Alright I THINK I have black ich or black spot infection on my 3 swords and possibly my 5 black skirts (their black so its hard to tell but their looking more like white skirts at the moment and i saw black dots on one little guys fins and i dont think thats good.
My swords look like they have grey freckles down their backs and their gills are already red because of the ammonia spike that killed all of my danios a few weeks ago before i knew about cycling and what to test for.
No new fish in about 2-3 weeks. Did get some new plants about 4 days ago and i just ploped them in havent tried to decontaminate them cause I wasn't worried about snails didn't know if disease could be spread by them. Got them from LFS and had noticed that the tanks they keep full of plants some times had 1-2 fish in them.
Last vacume and 50% pwc was 2 days ago. I feed them tetra floating granules and just in the past day or so started feeding some tetra flakes because the skirts eat like pirranahs and the swords werent getting hardley any so i wanted something that would sink when the skirts snapped at them giving them the chance to fight for food.
Main tank is a 40 breeder with lee's UGF Been set up about 3-4 weeks now. Planted.
I think I finally got my levels under control at Ammo .25 no2 0 no3 10 and a 50% pwc schedule tomorrow after work.
I don't have a QT at the moment, but do have a 1.5g with one ghost shrimp (the others were eaten by the fish i think so I gave him his own tank) and a new 10g going through a fishless cycle with some raw shrim, The levels are at Ammo 8.0 (Maximum on api test kit) no2 5.0 (max on kit) no3 5.0 and it is not yet planted. planning on moving everything to to 10 and fish less cycling the main tank.
I also have what is probably a 5g styrofoam ice cooler I one day planned on using it as a sump and a plastic container about the same size that is probably ok for a qt. What I dont have is an extra filter or the pvc I'd need to make one out of a water bottle. I also dont have a heater with a thermo stat. I do have 2-5g heater like pad in the tank thats cycling and an old sticker heater Stuck to the Bottom of Main tank (40 breeder) that I left there after we changed it from a lizard cage to an aquarium.
This is my first time dealing with ich and I'm not 100% sure it is since the artical on black ich read as if it was a salt water disease.
Black Spot or Tang Disease - Black Ich Diagnosis and Treatment
I've read a bunch of different treatments and I'm limited by how much I can Spend. I have no extra cash untill payday this friday. I've read that you don't want to let it go untreated for more then five days and I first noticed the spots 2-3 days ago but didn't realise what they might be untill to day.
Trying to find the best option with out just saying "Help, what do I do?"
Here's a few Ive found and the pros and cons for my situation
Salt added to Main tank
Kosher salt pretty cheap
Swordtail good in braksish but not sure if they can stand that much (see below for quote)
Black Skirt Tetras Not good in brackish
Will have to move plants some where 1.5g or 10 that is cycling. Can Ammo and No2 hurt plants?
'By raising salt levels to 2-3 ppm or 1.002-1.003 specific gravity above what one normally keeps the tank at can destroy the Ich parasites.'
From Freshwater Ich? Yuck!
Heat
unused heater on bottom of Main tank has no thermostat and I Dont know how hot it will get
3-5g mini heater might get to the right temp in the 1.5g might over crowd with 5 black skirts and the Ghost Shrimp
only one thermometer and its in the disease Main Tank dont want to cross contaminate
Meds
No money for them till friday Will it be to late by the time I Get some? How much?
will kill good bacteria and start the cycling over again while 10g is still fishless cycling
Was already planning on doing a fishless cycle on Main tank once 10g was done but its not done yet
Seperate QTs for salt and heat
Put swords in plastic container I have and attemp treatment with salt using half cycled filter currently in the 10g
Both females are expecting and one is about ready to pop will the salt kill the fry? Dont have room for more but but might make ammo spike
Put Black skirts in cooler and hope insulation helps the mini heater that is currently in the 10g
Decontaminate my one thermometer some how?
use homemade filter in 1.5 shrimp tank and add shrimp too and hope it lives (I dont think it was the tetras that ate the others.
add a raw shrimp to Main tank and let it cycle for 4 weeks while the disease dies from lack of fish
QT with Heat for all fish
use filter on 10g and mini heater from 10g
Qt with formalin follow up dips
have to wait for the money to get the meds
How To Treat Ich Diseased Fish with Formalin
Again a Salt water article dont know if it applys
prepare a dip with formalin in a container and another container of treated water for rinsing
let fish swim in dip for directed time and empty, rinse, refill qt
dip in rinse container then return to qt
Thats all the options I've figured out so far.
My fiance thinks I should just wait till friday, buy some Ich begone or something, toss it in and if they all die I can "...Just buy some more. They weren't expensive."
Any Advice is appreciated and If I went a bit nuts on the research and sound obsessive or something you can let me know too.
I really like fish and aquatic animals and when I was younger I wanted to work at the florida aquarium and become a marine biologist or something. This is my first time really getting into fish keeping and I'm not too emotionally attached the fish I have now so if they do belly up I wont be devastated and I can think of it as a learning experience.
Eventually I plan on setting up the 40 Breeder as a single species Johanni Cichlid tank (32inches long and my cichlid book said that was fine for single species) Their about $10 each so its good that I make these mistake now before I get some and toss money down the drain, plus the little johannii at the lfs already stole a peice of my heat
Oh wow this is a really long post
My swords look like they have grey freckles down their backs and their gills are already red because of the ammonia spike that killed all of my danios a few weeks ago before i knew about cycling and what to test for.
No new fish in about 2-3 weeks. Did get some new plants about 4 days ago and i just ploped them in havent tried to decontaminate them cause I wasn't worried about snails didn't know if disease could be spread by them. Got them from LFS and had noticed that the tanks they keep full of plants some times had 1-2 fish in them.
Last vacume and 50% pwc was 2 days ago. I feed them tetra floating granules and just in the past day or so started feeding some tetra flakes because the skirts eat like pirranahs and the swords werent getting hardley any so i wanted something that would sink when the skirts snapped at them giving them the chance to fight for food.
Main tank is a 40 breeder with lee's UGF Been set up about 3-4 weeks now. Planted.
I think I finally got my levels under control at Ammo .25 no2 0 no3 10 and a 50% pwc schedule tomorrow after work.
I don't have a QT at the moment, but do have a 1.5g with one ghost shrimp (the others were eaten by the fish i think so I gave him his own tank) and a new 10g going through a fishless cycle with some raw shrim, The levels are at Ammo 8.0 (Maximum on api test kit) no2 5.0 (max on kit) no3 5.0 and it is not yet planted. planning on moving everything to to 10 and fish less cycling the main tank.
I also have what is probably a 5g styrofoam ice cooler I one day planned on using it as a sump and a plastic container about the same size that is probably ok for a qt. What I dont have is an extra filter or the pvc I'd need to make one out of a water bottle. I also dont have a heater with a thermo stat. I do have 2-5g heater like pad in the tank thats cycling and an old sticker heater Stuck to the Bottom of Main tank (40 breeder) that I left there after we changed it from a lizard cage to an aquarium.
This is my first time dealing with ich and I'm not 100% sure it is since the artical on black ich read as if it was a salt water disease.
Black Spot or Tang Disease - Black Ich Diagnosis and Treatment
I've read a bunch of different treatments and I'm limited by how much I can Spend. I have no extra cash untill payday this friday. I've read that you don't want to let it go untreated for more then five days and I first noticed the spots 2-3 days ago but didn't realise what they might be untill to day.
Trying to find the best option with out just saying "Help, what do I do?"
Here's a few Ive found and the pros and cons for my situation
Salt added to Main tank
Kosher salt pretty cheap
Swordtail good in braksish but not sure if they can stand that much (see below for quote)
Black Skirt Tetras Not good in brackish
Will have to move plants some where 1.5g or 10 that is cycling. Can Ammo and No2 hurt plants?
'By raising salt levels to 2-3 ppm or 1.002-1.003 specific gravity above what one normally keeps the tank at can destroy the Ich parasites.'
From Freshwater Ich? Yuck!
Heat
unused heater on bottom of Main tank has no thermostat and I Dont know how hot it will get
3-5g mini heater might get to the right temp in the 1.5g might over crowd with 5 black skirts and the Ghost Shrimp
only one thermometer and its in the disease Main Tank dont want to cross contaminate
Meds
No money for them till friday Will it be to late by the time I Get some? How much?
will kill good bacteria and start the cycling over again while 10g is still fishless cycling
Was already planning on doing a fishless cycle on Main tank once 10g was done but its not done yet
Seperate QTs for salt and heat
Put swords in plastic container I have and attemp treatment with salt using half cycled filter currently in the 10g
Both females are expecting and one is about ready to pop will the salt kill the fry? Dont have room for more but but might make ammo spike
Put Black skirts in cooler and hope insulation helps the mini heater that is currently in the 10g
Decontaminate my one thermometer some how?
use homemade filter in 1.5 shrimp tank and add shrimp too and hope it lives (I dont think it was the tetras that ate the others.
add a raw shrimp to Main tank and let it cycle for 4 weeks while the disease dies from lack of fish
QT with Heat for all fish
use filter on 10g and mini heater from 10g
Qt with formalin follow up dips
have to wait for the money to get the meds
How To Treat Ich Diseased Fish with Formalin
Again a Salt water article dont know if it applys
prepare a dip with formalin in a container and another container of treated water for rinsing
let fish swim in dip for directed time and empty, rinse, refill qt
dip in rinse container then return to qt
Thats all the options I've figured out so far.
My fiance thinks I should just wait till friday, buy some Ich begone or something, toss it in and if they all die I can "...Just buy some more. They weren't expensive."
Any Advice is appreciated and If I went a bit nuts on the research and sound obsessive or something you can let me know too.
I really like fish and aquatic animals and when I was younger I wanted to work at the florida aquarium and become a marine biologist or something. This is my first time really getting into fish keeping and I'm not too emotionally attached the fish I have now so if they do belly up I wont be devastated and I can think of it as a learning experience.
Eventually I plan on setting up the 40 Breeder as a single species Johanni Cichlid tank (32inches long and my cichlid book said that was fine for single species) Their about $10 each so its good that I make these mistake now before I get some and toss money down the drain, plus the little johannii at the lfs already stole a peice of my heat
Oh wow this is a really long post
moment when I saw the old one read "Warning: Unfiltered UV. For reptile use only."
