Ich showed up the day before vacation!

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Today's update 6/5/14:

I found my deformed, skinny cardinal tetra dead and stuck to the intake of my filter while I was doing my water change last night. I wasn't expecting him to make it.

Tonight I took the carbon out after running for 24 hrs and put in three packets of the API General Cure medicine. Kinda fun to see my tank as a big snow globe for a while. So now it's just a waiting game for a couple days before the next dose.

Should I feed them during the treatment? I don't want them to starve to death while I'm trying to save their lives. I fasted them yesterday in hopes they would try to eat some of the medicine tonight to take care of any internal parasites. They definitely all tried it, but spat it out. Hopefully some of it got in them.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss. Yes, go ahead and try to feed them something. They have an appetite if they were going after the medication.
 
Just fed them sparingly this morning. They all came up to eat like usual. But now there is one zebra danio that is staying low in the water and hanging out in the "death corner" of my tank where everyone goes when they get sick. It's the most sheltered spot in the tank with the lowest current. He's still swimming around fairly actively but he's staying in that area. He did come up to the surface to eat once he realized everyone else was up there. I just don't know... Hopefully it's just the meds stressing him out a bit.
 
I know what you mean about the death corner. I've seen unwell fish hang out in a spot like that. Fortunately it's not a death sentence. Now that your fish is under treatment hopefully it will recover. One of the best indicators that there is a lot of hope is that your fish are eating. Most of all I hope this finally knocks out your ich.

It was an incident similar to this that made me get a quarantine tank. If you gather the pieces over time it's not too bad moneywise. I believe it is well worth the investment in order to protect your other fish. Especially if you have inverts or your tank is planted, a quarantine tank becomes a must. If you keep a piece of seed material in your filter for beneficial bacteria the quarantine tank can be set up very quickly, if you can't keep it up all the time. Fortunately I have room to keep one up all the time.

Once again best wishes and keep us posted.
 
Yeah, velvet is a lot harder to kill than ICH. But, API General Cure will kill it. Velvet is one of the few illnesses that I recommend treatment for.


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More spots showing up on the cardinals tonight 24 hrs into treatment. I'm really hoping they are just the result of some swimmers that happened to make it to a host before the meds were delivered. I am never buying Cardinals again. They are beautiful but not hardy. Zebras seem to be back to normal. Maybe that "death corner" lurker was just hungry.

I've also been doing a lot of reading about Redox and the importance of having a constant supply of Calcium and Magnesium ions to help the fish with their osmoregulation and overall health. I ordered a few of the upgraded Wonder Shells from American Aquarium Products. I've learned a lot from that site lately and it sounds like it's worth a try at this point.
 
Yeah sounds like it is best to go with a general cure treatment and I saw were you asked if you should keep some of the media out.. I say no leave it all in there unless you plan on drying it out.. And maybe boiling you don't want the potential of reintroducing the but that started this epidemic.. I say treat it all personally!
It is likely that the general cure will probably knock out som of your bio filtration but will probably just be a minicycle just stay on top of your parameters I treated ich for over a month at one point and finally cured it with marineland all-in-one remedy.. They sold it at petsmart! Hope this helps any
 
Also be careful to thoroughly dry all aquarium equipment. Ich can't live dry. Drying it kills it. You have to be so careful not to reintroduce it once it looks like it is cured.

When I had ich in my QT I felt like I was running some kind of a medical facility. I had to be so careful not to cross contaminate. I kept the equipment separate and when done I made sure everything was rinsed and totally dried. At least with ich you don't have to bleach things if you don't want to. Cleaning and drying is enough.
 
Thanks for joining in UAB. Yeah, I left everything in. So far my Amm, 'trite, and 'trate are all fine. If this doesn't work, I've also read good things about Seachem's Paraguard product. I've been trying to avoid products with Malachite Green because I don't want to stain my silicone, but I might not have a choice if this treatment doesn't work. Trying to stay positive since I've still got 3 days to go. LOL.
 
yeah the I treated mine with the API Super ick cure something like that that stains everything but it was in my qt so i was not to concerned.. but that stuff can be messy and can also be carcinogenic especially if includes formaldehyde so be careful especially if your wife is pregnant.. but that's what i treated with for a month before finally swapping to general cure.. i guess some strains are more resistant than others
 
Yes IMO the ich attack my fish had at the time would not disappear even with very aggressive treatment.. temp 86. salt in the tank, and super ich cure and still treated them for a month to no resolve.. after treating for a week with the general cure my infection had resolved.. though my biosystem did take a hit.. it straightened out in a couple of weeks and i still have all the fish 7 months later..
 
All fish are still doing well, although I saw a couple of them flash yesterday and one still has visible dot. If I follow the box, I'm due to do a water change tomorrow night, put in carbon and be done. But that seems really fast. I'm thinking I should do a 25% water change and then put one more dose in for another 48 hours in order to make it almost a full week of treatment. I really don't want this to come back.

I'm also thinking about breaking out the wallet and getting a UV sterilizer to knock stuff like this out before it starts next time. But I still need to do a lot of research on that.
 
Yeah if still has visible dots I would change water and continue to treat until no more visible spots for a couple of days.. I usually don't go completly by those directions before you treat again I would do a 50 % or so water change or so! And begin tread my again some bugs are just more resistant than others! Good luck

I don't have any exp with sterilizer but it is only going to be effective to free swimmers.. But may be helpful in preventing reinfection
 
Sounds like you had VELVET instead of Ich. Glad things are starting to get better.


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I did a water change tonight and dosed again with the General Cure. There is another Cardinal that is now wasting away fast and another not far behind him. They both have spots and ugly growths on their skin. I'm thinking I should just cull them from the herd to try to avoid them passing it on. Everyone else looks OK for now. In fact, they are holding their fins up and out further than I've ever seen. Apparently they were clamping a little bit before and I didn't even realize.
 
Sadly, that's what I'd do, also. I don't think they are going to make it in any case and it is better to save your other fish.
 
Sigh... I euthanized the two that were "wasted".

And... now a few of the remaining 7 cardinals have cloudy skin and spots again tonight. I think my LFS was right and his supplier just has bad Cardinal Tetras. I really hope my tank does not have Fish TB. I might not have it in me to tear the whole thing down and start over. My Zebras are all looking beautiful and are just as crazy and active as ever. I have a feeling I'm going to be left with just them in a couple weeks. :nono:

Maybe I should just fill my tank with snails and shrimp? Do they get diseases? Just kidding... kind of.
 
Many of us have been through a round of illness that made us want to give it up. It will get better.

As long as your remaining fish look healthy don't worry about breaking down the tank.
 
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