ICH Disease that isn't ICH but much more serious????

[carligraceee]

I don't know how something could've gone wrong so quickly. It started with the death of my twig catfish which spiked the ammonia a bit (not a lot but enough, around .15). I took him out and tested the water the next day and ammonia had dropped to 0ppm. Then, I noticed white spots on my Black Phantom Tetras and a lot on my Blue Phantom Pleco. I stayed calm and went and grabbed some API ICH treatment and turned the water up to around 83F (which makes me really nervous). I have lost 5 tetras in about 48 hours, all with their skin coming off as if something had slowly eaten away at them. Some of them when dead didn't even have white spots on their skin when out of the water, but three of them did.


Is this a flesh eating bacteria in my water and not ich? I am calling my fish store today to ask them questions as I do think my pleco that I bought recently from them but who was wild caught from Columbia brought this into my tank. What do I do? I do not want to lose anymore fish and I have a wonderful Butterfly fish I want to keep safe.

 

[Naughts]

Photos of the afflicted fish?

I would just do heat treatment for ich, if that is what it is, 86F/30C. Heat depletes oxygen levels, as does medication, so the two together can be a problem. Add aeration to counteract this.

 

[carligraceee]

Photos of the afflicted fish?

I would just do heat treatment for ich, if that is what it is, 86F/30C. Heat depletes oxygen levels, as does medication, so the two together can be a problem. Add aeration to counteract this.

I can take pictures tonight when I get home, it isn't pretty.

I am very nervous about turning the heat up too high. The bottle of treatment says turn it up to 83-84F and 86F just is too hot for the fish that I have. I do not want to cook my healthy fish.

 

[Byron]

I am not saying definitely here, but it is possible the ich medication killed the tetras, either directly or on top of existing stress. Ich itself is not likely to kill fish this quickly.

Ich should only be treated with heat, 30C/86F, for two weeks. If ich is present it will almost always be stopped by this treatment. There are very few fish species that will have issues with heat.

Characins (tetras) are highly sensitive to all chemicals, medications, etc. Most species will be fine with increased temperature for two weeks. Surface disturbance increasing will handle oxygen issues.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

I can take pictures tonight when I get home, it isn't pretty.

I am very nervous about turning the heat up too high. The bottle of treatment says turn it up to 83-84F and 86F just is too hot for the fish that I have. I do not want to cook my healthy fish.

But they ain't healthy fish

 

[DoubleDutch]

I can take pictures tonight when I get home, it isn't pretty.

I am very nervous about turning the heat up too high. The bottle of treatment says turn it up to 83-84F and 86F just is too hot for the fish that I have. I do not want to cook my healthy fish.

The med says 83-84F cause that is fastens the lifecycle of Ich so the med can kill the free swimming parasites.

86F is heattreatment to kill the parasites without meds.

The biggest risk in case of Ich is the human factor. The combi of meds + heathtreatment isn't a good idea and an overkill.

Both lower oxygen levels in the water as well.