?White Patches on Fish..Fish Dying During Ick Treatment(pic)

[WhiteCloud]

I am having THE MOST HORRIBLE time with my FW Planted tank! The synopsis to getting me to this point:

1. Bad Hair Algae caused by too high Phosphate and too low nitrate, too little iron
2. An attempt to fix "visible" problems with SAEs and Flag Fish and Skunk Botia Loaches
3. Acclimated fish....lost 15 SAEs in 5 days (have not lost a fish in months before this...and only lost 3 in year..and lost those during ICK outbreak)
4. 1 Week after adding fish...ICK OUTBREAK
5. Slowly increased Temp to 84.5F and added Aquarium Salt to bring SG to 1.003 over 3 days
6. Began to loose fish I have for almost a year...lost 4 Cherry Barbs and 2 Harliquin Rasbora
7. Some White Patches (different from Ick) appears on some fish (See pic), NOT cottony or Fluffy! Added some Melafix to hopefully help...so far things only have gotten worse in 3 days
8. A Possible Dropsy death of an Dwarf Neon Rainbow
9. Overall less active tank...
10. Hair Algae has now turned into some reddish/brownish, sticky stringy thicker gross mess (see pic)

As you can see...I am at my wits end!! My tank is an awful mess...my fish are dying...lost nearly $150 in recently added SAEs. I just don't know what happened...or what I did wrong!! I have beautiful Marine Tank without ANY problems.

ANY recommendations would be helpful!!!

 

[TCTFish]

If SAE are just as bad as CAE then I'd assume the SAE is a culprit of some sort of stress and being the red tail is the one with that patch, I'd say he got caught up with one of the SAE. That's just my guess. The reddish brown mass of yuck may be either diatoms, though I know them to be brown. Could be cyanobacteria. Perhaps someone else here can add some info on that one. What I would suggest doing is test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Just the basics. Do a few small but frequent water changes...about 10% two to three times a week for the next week or two depending on the test results. A little bit of Stress Coat would help. Put in half the recommended dose.

Is there ich present on any of the fish right now? You say you lost 15 SAE in a period of less than a week. I don't see them listed as residents of your tank. Did they all go in there at the same time?

 

[WhiteCloud]

Oh no...SAEs are a nice, peaceful non-territorial algae eater, hence their desirability. The SAEs did not live long enough to really bother anyone anyway. I ordered 25, 10 were DOA, and most of the others died the day after I acclimated them (drip acclimated for 2 hours even)...so they really were never residents. One held on for a 10 days and died last night.

I did test the parameters:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
pH:7.4 (used to be at 6.8 with Pressurized automatic CO2 System...but with my heat and aeration, I slowly (about 1 pH per day), turned down the CO2 tank. The least of my worries are the plants at this point.
Phosphate: 0.5ppm (and I just put polyfilter in last week)

I worry about doing water changes during the ICK treatment...as it could lower the SG and not kill the Ick. I could add more salt to replace the water I take out though.

What is Stress Coat...I have never used any product like that...but if you think it will help...I will pick some up.

Thanks

WC

 

[dr_girlfriend]

your algae probably went nuts because of you turning off your co2. why did you turn it off? If anything keep it up high 30ppm to get rid of algae.You can do water changes during ick treatment w/ salt, just keep track of how much you have per gallon, and replace accordingly.
Did you slowly add the salt? Adding it all at once could explain some of your fish deaths, and it can also kill of the bacteria. They both need to acclimate to the salt.
I'm not really sure from the pic what exactly is on your fish. But its not ick. You should really qt the sick fish and be treating them in a stable environment. Probably should try a broad spectrum antibiotic with a 3% salt concentration (1 tblsp/gallon). Changing the ph, and adding salt all at once is extremley stressful on top of illness.

 

[WhiteCloud]

The Algae was already nuts with the CO2 at 28ppm....wasn't helping matters. With the Heat treatment of the Ick...the water contains less oxygen...running airstones, lower water level to produce more water agitation is desirable so the water can hold enough oxygen to sustain the fish. This added agitation also causes the CO2 to come out of the water. The CO2 tank was on continuously...and I was getting fluctualting pH with the added CO2. I felt a higher, but consistant pH would be more desirable than low pH that was moving up and down, and would be overall less stress on the fish. The pH was slowly increased over 5 days

The salt was added over 3 days...in 3 equal parts. From the last Ick Outbreak I have learned that 3 x 1&1/4 Cups of salt will bring the SG to 1.003. I always dissolve the salt first in water before adding it to the tank to prevent any salt burns.

Ammonia and Nitrite didn't budge..so I don't think much bacteria was killed in the process.

The visible Ick is now gone on all fish...and has been for 2 days now. These are new patches that are grown on the fish after the Ick. The Red Tail never even had any Ick spots...and now is showing up with this.

 

[TCTFish]

To start...Stress Coat is a type of dechlorinator that has a slime coating for the fish. I advise to mix the stuff well in a container of tank water first before adding. If you just gob it in and a small fish gets caught up in the goop's path, it'll slime his gills shut.

One...you should have a QT. Two...you should never expect to introduce that many fish into a tank at one time...even if it is a fairly large tank. Too much at once. Maybe five SAE at one time for your size tank...and wait two weeks inbetween after they've been QT'd for a week or two. You have a large system. A simple five or ten gallon QT will save you lots of time and money in the long run.

Another note to keep in mind the next time you buy fish from anywhere...if the fish you buy are in their bags for four or more hours...do not drip acclimate. Including those purchased through the mail. I'm sure they're in their bags for a long time before they reach their destination. The ammonia builds in the water and the pH goes down to detoxify that ammonia. Drip acclimating them with water that has a higher pH value than that in the bag can make that ammonia toxic and kill the fish. Best to just get them out of the bags ASAP.

When doing water changes during ich treatment, just match the salinity of the change water to match the salinity in the tank before adding.