Aquarium Help

[ECCO_]

Ok, I just lost all my fish to ick and I have no fish in my tank. (Or at least thats what I think it was)
They were rubbing against decor and flicking their fins. Even the Pleco moved around strange, sitting still and jetting of randomly.
As of now my tank is still running, but Im not sure of what to do. Should I take my entire tank down and start over, or should I wait awhile and do aqua vacs and water changes?

 

[mbsqw1d]

Ok, I just lost all my fish to ick and I have no fish in my tank. (Or at least thats what I think it was)
They were rubbing against decor and flicking their fins. Even the Pleco moved around strange, sitting still and jetting of randomly.
As of now my tank is still running, but Im not sure of what to do. Should I take my entire tank down and start over, or should I wait awhile and do aqua vacs and water changes?

Hi, Did you medicate at all, if so what did you use? How long has your tank been empty of fish?

 

[ECCO_]

Ok, I just lost all my fish to ick and I have no fish in my tank. (Or at least thats what I think it was)
They were rubbing against decor and flicking their fins. Even the Pleco moved around strange, sitting still and jetting of randomly.
As of now my tank is still running, but Im not sure of what to do. Should I take my entire tank down and start over, or should I wait awhile and do aqua vacs and water changes?

Hi, Did you medicate at all, if so what did you use? How long has your tank been empty of fish?

I used Rid-Ich, and its been empty about 2 days.

 

[mbsqw1d]

I'd say it's a tricky one and a gamble. Factors I would consider are:

- rid-ich is a weaker form of MalachiteGreen. MalachiteGreen alone WILL get rid of ich, it will however also destroy the 'good' bacteria you currently have in your cycled tank and so render the point of not starting from scratch pointless.

- ich can be present in any tank and it is usually stressed and unhealthy fish that are more prone to developing and dying from it.

- Will you be buying your fish from the same place in future? AND do you ever isolate your new fish before introducing them to the main tank? (this has a word for it that I can't seem to think of right now! lol)

In a nutshell. What I would do. Is use it as an excuse to empty the tank, clean it and start from fresh. But that's me...

 

[seaners]

Ok, I just lost all my fish to ick and I have no fish in my tank. (Or at least thats what I think it was)
They were rubbing against decor and flicking their fins. Even the Pleco moved around strange, sitting still and jetting of randomly.
As of now my tank is still running, but Im not sure of what to do. Should I take my entire tank down and start over, or should I wait awhile and do aqua vacs and water changes?

So here is the deal with ick. Ick is something that grows on your fish. It then falls off of them. When it falls off it is not dead. You need to treat your tank for a couple of weeks. I know that you don't have any fish left but you will still have ick in your tank. Even if you start fresh some of it may still survive. So treat your tank a couple of weeks and then start over again. You will loose bacteria, but it will build up again. Good Luck

 

[ECCO_]

I'd say it's a tricky one and a gamble. Factors I would consider are:

- rid-ich is a weaker form of MalachiteGreen. MalachiteGreen alone WILL get rid of ich, it will however also destroy the 'good' bacteria you currently have in your cycled tank and so render the point of not starting from scratch pointless.

- ich can be present in any tank and it is usually stressed and unhealthy fish that are more prone to developing and dying from it.

- Will you be buying your fish from the same place in future? AND do you ever isolate your new fish before introducing them to the main tank? (this has a word for it that I can't seem to think of right now! lol)

In a nutshell. What I would do. Is use it as an excuse to empty the tank, clean it and start from fresh. But that's me...

Im going to try other places, not that there are many. And I dont have an extra tank to hold them in when I get them.

Also, should I get new gravel or reuse the gravel I allready have.

 

[mbsqw1d]

if you're happy with the gravel you already have just give it a good rinse. Or get some increasingly fashionable sand!

 

[AstonN24vantage]

oh i hate waking up the morning after ich was just in my tank, ripped through the fish and now i have emptied it. makes me feel empty.

 

[ECCO_]

oh i hate waking up the morning after ich was just in my tank, ripped through the fish and now i have emptied it. makes me feel empty.

I know your pain... And whats worse is almost all places that sale fish have ich these days. At least where Im at.

My local petstores arnt as bad, but unlike most that just buy the fish, I sit and watch them at the store. Eventually Ill see some showing symptoms of ich (scratching, flicking)

BIG NO NO'S
Petsmart
Petco
Wal*Mart (Those that still sale fish)Horrible Fish Hell

 

[Feather_Sword]

It helps to sterilize everything after a bout of ich. My Twig catfish had ich, but I sterilized everything that I used including the gravel vacuum and net that I use in my 16 gallon.

My advice is to fill a five gallon bucket all the way, then add ONE Tablespoon of bleach. Fully submerge everything for about 15 min, then take everything out and dump the water out of the bucket. Rinse everything really well with water, then fill it back up to the top, put water dechlorinator (about half of the ratio it says to use, since it's a five gallon bucket), then re-submerge everything for a couple hours. Then take out everything, rinse, and let dry in the sun. The sun will dry and kill off anything left.
- Don't worry about the bleach, the water dechlorinator takes care of that.

That method is really great, as I used it for my 5 gallon tank and every since thing I used when emptying out water and netting the dead fish. Now I don't have to worry about anything contaminating my 16 gallon and the 5 gallon tank itself.

 

[PaBucsFan]

oh i hate waking up the morning after ich was just in my tank, ripped through the fish and now i have emptied it. makes me feel empty.

I know your pain... And whats worse is almost all places that sale fish have ich these days. At least where Im at.

My local petstores arnt as bad, but unlike most that just buy the fish, I sit and watch them at the store. Eventually Ill see some showing symptoms of ich (scratching, flicking)

BIG NO NO'S
Petsmart
Petco
Wal*Mart (Those that still sale fish)Horrible Fish Hell

Unfortunately where I live I only have a Wal*Mart and a Petco to buy fish from as my closest lfs is 45 minutes away but like you I will sit there and watch the fish for a good 15-30 minutes over a two or three day period to make sure they are not sick. The worse illness I have seen on a fish from my local Petco is fin rot that I was willing to take home. I totally agree with you about Wal Mart's so called fish tanks, they should just stop selling the fish.

 

[ECCO_]

oh i hate waking up the morning after ich was just in my tank, ripped through the fish and now i have emptied it. makes me feel empty.

I know your pain... And whats worse is almost all places that sale fish have ich these days. At least where Im at.

My local petstores arnt as bad, but unlike most that just buy the fish, I sit and watch them at the store. Eventually Ill see some showing symptoms of ich (scratching, flicking)

BIG NO NO'S
Petsmart
Petco
Wal*Mart (Those that still sale fish)Horrible Fish Hell

Unfortunately where I live I only have a Wal*Mart and a Petco to buy fish from as my closest lfs is 45 minutes away but like you I will sit there and watch the fish for a good 15-30 minutes over a two or three day period to make sure they are not sick. The worse illness I have seen on a fish from my local Petco is fin rot that I was willing to take home. I totally agree with you about Wal Mart's so called fish tanks, they should just stop selling the fish.

Yeah.... I have two Wal*Marts near me and one stopped selling fish years ago. The other just stopped this year.

 

[ECCO_]

Ok, so I completely emptied my tank. Gravel included. I have the gravel in a bucket. I was thinking of pooring hot boiling water over it (What I used to do with nematodes)Will this kill the ich.
The tank is dry and so are the plants/decor/ex... Will drying everything else kill it as well?