aquariumbeginner32 Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 I just noticed last night one of my guppies has what looks like a cut on it's side.... It's dark green/blue looking but I can't see anything like a tag or anything sticking out of it. Also, I've noticed a lot of the fish look like they have fin/tail rot where the edges of their fins/tails are dark greyish but the fins/tails don't seem to be rotting away or anything. My minnows still have red gills and at least one of the guppies too. One of the minnows is very pale almost white and they've been like this for weeks yet none of them have died. I have been treating the whole tank for Ich with salt. Now I have tonic salt and have been using that for the last few days. I can't see any spots on the guppies now so I'm treating for 7 more days and unless they get more spots that will be it. The fish are not fin clamping or laying on the bottom of the tank or near the waters surface gasping for air... they are still eating although I don't think the minnows are eating as well as they were before. And they are still swimming around. One minnow died about 3-4 weeks ago from I'm guessing ammonia poisoning.... yet all the others have survived. They just haven't regained their normal color and they still have red gills. I am thinking of treating the whole tank for a few different things. Intestinal parasites, anchor worm, fin/tail rot. I'm taking in a sample of water to Animates on Saturday and they're going to test it for me. I've been doing daily 25% water changes ... last night I did a 50% water change. I also replaced two of the cartridges in my filter last night. I always add Stress Coat and Stress Zyme which is supposed to deal with ammonia and nitrite. So I am guessing I'm going to need a few different medications.... Can I treat all these things at the same time, or one after the other? Would it be safe to treat them for say anchor worms, even if they don't have them? Can someone tell me what I need. I have a filter that has 2 bioclear and 2 carbon cartridges in it. And a couple of live plants. I have 5 WCM Minnows, 6 wild guppies and one small blue fantail goldfish in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquariumbeginner32 Posted August 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 I would also like to treat for Velvet. I don't really want to use anything that's going to color the water or sealant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichthus Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 To be honest - it sounds like you are over-doing it. I would get your water tested, as many health issues stem from poor water quality. The 25% water changes should be enough to help with most problems, but if the tank is still cycling you're going to have to wait it out. Stress coat and Stress zyme won't deal to ammonia/nitrite. Try Excel Prime. But after the tank cycles, you shouldn't need to keep up the daily water changes and dosing...unless you have too many fish for your filter to handle. Also, beware that the blue fan is possibly hassling the smaller fish. I'd find another home for him. If it were me (which it isn't, so over to you) - I'd get a new home for the fantail, keep up water changes until the tank has cycled, dose with Prime if I feel I must, and try not to use any medication except a little salt. (Water changes will be messing with the salt levels, so it'll be hard to keep this up). If your water quality is good, and you're doing the basics right (not over-populating the tank, or introducing incompatible fish), your fish should be happy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquariumbeginner32 Posted August 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 To be honest - it sounds like you are over-doing it. I would get your water tested, as many health issues stem from poor water quality. The 25% water changes should be enough to help with most problems, but if the tank is still cycling you're going to have to wait it out. Yeah I'm getting it tested on Saturday. But I'm going to try to talk hubby into letting me get my own water testing kit for all the different things eg PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate etc.... I saw one that's about $80. It's cheaper than buying them all separately. Stress coat and Stress zyme won't deal to ammonia/nitrite. Try Excel Prime. But after the tank cycles, you shouldn't need to keep up the daily water changes and dosing...unless you have too many fish for your filter to handle. Then howcome it says on the bottle for Stress Coat and Stress Zyme that it removes Ammonia and the Stress Zyme says it removes Nitrite as well. ? Also, beware that the blue fan is possibly hassling the smaller fish. I'd find another home for him. I watch him every day and I haven't once seen him hassle the other fish. In fact one of the guppies was hassling him in the beginning... kept nipping at his tail. But it seems to have stopped now. The only reason it's in there is because I temporarily moved it in there as a cat got my chocolate fantail from my pond outside so I rescued the blue one until I could get a better setup outside for them. Now that the guppies have had ich I didn't want to move the goldfish until I'd finished treating the Ich just incase the goldfish has got it too. If it were me (which it isn't, so over to you) - I'd get a new home for the fantail, keep up water changes until the tank has cycled, dose with Prime if I feel I must, and try not to use any medication except a little salt. (Water changes will be messing with the salt levels, so it'll be hard to keep this up). Since I'm treating for Ich at the moment every time I do a water change I'm adding more salt anyway. :thup: If your water quality is good, and you're doing the basics right (not over-populating the tank, or introducing incompatible fish), your fish should be happy... Well except for the fantail which is only about 6-7cm long which includes it's tail.... I just have 5 WCMMs and 6 wild guppies and it's a 64L tank. So once the fantail is moved it won't be overpopulated. Before I added the fantail I just had the WCMMs and wild guppies. And I do a 25% water change inc. vacuuming the gravel once weekly. :thup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichthus Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Sounds like you have your mind made up already. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaLife Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 Get wunder tonic, not the best but it does cover quite a wide range. At times, salt itself isn't enough. I'd recomend Wunder tonic plus salt to speed up the recovery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquariumbeginner32 Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Thanks AquaLife... I just checked the fish this afternoon and there are more spots again UGH I thought we were nearly done... I could only see one spot on one fish the other day and now there are more again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaLife Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 f you are able to confirm it's whte spot then go for white spot cure, if not then just wunder tonic, plus salt and heat(slowly) to speed up recovery. GL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquariumbeginner32 Posted August 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 No I can't really confirm it however I can't see any spots now. I was using tonic salt and heat. I went to Animates yesterday with some tank water and they tested it. The ammonia is between .5-1ppm so I got some Ammo-lock which apparently converts ammonia into a non toxic form however it says that if you test the ammonia levels after using it it will still pick up the ammonia, so I'm not sure how to test my ammonia levels now :dunno: I got a test kit for everything... PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, etc... it was $85. Also my PH level was 6.0. So it needs raising.... but he was saying that the water hardness is not right either and he said using the thing he showed me to raise the PH may work and then the next day the PH will drop again. So I'm going to see how we go with the ammonia and PH. Apparently the nitrate is 0 and nitrite is 0 too so that's really good. I was surprised. I got wunder tonic because it says it treats ich and fin/tail rot. Will let you know how I go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirt Posted August 20, 2011 Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 If you had ammonia levels doesn't that mean the tank isn't cycled? :dunno: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquariumbeginner32 Posted August 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2011 Not sure... I guess. I had no idea what I was doing when I started. I had no idea what cycling meant. And I didn't have a test kit for Ammonia and Nitrate and Nitrite. But I think it was because of turning my filter off, which I didn't know was bad. I had to leave it off when I did a water change one time because I realized I had run out of Water Ager and so I couldn't add more water back into the tank, and so I couldn't turn the filter back on. That was when this all started... I lost one White cloud minnow and the rest showed signs of ammonia poisoning ... red gills, pale color etc... but I didn't lose any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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