the tank yesterday (I love to watch my fish swim and I do so daily) and everything was fine. now this morning she is covered in the same thing. it looks like someone dumped salt all over her fins. I began treatment but it seems to be getting worse. I don't want my fish to die!!! what do I do?! *H2


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

What are you treating with? Can you post a pic?


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

Its called quickcure. It has a red cap and clear bottle. I also have stuff called Nox-ich(which is malachite green and sodium chloride) but I have used that because I was told the quick cure was better. But it seems like nothing is working :'(

here is a link to the picture:
Redirect Notice


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Need a pic of the fish.


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

here is a picture that I just took:

<a href="http://s1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa326/heathermoler/?action=view&current=009.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa326/heathermoler/009.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


also I heard from a friend that the heater I had might not be working because my temp was down a little. so I rushed to walmart and bought a new heater (as seen in picture) my fish keeps hovering right next to it and doesnt really swim far from it. I also heard that I need to double filter my tank... does this mean I need to buy a filter for the next size up(20 gal) and stop using my 10 gal filter???


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

right now the temperature of my tank is at about 72/74 ish. I do not know what my levels are but I did a 25% water change today. my poor fish looks so stressed. what should I do?


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

also should I consider using a different type of gravel?? I keep it clean regularly but does it hold in the parasite more?


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## kubalik (Nov 25, 2010)

If your heater is working , raise the temperature to 84-86 deg. gradually for a couple of days


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## tike (Nov 10, 2008)

It's ich. Raise your temp to 82F. Treat the tank again but don't do a water change. If you run carbon in your filter,remove it. It will filter out the medication. Keep your filter on for circulation. Wait 3 days an see if the spots start to disappear. If so, do a 25 % water change and treat again. Wait 3 more days. By now they should be clear of spots but you will still have juvenile spores in your substrate. That is what the high temp is for. Ich Doesn't do well in temps of over 82F. Keep your tank at this temp for 2 weeks and you should be good to go! Look at the image for ich life cycle. HTH


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

82F will do nothing to ich. Ich isn't affected until you hit about 85 and even then it only stops reproducing. You need 87-89 to kill. 

If doing meds, I wouldn't do a higher temp unless you are doing something to aerate the tank a little more. Meds and heat deplete oxygen....doing both can be deadly.


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## tike (Nov 10, 2008)

jrman83 said:


> 82F will do nothing to ich. Ich isn't affected until you hit about 85 and even then it only stops reproducing. You need 87-89 to kill.
> 
> If doing meds, I wouldn't do a higher temp unless you are doing something to aerate the tank a little more. Meds and heat deplete oxygen....doing both can be deadly.


Well after 35 years of doing this I have had no problems............


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

tike said:


> It's ich. Raise your temp to 82F. Treat the tank again but don't do a water change. If you run carbon in your filter,remove it. It will filter out the medication. Keep your filter on for circulation. Wait 3 days an see if the spots start to disappear. If so, do a 25 % water change and treat again. Wait 3 more days. By now they should be clear of spots but you will still have juvenile spores in your substrate. That is what the high temp is for. Ich Doesn't do well in temps of over 82F. Keep your tank at this temp for 2 weeks and you should be good to go! Look at the image for ich life cycle. HTH


What if the spots just continue to get worse??


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## tike (Nov 10, 2008)

Did you look at the cycle I sent above? Doing the treatment they will decrease.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

tike said:


> Well after 35 years of doing this I have had no problems............


I appreciate all the experience you have. I don't have near as much. I just go by articles that I have read on treatments and some of the things I have seen. I had a tank that I kept at 82F and seen a couple of the fish get ich.


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

I am increasing the tank temp slowly and it is at about 80 degrees currently. my fish seems to be doing the same if not a little better but it looks like the spots on it may be getting a bit worse. I added the reccommended dose of the quick cure and took out my filter cartridge since it has activated carbon in it but left the filter running. my tank already has an air stone... do I need to add another or will this one be adequate? Thank you so much for your help everyone. I am going to purchase a test kit but I'm not sure what to get. Should I get a master or can I use 1-14 PH paper??


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Not sure but her mouth seems to have fungus.That could be causing more issues than the ick.I treat ich using the quick cure as well, and have had great success with it.Do you shake the bottle?The way I treat is I raise my temp up to about 86 and dose.I add an airstone to keep water oxygenated.

On the fuzz,it could be fungal or bacterial.Columnaris is a pretty serious thing,and though its fuzzy its bacterial.It attacks the mouth of a fish as well as leaving saddleback leasions on the back,and other symptoms.Treat this with a copper based med.

If it were me,and that is indeed fuzz on her mouth,then you need to stop the quick cure as I dont know if it will interact with the copper based med.Get something for that fuzz and raise the temp to battle the ick.

Did you get this fish at the same place as the last bunch?They could have sick fish and you just contaminating your tank with them.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Yes, there is something fungal going on also. Some of the tail has disappeared and if it is a male (not 100% sure) it has lost a lot of it's tail.


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

It is a female. In fact I think she is pregnant. Here is another picture of her that I took today. hopefully you can see it clearer than the one from yesterday. It has only been a week or so since I started the tank up after bleaching. but I added some gravel and a decoration from my smaller tank that I have had no problems with and is cycled and added bioboost. I did get this fish at the same place as the other ones (although I got my other fish about 2 months ago and never had any probs until now). She looked completely fine when I got her and one day was just covered.. I don't get it.

<a href="http://s1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa326/heathermoler/?action=view&current=000_0019.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa326/heathermoler/000_0019.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It looks like you got a fish with ich, inflamed gills (hard to tell), fin rot, and possibly hemorrhagic septicemia (the red blotch on the side of her body). Even a female Swordtail has a huge tail. Hers is clamped, but you can tell it is not all there. I think you need to be doing at least daily 25% water changes. Perform the water change, medicate, replace salt for the water removed and repaet the next day - until the fish improves, if it improves.


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

I added 5 tsp. of aquarium salt. tank temp is at 82. should I speed up the process a bit?


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

is there any explanation for why all this happened so quickly? I don't think I am that bad of a fishkeeper. I do the regular 25% weekly water change and remove food that goes uneaten. Is there anything I can do in the future to prevent it?


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Its very simple if you inderstand what all goes into fish at a store.First off,they are usually bred in overcrowded tanks,and usually not the best care for fry.Fry need certain things to grow right.Good quality food,lots of waterchanges.the best food means more cost to them and less profit.Then once the fish is old enough they are stuffed in bags where theres anywhere from twn to thirty,even more fish in one bag.Mostly done without two day fast which ensures less waste buildup.Then once they arrive at the store,they are floated,barely acclimated before dumped into new water which they are not used to.This leads to stress,accumulation of ammonia and diseases that other fish may carry as its usually one system to run all tanks.Then you get them chased with nets,no place to hide and fed some horrible food sometimes too much.Then off on another ride,and usually,again lack of proper acclimation.

After all this would you expect them to not be under the weather?This is the reason we need quarantine tanks.


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

majerah1 said:


> Its very simple if you inderstand what all goes into fish at a store.First off,they are usually bred in overcrowded tanks,and usually not the best care for fry.Fry need certain things to grow right.Good quality food,lots of waterchanges.the best food means more cost to them and less profit.Then once the fish is old enough they are stuffed in bags where theres anywhere from twn to thirty,even more fish in one bag.Mostly done without two day fast which ensures less waste buildup.Then once they arrive at the store,they are floated,barely acclimated before dumped into new water which they are not used to.This leads to stress,accumulation of ammonia and diseases that other fish may carry as its usually one system to run all tanks.Then you get them chased with nets,no place to hide and fed some horrible food sometimes too much.Then off on another ride,and usually,again lack of proper acclimation.
> 
> After all this would you expect them to not be under the weather?This is the reason we need quarantine tanks.


understood. but wouldnt the fish be sick before i brought it home?? just trying to absorb as much info as i can to avoid this in the future


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> It looks like you got a fish with ich, inflamed gills (hard to tell), fin rot, and possibly hemorrhagic septicemia (the red blotch on the side of her body). Even a female Swordtail has a huge tail. Hers is clamped, but you can tell it is not all there. I think you need to be doing at least daily 25% water changes. Perform the water change, medicate, replace salt for the water removed and repaet the next day - until the fish improves, if it improves.


it looks red in the picture but I believe it to be her gravid spot. the picture quality is somewhat undesireable.


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## sik-lid (Sep 21, 2011)

Why the fish is sick is not as important as you might think. The fish is sick and you are doing all that you can to fix it. Once we figure out exactly what illness the fish has (I think it's fungus and ich) and get her back to her old self then we can ponder what caused the infestation. You bleached everything right? Did you bleach the net? Sometimes we are unable to figure out exactly the cause but we do our best for our little tank dwellers and hope for the best. Get your tank temp up to 86, do your water changes, treat for the fungus and keep a close eye on her she should begin to recover. Feed her less, she probably doesn't eat much anyway right now. I have not had much experience with diseases, I have been lucky but when one hits it's almost like your going through it as well as your fish. Listen to the recommendations, I think they are solid. Sorry for your poor fish but she should be okay in a few days. I have my fingers crossed for her.


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

I just want to say thank you to everyone. My fish now has no signs of ick and is doing great!


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

<a href="http://s1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa326/heathermoler/?action=view&current=2011-10-24121542.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa326/heathermoler/2011-10-24121542.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Is that the same fish?


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## heathermoler (Oct 18, 2011)

yep she is doing much better. the picture quality is bad (camera phone) but she is doing great. and she finally had her fry!


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