Need help with sick fish!

[williamlterry]

My aquarium is killing my fish. My nitrites are too high and a few have ick. I was feeding too often and some of the smaller fish died and I've been trying correct it with no success. I replaced half the water (15gal) immediately but it didn't drop the levels enough. More fish died. I've now added Seachem Prime which is supposed to detoxify the nitrites and remove ammonia, as well as Biospheres Maracide for the ick. I have a beautiful leatherfin catfish that is now on the brink and only a rainbow and angel fish left. Is there anything I can do to save these fish? Should I try to remove the catfish and put him in a clean, yet unestablished environment, with some stress coat? Or am I screwed? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[reyrey]

I would seperate the sick fish treat it for a few days with the parasite and fungal treatment. Quick cute or copper safe..be sure to change the water of the treated fish once in a while when it's dirty..but I did did this. My fish was good in 2 days. Stop over feeding and buy aquarium salt. Kills bacteria and watch your ammonia levels..allow your tank to develop natural bacteria

 

[enrgizerbunny]

You're in a fish-in cycle. If you were already cycled, you are in a mini-cycle. Large water changes are your best option. Large, daily or semi daily water changes. Also, you can medicate, but ick can be easily treated with heat, there is a fine article about it on here, as well as the fish-in cycle. However, temperature affects the punch some of these toxins pack during the cycling process. You could certainly isolate, but I would be doing 80% water changes daily to keep the ammonia down. You're not screwed, and the nitrite spike is near the end of the cycling process, keep up the water changes and you should be okay.

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[Fishfur]

Aquarium salt isn't a particularly effective antibacterial agent, though it can be helpful for some fish with wounds in a hospital tank, and is helpful in treating ick.

But you can't use salt as a routine additive for tanks that don't contain salt tolerant fish, such as mollies, which originally were brackish water fish. The idea that some salt in every tank acts as some sort of tonic is an old wives tale and is downright bad for catfishes of all kinds, and any other fine scaled fish, such as loaches. Most can tolerate it for the time it takes to treat ich, but long term it causes them problems and may shorten their lives.

EDIT: for those who say, but I've been salting my tank for years and it's fine, I say, lucky them, but just because you've always done something does not make it the right thing to do.

 

[mrvincent]

Use 0.3% pure NaCl for salt tolerent fishs and raise slowly temperature. That's what worked best for me, better than malachite green and other chemicals.

www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/tropical-fish-diseases/how-treat-ich-without-harming-shrimp-40975/

 

[Fishfur]

I agree. Pure salt is safer than the copper based and other meds around for ich, I think. Many FW fish are sensitive to salt, but ich are much more sensitive than fish are, so levels that will harm ich won't harm fish.

I wouldn't use salt in a tank that has inverts, such as snails or shrimp though. For one thing, the inverts do not get ich.

If I had snails I wanted to keep alive, or shrimp, I'd remove them from a tank with ich while it is being treated. They can't carry ich back to the tank because ich can't live on them, and no ich can survive for more than a very short time without a fish host. So by the time a tank is clean, the inverts kept separately can go back to the main tank safely, no worries about them bringing ich back with them.