Help a beginner........please

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jorhoades75

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
May 27, 2011
Messages
8
Location
Longmont CO
Hello Everyone!

My name is Jo and I am 6 weeks into my first fresh water aquarium. I work at a large medical clinic full of big fully stocked beautiful tanks....so I just had to have my own. I did some research and made the plunge..

All started well....then I got a fish with ich...then all my fish had it....then they all died :(. I cried like a small child and am here to learn how to maintain a healthy tank as well as advise on what to do next.

Please offer me some advise as I want to have happy healthy fish :fish2:


Also this is the first forum I have ever joined so any pointers on where to post would be helpful.

Thanks!!!
 
Well talking about the ice to take care of that all you really need to do is put some aquarium salt in there and then also turn up your heater and let the little guys sweat it out! That's how I've gotten rid of it before. And you probably did everything right but one of the fish you added may have already had it and infected the whole tank. That's very possible.
 
Well talking about the ice to take care of that all you really need to do is put some aquarium salt in there and then also turn up your heater and let the little guys sweat it out! That's how I've gotten rid of it before. And you probably did everything right but one of the fish you added may have already had it and infected the whole tank. That's very possible.

I'd like to add that you should make sure your fish could tolerate the high heat for about 2 weeks, as well as if they could tolerate the salt. Fish with little or no scales ( loaches, catfishes.. ect.) could be harmed/irritated more with the salt in the tank, therefore causing the ich to infect the fish even worse. If able, move the fish with the worst ich to a hospital tank, or if you have a few spare tanks, separate all the fish. I cure my ich-infested fish by turning up the heat to 86, and dosing with ich-attack+(half dose for the medicine/salt intolerant fish.). I do a 50% PWC every day , thoroughly vacuuming the barebottom tank, dosing ich-attack every 3 days after the PWC. Continue this treatment for 4-5 treatments. If the ich seems to dissapear before finishing the dosing period, do not stop the treatment. This means the ich has left it's cyst form on the fish. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, there are many helpful people on AA.
 
Also, I just re-read your post, you've stated that your tank has been up for 6 weeks, is it possible that it isn't cycled? (0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite, and a reading of some nitrates.)
 
Welcome Aboard!

Was your tank fully cycled before you added fish? That's a first step I'd recommend you learn about and here's a link to help you with that.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/fishless-cycling-for-dummies-103339.html

As was mentioned, the fish could have had it when you added them, which is common when buying from questionable Local fish stores (LFS). Finding a good LFS is an important second step IMO, so look around and inspect the ones in your area, ask questions and don't be afraid to make them prove their worth before committing to buying from them.
 
Interesting shadow. Well I guess I just got lucky when I treated my fish. Good to know!
 
Tell me if I'm wrong but I've been told from many of people to never get fish from petsmart because their fish can carry ich and other diseases. So I always avoid them.
 
I did treat the ich with medication....then with salt after my clown loach died...I had dalmation molly and plecotomus left...turned heater up to 82°.....visible signs of ich were gone then the next day they both died. For days they just stayed at the top of the tank...pleco wasn't eating....molly was eating. Was the oxygen to low?
 
You can get fish from anywhere and it will have ich. I bought a beautiful oranda from a ma and pa store a year ago. The tanks were beautiful, fish were healthy, so instead of using a QT tank as I usually do, I put it right in my established goldfish tank. Yep, you guessed it! It had ich and infested my other fish. Thank goodness it was "only" ich and not somethng like columnaris! I've bought fish from Petco which have had columnaris and Ive also bought many fish from there that were perfectly healthy. Its always a crap shoot, which is why QT tanks are so important. If a fish is in QT, even if it dies, at least you've only lost one fish instead of a whole tank!
 
I did treat the ich with medication....then with salt after my clown loach died...I had dalmation molly and plecotomus left...turned heater up to 82°.....visible signs of ich were gone then the next day they both died. For days they just stayed at the top of the tank...pleco wasn't eating....molly was eating. Was the oxygen to low?

It's possible. Were they gasping or just staying near the surface of the water?
 
Tell me if I'm wrong but I've been told from many of people to never get fish from petsmart because their fish can carry ich and other diseases. So I always avoid them.

I've heard that too, but I've bought two angels from them once, just because they looked so pretty. I brought them home, acclimated them, and put them in the qt. They were perfectly fine, and are still with me today, eating like crazy and healthy as ever. I possibly just got the fish on the day of a new shipment though, but I still go to that petsmart, and all the fish there are healthy and ich-free. You have to remember not all of the petsmarts treat their fish the same.
 
Tell me if I'm wrong but I've been told from many of people to never get fish from petsmart because their fish can carry ich and other diseases. So I always avoid them.

As a general rule that is true. But there are a few exceptions, as is always the case.
My petco has had the same problem with their stock as most chain stores. Last month I had to go in to get a liquid API NitrAte test kit.
I was stunned to find the stores FP on the phone speaking with the store manager about 2 tanks having sick fish, needing to treat them and putting up a sign to inform people that fish are sick, buy at your own risk.
The manager gave her the go a head.
I was so surprised by it all that I stopped to chat with the young woman, and to tell her how happy I was to see someone in that Dept that cared.
Turns out she's had fish her entire life, she knew about the real cycle
and not the 24 hour myth they usually spread.
I asked her some questions I already knew the answers to and asked her about their tank set up. She knew everything, including the their set up was ridiculous because when 1 fish would come in sick. every fish in every tank they had caught it. They had to treat every tank not just the tank with the sick fish.
Anyway, my point is yes it's true, your local petsmart/petco may be like all the rest. Or you may get lucky and yours may have someone brilliant that can answer your questions and that treats the fish in their care like they were their own. Each store should be judged on their own merit, not lumped together, IMO.
I will always prefer my not so local FS, to the large chain stores. Not everyone has the option to make that choice.
Sorry about the big answer to a small question.
 
Welcome jor! Good to have you here! I work in a doctor's office as a neurologic assistant and transcriptionist. What do you do there? Isn't that the most frustrating thing, to see someone's big beautiful tanks every day but when you try to do it, it just doesn't work out? Don't worry, you'll get lots of help here.

I think probably made a few newbie mistakes. For one, your tank probably wasn't cycled. So the ammonia in the tank would have stressed and weakened your fish, making them more susceptible to ich. Water changes are always important. For a cycling tank, you might need to do pwc's daily or more! Once your tank is established, you still need to do pwc's weekly. Also, you probably overstocked at first. What size tank do you have? Too many fish overwhelm the biofilter, even if it is cycled. You should only add a few fish at a time, making sure to QT any new fish for at least 2 weeks (I QT for 4 weeks usually) to make sure that you aren't introducing parasites or an illness into your tank. Do you have a test kit (preferably the API master)? Did you use a dechlor in your water (such as Prime)?

The biggest thing you will learn about fishkeeping is patience! Lots of research to do, take your time and you'll get there. Just keep asking questions! Even for experts, there is always something to learn.
 
Yeah, you're right about that Wendi. Ive seen that before too at my Petco. They had a tank full of sick goldies with a sign on it that said the fish are being medicated and are not for sale at this time. But the thing I wonder about is, aren't all of those tanks connected to the same water supply and filtration system? So even if they are keeping the sick fish all in the same tank and are medicating them, won't both the illness AND the medication end up in the other tanks? Or how does that work? I doubt that all of the tanks in the entire store are connected, but what about all of the tanks that are on the same "wall", KWIM?
 
Maybe the store has a UV system... But I think it'd be quite expensive to have that connected to every output tube. I remember reading an article about a man who had the chance to see the filtration system, and it is indeed a central system, meaning all of the water comes to one filter, then out to all of the tanks. So yeah Beavis, maybe the medication didn't have any effect at all due to it being dispersed into the other tanks, or somehow they shut that part of the central filtration system down and added a smaller filter? IDK, but i'm interested to see what big chain stores do to medicate their fish.
 
Okay, anyways, Jor, what you should do now is research a "fish-less" cycle, and pick up a good master test kit too(API is a great brand). Do some research, and if possible, set up a quarantine tank. Unfortunately, a cycle takes anywhere from 2 weeks to months, so you'll have to be patient. I had also read that you once had a loach. Please stray away from these fish until you have the chance to set up a QT(Quarantine tank). These fish are extremely susceptible to ich as they are scale-less, they are also very sensitive and require a good home. I would recommend that if you want loaches, wait 2 or 3 months before adding them after your tank has been cycled. I have two clown loaches in my QT that still have ich after one round of treatment. Also, what is your tank size?
 
Yeah, you're right about that Wendi. Ive seen that before too at my Petco. They had a tank full of sick goldies with a sign on it that said the fish are being medicated and are not for sale at this time. But the thing I wonder about is, aren't all of those tanks connected to the same water supply and filtration system? So even if they are keeping the sick fish all in the same tank and are medicating them, won't both the illness AND the medication end up in the other tanks? Or how does that work? I doubt that all of the tanks in the entire store are connected, but what about all of the tanks that are on the same "wall", KWIM?

I asked that question myself. Turns out not every tank is connected to one sump. Each section has it's own same sump. So the tanks above and below are exposed to whatever is in a sick tank. While every tank to the left and to the right of it are safe. Instead of every tank using one sump it's done by sections, so not every tank is exposed.
 
I figured it was something like that. Places like walmart that usually only have one "wall" of tanks are all connected to the same filter, I believe. I needed pond snails once when I used to keep puffers and they opened up the filtration system on the bottom to get the snails out (I guess they end up in the system, but they gave them to me for free) and it looked like all one unit, but then again, I didn't inspect the thing. Thanks Wendi.
 
At Walmart they don't all run off of one filtration system. The Goldfish have there own, and usually the Tropical fish will have two seperate filtration systems.
 
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