Alright, going to give up soon

[Leopardess]

Okay, well, maybe fish just hate me in general...My Harlequins have what appeared to be Columnaris (white tufts on lips) but when I put in some treatment it didn't help (I even did two back to back full treatments). Then, I get some gouramis, and I notice one of them has a litttttle white spot on his little arm fin. So, thinking I'll get ahead of it, I put in some Ich Guard. Well, that didn't help and now two of them have spots on their fins. Can anyone please give me some advice? The treatments aren't working for any of the fish and I am getting really discouraged . I don't want this spreading to the scissortails, and the poor betta and frog want to go back in their home tank. Any thoughts, please???

 

[RedTurquoise]

Im sorry to hear about your fish! I know how you feel! I hate it when my fish get sick! BUT DONT GIVE UP........EVER! Keep learning and improving!

The first thing you will need to do is take some water parameter test like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, gh, kh and temperature! Next, we need to know how long your tank has been running, how many fish you have, if you have added any new fish in the last month, how big the tank is, etc, etc! This will help us evaluate the situation!

The second thing is relax and have patience! You may lose some fish (I have lost quite a few already ) and I am still learning! By being persistant, you will succeed!

 

[Leopardess]

Thanks for trying to help, sometimes its hard to get any answers on this thing! Well, the fish I have are listed in my profile. I have had the tank with the sick gouramis for about 4 weeks and the fish for about 3. They act perfectly healthy. But I just noticed the dots about four days ago, maybe five, and as I said, I put in some Ich treatment. Well a couple days after that, all the spots were gone. I did a 50% water change and last night went out and added the scissortails. Now this morning I look and see how the scissor tails are doing, (just fine and dandy btw) and I see that the spots are back! On two gouramis this time (it was just one before). As for the Harlequins, I've had that tank about 2 months...and them for almost as long. They've only ever been with the betta and frog who are perfectly healthy (in a different tank now). I have treated them with something for Columnaris, which didn't work and have been doing water changes but nothing is helping. The medicine supply around here is pretty slim, its hard to find stuff...I've got Jungle Fungus Eliminator (I know Columnaris isn't fungus, but it says it treats it also) and Ich Guard.

Thanks again....I really dont want my fish to die I hate it when things die because its just plain sad and I hate it even more because they were like ten bucks a piece, as mean as that might sound)

 

[mann]

What kind of gourami are you talking about? I think if it's a variation of the blue gourami than it's possible that a white spot on his fin is just a part of his natural markings.

 

[mike the zealot]

did you do your ich treatment for 5 days in a row? The way the ich treatment works is that you turn your water temp up a couple degrees and it speeds up ich activity and causes the ich to fall off. The ich medicine only kills ich when it has fallen off, so it's important that even though you don't see any more ich, you continue the medicine for the full five days. Also, make sure you remove any filter media from your filters like charcoal cartridges, because this will remove the medicine from your water. Hope this helps

-mike

 

[Leopardess]

I have neon blue dwarf gouramis and the spots are on their little arm fins (which are clear) and I think I may have spotted the spots ( hehe) on one of their sides as well. Yeah, the treatment that I found said to do it just for two days! So, I tried it, knowing that that's not the full life cycle duration, thinking, well, maybe somehow they got it to get them while they are attatched to the fish...but no, they sure didn't. Also, yes, I did take out the filter cartridge and raised the water temp. to 82/83. I was reading somewhere that some people suggest using a treatment for four weeks, to make sure you cover a couple possible generations, but is this too long? Especially when the bottle says two days? I'm just worried it will be too long that the fish are exposed to an "irritant." I also added a little extra salt because I heard that helps too. Basically, if it's ich there are certain things that I can do, but does it sound like it might be something else? (as far as it being a natural marking, they weren't there a while ago) Thanks so much

 

[mike the zealot]

Well I would definitely be able to tell the difference between ich and natural markings hehe.

Four weeks would be a bad idea, because yeah ich medicine stresses the fish. If the bottle says two days and it didn't work, I would try something else hehe. Have you ever used Maracide before?

 

[lizwinz]

i've had very good luck with fresh water coppersafe by mardel for ich

its stable in water so you dont add it every day also dosent stain...and you can and should leave it in for 4 weeks without any ill effects

i think columnaris is a bacterial infection so melafix might work plus it doesnt trash your biofilter

drive around a bit if you cant find them near you its worth it...i know walmart sometimes carries melafix and petco carries coppersafe...if they work well for you you can always order some online to keep on hand for future outbreaks

i hope things get better for you and your fishies

--liz

 

[Leopardess]

Thank you so much everyone who has tried to help so far! I went out for a ride tonight and stocked up a bit. I picked up some:

-Mardel Maracyn Plus Antibacteria (mostly for the mouth fungus on the harlequins but also for secondary infection on the gouramis?)
- Mardel Coppersafe
-Jungle Fungus Guard (same thing as the Jungle Fungus Eliminator I have but with different ingredients for the mouth fungus)

and
-Stress Coat

This is in addition to the Ich Guard. Now, I heard that all of the Mardel medicines can be used in conjunction with each other. Given that, should I use the Maracyn and Coppersafe together? And can/should I add some stress coat to help the gouramis and the scissortails who don't yet have it? Any ideas for a safe concoction?

 

[catfishmike]

even if all things go wrong don't quit.redouble your efforts and try again.hopeful you have been going over all the threads that are related to your problem.it seem that you are new to all of this,i don't actualy know if you are or not but, the one thing that will save you from all these fishkeeping headaches is a good book.like you said sometimes it can be tough to get a good anwser to your questions here.thats true,i like to come here as a second guess to my next action.whenever i have a problem i consult my books and magazines then ask here to see what everyone thinks.so far half of your problem is the size of your tank.10 gallons is hard to keep stable and does not offer much dilution for contamainates.there is so little room in a ten gallon that it is hard for fish to stay healthy,especialy fish that large.yes i know they are dwarfs but even then they are a large fish for 10 gal. now as far as treatment don't change your treatment just the up keep routine.if you start adding more meds you will create toxic soup for fish.all of these substances are going to further aggrivate the conditon.maintain the treatment and change the water every day.many diseases don't die off once the phyisiscal signs are gone you must keep treating untill the free floating pathogens are killed off and removed by water changes.one thing i like to do for my fish is give them garlic extract,it is perported ot kill parasites and improves appatite in fish.also melafix is a great med/tonic to keep on hand at all times.melafix is great because it works for all fish,even sensitive ones.good luck

 

[Leopardess]

thanks mike, but my problem is really that the treatment i am using says only to use for two days, and i don't want to use one that may build up over time and it doesn't have anything for a secondary infection. I was hoping someone could just help me decide what would be the best combo. Also, I know the ten gallon is on the small side, i have the 55 waiting (although my gouramis are no larger than an average tetra). I am not new to this, I have just never had fish that have been so problematic.


I am a little confused here, now, I thought this was a place where I could get answers and opinions ( I do have several books and they give contradictory information. One says do raise the temps, others say absolutely do not.) but what it seems like I keep getting is "you're doing this wrong" or I have people not answering my questions but intead telling me to look it up, which I have honestly done. Should I not be asking for people's opinions/ideas? I just don't want to bother anyone. If that came across as being snippy towards your answer catfishmike, I don't really mean it that way, I am just a little befuddled. So back to my question, which of the new things should I try?

 

[catfishmike]

no not at all thats one of the big problems about this whole hobby is that there are so many various anwsers you can get.in regards to your med,what is the active ingredent.if it is malachite green or arcifavine then,those are standard meds and should be used for at least a week.as far as i know there is no med that works fully in 2 days.with ick treatment can go for up to 2 weeks. just change the water and treat daily,and when you change be sure to gravel vac to remove the cysts that haven't hatched yet.as for the fungus issue melafix should work but like i said you don't want all the different chemicals in the tank.another thing is that many diseasees look the same but are not

 

[Leopardess]

thanks very much. I'll try to find the melafix, because I don't know if it was clear but it is the Harlequin rasboras that have the infection and they are in a separate tank.

 

[Leopardess]

alrighty, well, I just don't understand this one. My scissortails now have fairly large red spots on them and appear to have some sort of fin rot. My pH is right on track, my ammonia is 0, my nitrates are 5 ppm, nitrites on target. Temp is good too. I did a water change last night and cleaned out all the gravel. I made extra certain that ALL water parameters of the replacement water matched the tank exactly. I hightly doubt that they will make the night - they've only developed this about four hours ago and its progressing quickly. They will also not eat. I kind of hope that they just die, because there is nothing worse for me than seeing an animal suffer...Just thought I'd tell you guys. (One of the four appears to be okay, so hopefully he'll pull through.)

 

[Leopardess]

One of my scissortails died last night , and another doesn't look too far off. The other two are looking alright though, so I can hope.

I do have a question regarding water changes however. The treatment I am using says it treats for one month. How often would you guys suggest that I do water changes? And I am assuming that I should put in as much medicine as the water change proportionally removes, correct?

 

[lizwinz]

sorry about your little guys death

your right about adding the medicine with your water changes, just follow the dosage per gallon when adding water except when toppping of the tank between water changes (meds dont evaporate with the water)

as far as how often to change water...normally most people do around 25% once a week, given that you have ill fish i would do two smaller water changes a week just vacuum the gravel more often to get the nasties:

ich (during part of its life cycle it can be found in the gravel)

food and waste (where fungus/bacteria can grow can be in the gravel)

...it gives the meds a little bit less to fight off imo

good luck*thumbsups

--liz

 

[mike the zealot]

How far off is that 55 from being finished? I would move them all out of there and start that tank over if I was you =/

 

[Leopardess]

okay, thanks mike, i appreciate your help..the 55 is just about ready ( i did a fishless cycle but I used some of the "natural" cycle treatment). I thought about moving them to the bigger tank, but because they still aren't better, wouldn't the ich just get transferred to that tank with them, and then I'd have to treat 55 gallons of water rather than 10?


- btw, I had no choice but to move the other sick scissortail to a five gallon pail that i have. I have been keeping the water warm and I aggitate it every so often and put in some stress coat...I'm thinking he didn't like the Coppersafe all that much...Hopefully he'll make it and I can maybe put him back...the other two seem fine so far, and the gouramis are still "iching" it out...


also, thanks for the condolences...this may sound a bit nutty, but I can't justify flushing a poor animal down "the crapper" so I burried him in my lawn, to meet 1 harlequin and 12 neons that I had lost previously. so sad

 

[Leopardess]

oops, sorry lizwinz, I meant thank YOU for the help Too much fish-induced stress has turned me illiterate

 

[Leopardess]

well, another scissortail rasbora has died..and the two remaining ones are also starting to develop little red ulcers/hemorrages. I'm really not getting this...all my water paramters are right on track...oh well...i'm just rooting for the gouramis to make it...they are sooo cute
.