What Happened?

[mitche8359]

I set up my first hostpital tank for a red tetra that had ich. I didn't have a filter, just an air stone and heater. I set the temp to 84 as suggested to kill off the ich. I also treated with Nox Ich at the recommended treatment for tetras. After the first treatment, the white spots were gone. I treated the 10gal for two more days. Yesterday, I noticed that the air stone was out of the water, couldn't have been for more than a day and the water was blue green from the ich medicine. The fish died late last night.

Since the fish was looking fit, I'm wondering the cause of the death. Was it too much medication? I followed the directions on the back of the bottle. Lack of air? I'd think that 10 g of water would have enough air to support one tetra for half a day.

[minx]

A lot of medications I've used do say that you need to provide extra aeration during treatment as they reduce the oxygen content of the water. I guess it's a possibility that it was lack of oxygen, but I doubt it.

How long was the tetra in the hospital tank for? I would have thought the lack of filter may be a more likely option. Did you use water from the main tank? I guess if there's no bacteria to break down the fishy waste, there could have been an ammonia spike.

84deg water does not have as much oxygen in it as 78deg water. That along with the med and no air, probably killed the fish.. Remember, 84deg water will almost kill off the ich in 7 to 10 days anyway with out the med....For future reference.

[mitche8359]

The tetra was in the tank for four days and lived for half a day after I put the air stone back in the water. ****, I was just at the fish store and didn't get a sponge filter. Yes I used water from the main tank for the hospital tank.

I made an error reading the temperature in the main tank. The main tank is sitting at 83 degrees. Good thing I didn't raise the temperature a couple days ago like I was going to.. I might actually have to lower that about 5 degrees. Obviously 83 degrees is not enough to kill ich since that's were the tetra came from. I might bump up that temperature a notch to hit 84 for a week.

[Grant R]

Also, I presume your hospital tank had gone through the cycling stages correctly ?
Tetra's can be a nightmare to keep alive, I'd say a mixture of the original illness, plus the oxygen and no filter may have been too much for the already stressed fish ( was prob. also stressed from the move ) .

Don't worry too much.

[mitche8359]

I presume your hospital tank had gone through the cycling stages correctly ?

Since I took the water out of the main tank, I didn't think that the hospital tank had to cycle?

[swmmnglessons]

Why do you keep the temp so high? I keep mine between 76 and 80 and my fish are pretty healthy. I've had my tanks for about 7 months now and never had ich. I would recommend keeping the hospital tank up and running at all times so you don't have to start over every time an illness pops up. Mine is a 10 gallon and I keep it in my living room just as decoration but it's ready when I need it, filter and all...

[mitche8359]

I would recommend keeping the hospital tank up and running at all times

Yes it's a good idea to have it ready. Not sure if I'll keep it running as I like the idea of transferring water from the main tank to the hospital tank when a fish is sick. I'll likely put the sponge for the sponge filter in the canister filter of the main tank so that when I need a hospital tank up and running the sponge with have a plethra of beneficials.

I raised the temp to 84 from what I read here and on other sites. Supposedly 84 will kill off the ich in the tank.