will everyone be o.k?

[Jinx]

I have a 50 gallon tank with a Jack dempsey, Green terror and a huge algee eater. About 1month ago we noticed ich and treated it. We even put in aquarium salt in our tank(NEVER had to do that before), changed 20% of water daily, everything seemed to clear up. Now about a little over a week ago, my Green terror has both eyes popping out and it seems like a thick layer of velvet that is covering his whole body.(weird ). He acts fine, and eating like a pig, so I know he's feeling fine. We also were putting Melifix(antibiotics)daily with water changes for 7 days like the people at the store told us. He still looks the same. Not sure what kind of desease he has. I've read about the popeyes, but couldn't find anything about the velvety coating. Now is were I might have been kinda stupid, we went to the fish store yesterday and I couldn't help myself from buying a pair of red oscars. Do you think my fish will be o.k? I stopped the meds and don't want to EVER use salt again in my tank. I'm just kinda worried about the Green terror getting my new fish sick, even though my dempsey is fine.
Any suggestions or maybe someone just to tell me that everyone will be fine
thanx for reading my post

 

[Tempestuousfury]

to the forum. Introduce yourself in the newbie section.

I can't quite give you precise information, though I suggest that you read the pinned articles on diseases on this forum. You could also check out books from the library and do research online. Velvet is a disease similar to ich. It requires special meds (containing copper, I believe). Check out The Manual of Fish Health, it should have information on everything. HTH

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I don't know exactly what could be wrong, but I will try to help.

It could be pop-eye with your green terror, which as far as I am aware is a first symptom of dropsy. I am not sure if it is catching but if it is you will have to treat the whole tank, if not it would be good if you had somewhere to move the fish to. The velvety coating could well be a parasitic infection known as velvet. I think it's not too far off ich and I have medicines that treat both.

Melafix is not antibiotic, is is a herbal non-med and is so weak that it can be used in conjunction with other meds. IMO you will be better using a proper med and melafix if you want.

I am sure you know already that it was not the best idea to add fish to a sick tank, so I don't need to go into that .

Be prepared for ich to come back, it is quite likely from adding fish and stress to the tank. If it does happen put the tempature up to 82F. Some people do this alone to battle the parasite that has a shorter life cycle in warmer water. Ich must be treated (if using meds) for at least 14 days IMO/IME even with the temp up as the parasite is only suseptable to meds when in the free swimming stage (one the spots have gone and most will think they are in the clear).

Depending on wheter your "algae eater" is a plec, salt can be very beneficial IMO at aiding meds and reducing stress (but not at the same time as melafix).

HTH

 

[Jinx]

Thanx for the fast response. Well, we took the oscars out and put them in a 29 gallon tank because they were getting the crap beat out of them in just 1 night, now I have them with my guppies(which I'm sure my baby guppies won't last long with them but at least I think they'll be fine. Now back to the velvet stuff. We have had alot of differnt fish and tanks for many years, and the crasy thing is, we've NEVER dealt with ANY kind of deseases, so we're doing what the people at Walmarts told us to do. They had said that Melfix was a antibiotic(I'm really not suprised that they are wrong) I'm not trusting the guy there at all(don't think he knows what he's talking about) The only thing is, we live in a very small town and that's the only store around us, so I'm very limitted.
Well, like I said, thanx for the fast response. I do appreciate it, and any other info would be great if there is any.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Walmart I think should carry other medicatons as well. Melafix is pretty expensive too and there are a few people on here who make their own (100 parts water to 1 part tea tree oil).

Maybe you could try an online place, it's how I get meds that I can't get at the lfs.