vacation ich treatment

[bananafish]

hi! i’ll have a sitter looking after my aquariums while i’m away for a week and am trying to figure out the best plan for my planted 55 gallon that i believe has ich. i have a suspicion though that it might be neon tetra disease but can’t confirm. fish have had symptoms for about 2 weeks now.

stocking:
7 colombian tetra
7 neon tetra
6 cardinal tetra
4 corydora
1 clown pleco

i’ve kept the temp at 80° for about a week now (raised from 74° over a few days) and dosed a full dose of paraguard everyday. carbon carts were removed and replaced with poly filters. i have the hob and sponge filter both running full speed. i’ve been supplementing with frozen bloodworms since i usually only feed flakes and wanted to give them something healthier, but the greedy colombians don’t leave any for the rest.

i’m going to do one large water change tomorrow before i take off. i wanted to get opinions on if i should crank the temp up to 82° and/or dose salt before i leave or wait in case the fish don’t handle it well. i want to make this as easy as possible on the sitter as she has little aquarium knowledge. i won’t be having her do any water changes or medicating the tank while i’m away either; she’ll just be feeding once a day.

any advice is really appreciated!

 

[Colin_T]

Post a picture of the fish so we can confirm the actual issue.

Don't add chemicals to the aquarium unless you know what the problem is. Most fish medications are poisonous and can lead to drug resistant disease organisms if used indiscriminately or incorrectly. They also put the fish under a lot of stress.

Do not raise the water temperature unless you want to speed up the lifecycle of most parasites.

If you do raise the water temperature to treat white spot, raise it to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks, or at least 1 week after all the spots have gone. Do not use medications when using heat to treat white spot because the combination of heat and chemicals will usually kill the fish. Increase aeration/ surface turbulence when using heat or chemical medications.

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If the fish have had spots that are in the same place and haven't changed in 2 weeks, it is not white spot or neon disease. White spot parasites drop off the fish after a few days. They sit in the gravel and reproduce and a few days later the fish get covered in heaps of white spots.

Neon disease kills fish within a few days of the red and or blue line turning white. If the fish has been white for 2 weeks, it isn't neon disease.

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How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water?
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

 

[bananafish]

Post a picture of the fish so we can confirm the actual issue.

Don't add chemicals to the aquarium unless you know what the problem is. Most fish medications are poisonous and can lead to drug resistant disease organisms if used indiscriminately or incorrectly. They also put the fish under a lot of stress.

Do not raise the water temperature unless you want to speed up the lifecycle of most parasites.

If you do raise the water temperature to treat white spot, raise it to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks, or at least 1 week after all the spots have gone. Do not use medications when using heat to treat white spot because the combination of heat and chemicals will usually kill the fish. Increase aeration/ surface turbulence when using heat or chemical medications.

--------

If the fish have had spots that are in the same place and haven't changed in 2 weeks, it is not white spot or neon disease. White spot parasites drop off the fish after a few days. They sit in the gravel and reproduce and a few days later the fish get covered in heaps of white spots.

Neon disease kills fish within a few days of the red and or blue line turning white. If the fish has been white for 2 weeks, it isn't neon disease.

------------------

How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?
Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water?
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

thanks for the response! i shared a photo on another site and they suggested it was ich so that’s why i’ve been treating with paraguard and turned up the temp.

i’ll attach a pic now and will get back to you on the other questions.

 

[Colin_T]

It looks like excess mucous on the tail and fins. This is caused by something in the water irritating the fish. The fish naturally have a thin layer of clear mucous over their body but when stressed, they produce more mucous and it appears as cream or white patches over part or all over the body and fins.

If the fish has been damaged then it will produce more mucous over the damaged area to help protect it. The neon's tail might have been nipped/ bitten by the Columbian tetras and has produced mucous over the damaged fins.

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. However, if you're going away in the next few days, do a daily water change until you go. This will dilute anything in the water that might be irritating the fish.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[bananafish]

@Colin_T

i really appreciate your help. i’ve never even read about what you’re talking about, so i’m really glad i posted here! i can’t imagine what would be irritating them though… i did have an issue with my filter clogging and i couldn’t initially find the issue, so it wasn’t running very well for probably a good month. the tank got a deep clean and i solved the filter problem. this was all around the time i first noticed their issues. there has been weekly 50% water changes since then.

the tank is planted but i really want to beef out the plants to give everyone more hiding spots. hopefully that’ll help with the colombians aggression, although i do rarely see them go after anyone but their own kind.