46GFreshwater
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello! I wanted to say thanks to everyone in this forum/community - this has been a great resource for me. I had fish & aquariums growing up but had a lot of misinformation as well. I am re-starting my interest in the aquarium hobby and this website has been great!
I have a 46 gallon aquarium (with Marineland Penguin 350 GPH) that was cycled (fishless) for 2 months before I got my first fish. October 9, I added 4 x Sunburst Wag Platies and 1 x Clown Pleco. Unfortunately I did not quarantine these fish prior to adding to my tank since on October 12 I noticed a several white spots on the smallest + thinnest platy and noted him flashing. There were 2 spots on a female platy as well. I suspected Ich - tiny salt-like specks protruding from fish body.
I wanted to try to treat with high temperature alone and increased the temperature to 30 C / 86 F.
Oct 16 I purchased a 10 gallon tank to use as a hospital tank, since I noticed many white spots peppering the pleco and the smallest male platy had been resting on the bottom in distress for a few days. I moved the sick platy and the pleco to the hospital tank (removed the carbon filter and added a small square of filter media from the main tank). The other 3 platies had no spots and were acting and feeding normally.
I treated the hospital tank with coppersafe per label directions.
Oct 17 - small platy in hospital tank dead.
Oct 22 - pleco found dead in hospital tank after a few days of Ich spots improving.
I have the API Master kit for testing and the ammonia and nitrite were 0 in both tanks (daily testing).
Oct 23 main tank parameters right before my most recent 25% water change:
temp 30 C
pH 7.8
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 2.5 (between 0-5 on kit)
I have not seen spots on the 3 remaining platies since Oct 13. The sickest fish were removed from main tank Oct 16.
Questions:
1) If I don't see any white spots on my remaining platies does that mean that Ich is eradicated? Or could they be temporarily immune?
2) I was considering treating my main tank with salt but I don't have a refractometer and I was looking into getting a hydrometer but they seem unreliable on reviews and many would be hard to accurately detect salt at 3 ppt since they are designed for much higher salt levels of saltwater tanks. Thoughts on salt treatment?
3) I am reluctant to treat my main tank with any medicine other than salt at this time - do you agree?
Thanks for your time!
I have a 46 gallon aquarium (with Marineland Penguin 350 GPH) that was cycled (fishless) for 2 months before I got my first fish. October 9, I added 4 x Sunburst Wag Platies and 1 x Clown Pleco. Unfortunately I did not quarantine these fish prior to adding to my tank since on October 12 I noticed a several white spots on the smallest + thinnest platy and noted him flashing. There were 2 spots on a female platy as well. I suspected Ich - tiny salt-like specks protruding from fish body.
I wanted to try to treat with high temperature alone and increased the temperature to 30 C / 86 F.
Oct 16 I purchased a 10 gallon tank to use as a hospital tank, since I noticed many white spots peppering the pleco and the smallest male platy had been resting on the bottom in distress for a few days. I moved the sick platy and the pleco to the hospital tank (removed the carbon filter and added a small square of filter media from the main tank). The other 3 platies had no spots and were acting and feeding normally.
I treated the hospital tank with coppersafe per label directions.
Oct 17 - small platy in hospital tank dead.
Oct 22 - pleco found dead in hospital tank after a few days of Ich spots improving.
I have the API Master kit for testing and the ammonia and nitrite were 0 in both tanks (daily testing).
Oct 23 main tank parameters right before my most recent 25% water change:
temp 30 C
pH 7.8
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 2.5 (between 0-5 on kit)
I have not seen spots on the 3 remaining platies since Oct 13. The sickest fish were removed from main tank Oct 16.
Questions:
1) If I don't see any white spots on my remaining platies does that mean that Ich is eradicated? Or could they be temporarily immune?
2) I was considering treating my main tank with salt but I don't have a refractometer and I was looking into getting a hydrometer but they seem unreliable on reviews and many would be hard to accurately detect salt at 3 ppt since they are designed for much higher salt levels of saltwater tanks. Thoughts on salt treatment?
3) I am reluctant to treat my main tank with any medicine other than salt at this time - do you agree?
Thanks for your time!