matildadog
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- Oct 28, 2009
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I started my 30 gallon community tank about 10 months ago. We seemed to have a fairly stabilized environment up to about 5 days ago. The trouble started when we noticed white spots on our 2 black phantom tetras. We did some online research on ich, and bought an organic treatment from our local pet store. Since then, we've lost 10 of our 12 fish, some of which we've had since the very beginning. Our most mourned one, Fuji, was a platy who was born in our tank.
We only have two fish left: our pleco, Eugene, and and a little blood-finned tetra. We desperately want to save them, especially Eugene, who is like a member of the family! One of my most horrific nightmares came true the other morning when we found Eugene OUTSIDE THE TANK lying on the floor! We have a hood on the acquarium, but he had managed to shove past it and had fallen 5 feet to the ground. It looked like he was dead, but amazingly he survived. He is not looking good though. He seems dusty, discolored, parts of his scales are gone. I don't think he's eating.
According to everything I've read about ich, we shouldn't be losing all these fish if this is our only problem. I have tested the water daily, and the only thing that is abnormal is the nitrate reading, which is on the high side. My test strips do not test for ammonia, but a few days ago the nitrites spiked slightly. (Back to safe zone now.) I have added acquarium salts, ammonia block (just in case), bacteria... performed a couple of partial water changes, and continued the ich treatment... I just wish I knew what the problem was. Any advice would be very welcome.
Current temp 80 degrees (turned it up and removed carbon filter to treat the ich).
We only have two fish left: our pleco, Eugene, and and a little blood-finned tetra. We desperately want to save them, especially Eugene, who is like a member of the family! One of my most horrific nightmares came true the other morning when we found Eugene OUTSIDE THE TANK lying on the floor! We have a hood on the acquarium, but he had managed to shove past it and had fallen 5 feet to the ground. It looked like he was dead, but amazingly he survived. He is not looking good though. He seems dusty, discolored, parts of his scales are gone. I don't think he's eating.
According to everything I've read about ich, we shouldn't be losing all these fish if this is our only problem. I have tested the water daily, and the only thing that is abnormal is the nitrate reading, which is on the high side. My test strips do not test for ammonia, but a few days ago the nitrites spiked slightly. (Back to safe zone now.) I have added acquarium salts, ammonia block (just in case), bacteria... performed a couple of partial water changes, and continued the ich treatment... I just wish I knew what the problem was. Any advice would be very welcome.
Current temp 80 degrees (turned it up and removed carbon filter to treat the ich).
