Ich Plague

[nicktrubilla]

I have a fairly new tank with some serious problems. At the peak of tank population two days ago, I had four guppies, two mollies, one gourami, and one mystery snail. I went through a whole nightmare (you can read what happened on the getting started section, the thread is titled "Ammonia Concern") where I lost a black molly, two guppies and a two baby mollies yesterday. One was dead and stuck to the filter tube in the morning, and everything else died through the course of the day. The molly and one guppy looked infected with Ich. I did massive water changes yesterday and that seemed to help out my remaining fish who were all hovering near the surface. This morning, there was another dead molly baby floating in the water and my remaining molly was hiding. Upon inspection, it seemed to have the white growths around its mouth from Ich as well (my diagnosis). I did add the two guppies that died and the gourami four days ago. The other fish looked uninfected but were again hanging around the top so I did another water change this morning, around 30% or so. I'm aware of the mistakes I made introducing the fish, and especially buying them from Petsmart. But now I want to focus on saving these last two guppies and the blue dwarf gourami. I turned up the heater a little bit to begin the process of warming up the tank. I'm a new fishkeeper and I need advice to battle this infection successfully.
Parameters now: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0ish nitrate. Temperature should now be at 81. P.h. at 7.6

 

[jlk]

White fuzz around the mouth is not ich. Ich looks like a slight dusting of white sand on a fish (individual specks). Ich also will not kill a fish overnight. How do your parameters look right now? What you are describing sounds like columnaris. Stopping turning up the temp & work on gradually turning down to the low 70's. High heat causes the bacteria to multiply at a much faster rate. You need to treat with gram negative antibiotic such as kanamycin sulfate. Heres some more info it:

Columnaris (Flexibacteria); Aquarium, Pond Treatment, Prevention; Fungus, Saprolegnia

 

[nicktrubilla]

Well the black molly looked like it had a white dusting, the white molly I had to isolate today had a few small growths around his mouth that I could see, discoloration would have been harder to see. The guppy that was barely alive when I removed it from the tank had white spots on its fins and body. You still think it's the same diagnosis? I am NOT letting my last three fish die. Right now I don't have access to my tank and won't for another 6 hours. I'm stuck on campus all day and I'm trying to gather as much information as I can.

 

[jlk]

You may very well have ich & columnaris. As I mentioned, ich will not kill your fish overnight but columnaris will. Lower the temps, treat with a gram negative antibiotic and purchase some aq salt. A .3% salinity will treat the ich as well as help with the columnaris. A .3% salinity is 11.4grams salt per gallon of water. A small kitchen scale is the most accurate way to measure salt ($4 at walmart). Use a closed container & add the dose of salt for your tank to conditioned water & dissolve it completely. Add the salt solution gradually over 48hrs. When you do water changes, add back only the salt you remove (predissolved)- ie, 50%wc, add back 1/2 original dose. Water changes with grav vacs will help remove ich spores. Maintain this for 1 week after last spot is gone & then gradually remove it with water changes. You need to keep your water very healthy for any type of treatment- meds do not work in unhealthy water. The bacterial infection you have is much more serious than ich & needs to be addressed promptly. Please read the link I posted for you.

 

[CJonline]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Having just lost all of my fish to columnaris I can relate. From everything I read I couldn't see a way to get rid of it so I bleached out my tank when the last of my fish died and now I am re cycling the tank.

Ick is like you sprinkled salt on the fish. Its not fuzzy, its usually not even in the same place on every fish, its very small just white dots everywhere - its really the easiest thing to look at and you know its ick or you know its not.

You could check out this site too... It might help you. Love of Fish - Identifying and treating common fish diseases