Moral support needed with sick fish

[MdngtRain]

So, my poor little fish in my live-bearer tank are miserable. They have ick, fin rot, body slime & cloudy eye...I've lost 5 fish over 2 weeks.
Today i finally found my brain and remembered to try raising the temps back up and adding salt again in addition to the melafix... Im hoping this works, since I hate to use chemicals. They tend to screw things up way too much.
I just feel so bad for the poor fish. They look miserable and lose friends every few days... And one of my little neons has a weird link in his spine. It looks like someone shut the back end of him in a door, his tail is at a 45 degree angle to the rest of his body... He can straighten out, but for the most part he's kinked...
I finally caved and got a liquid test kit, up until now I've just had the strips. E wondering what they will reveal...

Please send positive, healthy thoughts to my fish. They so need the support!

 

[Thyra]

Sounds like you need more than moral support - your fish need help. Are all your tanks in bad shape or just one? What have the test strips been telling you? They might not be the best test, but if they haven't been previously contaminated, they should be close. You also say you have a liquid test kit now, but have you used it? What is your maintenance program for your tanks - such as regular water changes. Let's start with the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings and go from there. Good luck, but remember you will have to be an active part of this.*SUNSMILE*

 

[Kiara1125]

Sorry to tell you but your neon probably isn't going to make it. That's what happened to mine sand it turned put that they had TB. Best of luck though.

 

[MdngtRain]

Doh! So I went to use the kits and had no color chart. Back it went. Unfortunately, the 3 other stores nearby are currently out of kits also.
My strips have been coming back safe on everything, but with higher acidity. I do a 10% -15% water change weekly. The filter gets rinsed every week and replaced every 4-6 weeks.
It's just this tank that has the issues. The other 3 are fine. This is also the only tank that had been in the mid-80's while I was sick, and the only tank with a drop in temp. If things don't notably improve by tomorrow, I will be picking up other meds when I pick up the liquid test kit (gonna call around to the other 5 stores that will be close to the areas I'll be in tomorrow. Hopefully one of them has the liquid tests in stock, or I will be getting more strips while out tomorrow).
The current tank temp is 83. It's a planted tank with a t5 light and a mainland penguin 280 filter. I feed flake food twice a day and about half is eaten before the flakes start to sink.
The current population is: 4 neons, 1 cardinal, 1 guppy, 7 platys.

1 molly & 4 guppies pissed away over the last 2 weeks. The rest in that tank were re-homed prior to all this happening. They are all doing fine, so I am thinking it has something to do with my water or decor or something.
Woulf changing the filter again tonight be too soon? It was changed 3 weeks ago (one week before the illnesses started).

Also, what med would you suggest for tomorrow? The ones I looked at today all have cancer warnings... :/

Thanks.

 

[OrangeCones]

If you can't get the color charts for the test kit, you can download them online. Also, API (if that is the kit) will send you new ones if you tell them they were missing from your kit. Just a thought.

 

[OrangeCones]

it turned put that they had TB.

How did you diagnose this?

 

[MdngtRain]

How did you diagnose this?

And what is it? I'm guessing from your comment that it is fatal and incurable? :/

 

[MdngtRain]

If you can't get the color charts for the test kit, you can download them online. Also, API (if that is the kit) will send you new ones if you tell them they were missing from your kit. Just a thought.

Cool I will try that if I can't find a complete kit tomorrow. It would be sweet b/c the store said they would just mark it down 50% due to the missing pieces.

 

[KcMopar]

When you rinse your filter do you use the tap water? If so your are killing off some good bacteria, instead you should rinse it in the removed old tank water from your weekly water changes.

 

[MdngtRain]

Update: so the increased temp and added salt have helped some. The body slime, cloudy eye & fin rot are visibly gone today. The ick is still there tho, so I will increase the temp a bit more, and get some meds for it today.

I checked my tap water a while back, and it is chem free. I do rinse in the old water tho, and not the tap water. I was just wondering about the filter in case the bad bacteria load is hiding in there on me (or at least some of it).

 

[Fuzz16]

try to find some liqued garlic....with frozen food id soak it with a clove of garlic and its a health booster and fights the bad stuff...could do the same with flakes im sure.

no tap water is chemical free, btw. they add flouride in the idea that itll help people teeth while it destroys our insides and chlorine to kill any bacteria that gets in the water....tap water is not ok for filters to be cleaned in and it kills all the good bacteria you have growuing to keep your tank healthy. stress=sickness and disease too due to immune system dropping.

 

[Kiara1125]

Sure, heat is ich's weak point, but it has a life cycle. The ich eventually needs to drop off to reproduce and when it does the heat will kill it, the heat doesn't kill ich when it's on the fish. It gets a little worse and then bettter within a few weeks.

Numberous pet stores and resources online concluded that my neons died from TB.

 

[KcMopar]

I would doubt if there is bad bacteria in the filter. You may have a few ich parasites in it but these should mostly be subdued by the temp and rinsing in the removed water however, they would likely die before that due to lack of a living host.

 

[Thyra]

Your statement, Fuzz, doesn't always hold true. There are still a lot of people who get their water from either private or small community wells and there is no chlorine or fluoride in tap water in that case. Other stuff - maybe lol

 

[Fuzz16]

well when people say tap i associate that with city...say well and i associate that with...well, well water. i dont knwo many people who drink out of wells though anymore unless their old school and have a decent water system in place.