Help please

[LCieParagon]

To preface, I work at a pet store, one that sells fish.

I have a 10 gallon tank. Please don't lecture me to get a bigger one. I live in a 250 sq ft apartment. I do considerable research on fish, and I'm a teacher for a living. I know danios generally like a 20 gallon, but I make do in my 10 quite fine. It's much better than some other tanks out there. I'm also aware blue rams like a 20 or larger too, but I've done my research, and I've seen them thrive in 10g environments.

It's been running for 10 months or so. The past 10 months I had 3 kuhlii loaches, 2 danios, and a betta.

I finally moved this tank to my apartment yesterday. It's pretty. Well-planted, and well taken care of. I keep my temp at 80 degrees always.

Yesterday, I purchased 2 blue rams, 3 danios, 2 snails, and a bunch more plants.

Tank seemed great. No fights, very peaceful, and vivid colors.

Here's the problem:

Over the past few hours, it seems the blue rams have gotten white spots all over them (like now they are completely covered) and are swimming very peculiar and look like they are dying. It's only these two fish. I don't know why. They haven't been nipping each other. What's happening? Can someone offer some light? I'm really confused about this.

I'll post a picture of my tank.

 

[Masha]

Ouch!
It sounds as though your fish have "ich" which is a very common parasite. It was probably brought in by some of the new fish you bought, or maybe the plants were in a tank with infected fish.

The best article I've found on treating it is this one here - it describes several different methods - I used the "heat only" method and found it most successful and least stressful (also in a 10 gallon tank, by the way)

Using Heat to Treat Ich in Freshwater Tropical Fish - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish

It is fairly serious and very infectious, but if you don't panic and follow those instructions everything should be fine.

 

[Mattyfelts]

Ouch!
It sounds as though your fish have "ich" which is a very common parasite. It was probably brought in by some of the new fish you bought, or maybe the plants were in a tank with infected fish.

The best article I've found on treating it is this one here - it describes several different methods - I used the "heat only" method and found it most successful and least stressful (also in a 10 gallon tank, by the way)

Using Heat to Treat Ich in Freshwater Tropical Fish - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish

It is fairly serious and very infectious, but if you don't panic and follow those instructions everything should be fine.

Couldnt agree more, follow the article and just make sure none of the other fish are infected!

 

[LCieParagon]

Ouch!
It sounds as though your fish have "ich" which is a very common parasite. It was probably brought in by some of the new fish you bought, or maybe the plants were in a tank with infected fish.

The best article I've found on treating it is this one here - it describes several different methods - I used the "heat only" method and found it most successful and least stressful (also in a 10 gallon tank, by the way)

Using Heat to Treat Ich in Freshwater Tropical Fish - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish

It is fairly serious and very infectious, but if you don't panic and follow those instructions everything should be fine.

One has already died, and the other has tons of spots now.

I'm sad about this. No other fish in the tank has anything even close to this. All the other fish look great!

If this one dies, I'll monitor the tank carefully. I want to put in more live plants, and I'll wait a week or two then instead of getting 2 to replace these two, I'll only get on Bolivian ram. I've researched and they seem to be very hardy.

 

[Mattyfelts]

One has already died, and the other has tons of spots now.

I'm sad about this. No other fish in the tank has anything even close to this. All the other fish look great!

If this one dies, I'll monitor the tank carefully. I want to put in more live plants, and I'll wait a week or two then instead of getting 2 to replace these two, I'll only get on Bolivian ram. I've researched and they seem to be very hardy.

You should treat this one, use salt and heat! there are plenty of articles on this site!

 

[LCieParagon]

You should treat this one, use salt and heat! there are plenty of articles on this site!

Won't the salt and heat kill my danios and kuhliis?

 

[jlk]

Can you post a picture of the fish with the spots? What are your parameters?

If you do in fact have ich, you need to properly treat the tank even if the obviously affected fish does not survive. The tank is now infested as are your other fish even if it is not apparent yet.

 

[Masha]

Won't the salt and heat kill my danios and kuhliis?

Apparently loaches are more sensitive to salt, so you might not want to use salt for that reason. I have a Java Loach and plants in my tank so decided not to use salt.

That article gives several alternatives to salt though - for example you could try heat alone.

 

[LCieParagon]

Unfortunately, the other ram didn't make it. At work today, I want to pick up a bunch more live plants and have a field day in the tank. I love live plants and so does my betta.

 

[Mattyfelts]

Unfortunately, the other ram didn't make it. At work today, I want to pick up a bunch more live plants and have a field day in the tank. I love live plants and so does my betta.

That's great but the water still contains the infection, you must remove the ich before putting anything in! All this will do is give the ich more to attack!