About to fill the tank with fire...

[JMLenke]

Ok so the 20L that did but didnt have Ich now has other issues..

Watching last night I noticed that 3 of the cherry barbs had popeye.

I have tested for everything I can think of and I cant find any parameters that are out of wack, including Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, GH, KH, PH and NONE are even close to out of norm.

I am about to just strip all the plants, toss the gravel, overload the tank with meds to heal the fish up long enough to get em out and then H202 the tank until it stops foaming.


Any ideas on what would cause the Mollies to appear to have untreatable Ich, and multiple Cherry Barbs to have Popeye at the least?

Treated the tank for Ich with 86+salt for 10 days
Treated the tank for Ich with Quick Cure for 2x 3 days (30% water change in the middle)
Treated the tank with Melafix for a week
Will treat the tank tonight with Maracyn-2 and Pimafix.

[ingg]

Heh. You need to do my cure for sick fish.

Bye bye fishie! Large cup, the freezer, and the problem is gone.

When I figured out I spent three times on meds what it would be to simply replace the fish, yeah, the current method was born.

[JMLenke]

I dont know if the fish or the tank itself is the issue though.

Admittedly the barbs were cheap and the mollies were free so I wouldnt be hit hard but I dont want to end up getting some of the more expensive rasboras (plan for the tank is to get some Celestials/Galaxy/whatever they are called this week) and try to breed them

[neilanh]

If you don't figure out the source you'll go on a never-ending cycle of replacing fish.

[JMLenke]

exactly what I am trying to avoid.

Luckily I didnt transplant the Praecox like I was debating.

I am going to either tear the tank down to bare glass and bleach it (trash the existing gravel) or just super medicate it and then carbon it for the next year to try to remove whatever residual chemicals may be present.

[jiga923]

Maracyn-2 is good for popeye. Don't over medicate because that can be just as bad for you fish as not doing anything at all. You do have to quarantine any sick fish you have in your tank though because they will get all the other fish sick. I don’t think it has anything to do with your tank, sometimes fish just get sick and once you have one sick fish in a tank they all seem to get sick. If your really worried about your tank you can do a 100% water change and rinse the gravel with some warm water but I don’t see a reason to throw it away.

[RTRJR]

I'm fairly conservative, but when a tank is is iffy, bad, and/or somewhat mystereriously so, I tend to Dave's thoughts. There comes a time when clove oil is the treatment of choice for the fish and Oxiclean for the tank.

[Cristy Keister]

Quick Cure for only 2-3 days isn't enough to kill all the ick. It needs about a week.

The only thing you don't mention is temp.

Before you started treatment, was the temperature stable? When you do WCs do you use cold water or tank temp water? Is your heater working properly?

[Ltrepeter2000]

I am with Robert especially for the fish that are in the tank.....you dont seem attached and they arent particularly expensive and will be infinitely more so in treatment than in permanent retirement(cement boots work well here)

[JMLenke]

Ok the tank has its own heater, BUT I am wondering if the metal toolchest which is a seperator between the window and the first tank is carrying some residual cold down close enough to the tank to cause issues and possibly stressing the fish.

Basically the setup is, Wall of glass|Blinds|Upright Toolchest|20L|15h|20|Floor speaker|hallway

The newest tank is the closest to the window and I am starting to wonder..

The tank was setup for 3 weeks prior to fish, a few days before the mollies I transplanted two sponges from the 55 into the tank.

The tank has its own heater (200w+ IIRC) and appears to stay stable during the day (givng a 2-3F swing due to lights)