Ich - now what?

[chval]

Monday, I got some new Phantom Tetras (no, I didn't have a quarantine tank - do now). Tuesday noticed white spots - started treating for ich with raised temp & salt. Thursday evening, I think, I noticed one swimming loop-de-loops. Looked at her closer and her eyes seemed weird - they were sticking out from the side of her head - she also looked a little beat up - assumed it was from the way she was swimming. I had one of those fry nursery made from netting so I put that in there and put her in there. By morning she was dead. Now this morning one of the males exhibits pretty much the same symptoms so I put him in the net. I was going to try and take a picture of him but camera wont focus on him. What is this? Pop eye? What do I do about it. I have no medications on hand except some Ich Attack which is supposed to treat Ich, Fungus, Protozoans and Dinoflagellates (whatever those are). The only place that I can possibly buy anything without driving 2 hours one way is WalMart - would they have what I need. Do I need to worry about the rest of my fish?

I need HELP!

Connie

Edit: He has died - I'm attaching a picture to help diagnose

 

[Devilishturtles]

The fish swimming in cirlcles and dying rapidly, in my experience, is from shock of some sort. How quickly did you raise the temps in the tank? Did you dose the correct amount of medication without overdosing? How did you acclimate the fish to your tank when you got them?

HTH

 

[chval]

Update - another one bit the dust.

I turned it up slowly, maybe a couple degrees an hour. But I am having a difficult time getting it to maintain a higher temperature. So it's been going up and down daily. Maybe I should just turn it back down (it maintains 80 pretty good). When I bought my tank in January turns out they sold me a heater for up to a 50 or so gallon tank - they should have given me the next size up. I am ordering a new visi therm stealth - which will help in the future.

I put the equivalent of 2 tsp per gal in my tank. The first tsp went in over 4 hours and the remaining tsp went in over 12 or so hours.

When I acclimated the fish, I floated the bag to 15 minutes and then I added 1/2 cup or so of water to the bag every 4-5 minutes until it was full then I put them in the tank.

Connie

Update:

Another one bit the dust. Eyes weren't as bad as the picture above but still popped somewhat.

I checked my water parameters and they are as follows:

Ammonia-0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0 the highest reading I have ever gotten is 5.

I did a 25% water change on Thursday and also one the Sunday before.

What do I do to keep the rest of my fish healthy?

Connie

 

[Jchillin]

I don't think it was ich that caused the death...did the eyes appear cloudy?

 

[chval]

No, don't think so.

 

[bra_van_drakh]

got the same problems with my rainbow praecox. . ..i was guessing that it's caused by dirty water, but i think i'm wrong. ..all of them that got that symptoms died in 2 weeks. ..i tried to put some salt but didn't work at all. ..it's definettely not ich. ...haven't got the solution though .. .

 

[Devilishturtles]

But I am having a difficult time getting it to maintain a higher temperature. So it's been going up and down daily.

I've killed off my two german blue rams because this happened. If you can't maintain the high temps, then lower the heat. When I finally figured out what was wrong, I realized my tank temps were going up to about 90F, then my heater would cut off completely and temps would drop back to down around 80F. This could be a reason why your fish are dying rapidly.

HTH