Gamer

Several of my 20 gallon fish have died from ick. I lost 4 tiger barbs and 2 cherry barbs. I think they got it from stress or from my 3 upside down catfish I bought from a LFS all of whom are dead too. I couldn't tell if the catfish had ick. It's hard to tell, they have a few spots on them as it is. But I had no problem with this until I added them to the tank and no I did not quarantine them first. I have learned from my mistake though and I set up a tank I am going to use as a Q tank just now. In the meantime, I've (slowly) raised the temp in the 20 gal to 82 and I went out and bought some medicine from the petstore to treat ick and parasites. Anything else I need to do? I am testing the water later on today.

Peterpiper

Mate, your doing all you can for now. if your 100% sure its ich then just raise the temp and leave the meds out, and 20% water changes every 2nd day
Dont be too hard on yourself re the Q tank, in this hobby we all learn something the hard way. If you can get some extra air in the tank that would help, as water absorbs less O2 the higher the temp is.
Good luck!

COBettaCouple

Be sure that the meds don't have malachite green or victoria green in them. The meds aren't necessary really, as the warmer water is the real treatment. I would do water changes daily if possible and at least once each week, clean the substrate to get the ich cysts there.

Gamer

Thanks guys. No actual use of the medication yet but I have it on hand just in case. I just ran out and bought it on instinct ya know? Yeah I am convinced it came from stress from me moving things around and those 3 little upside-down cats I just had to buy. I first put them in my angelfish tank and then in with the barbs after my angels spawned again. So they spread it to my angels and the barbs and now my female angels dead and so are 6 of my barbs. You learn alot the hard way in this hobby that's for sure.

I'll change the water and vacuum the gravels but is there anything else I need to do before it's safe to add new fish to the tanks? Like change the filter cartridges possibly? I am keeping the temp in the lower 80's from now on and I know that's fine for angelfish but I'm not sure about barbs yet. I'll have to look.

Shawnie

AWW GAMER...sorry for the loss...

Gamer

Thanks, appreciate it. The barbs just turned up dead. The angel was dying (had hardly any fins left, glaze over her eyes and spots everywhere) and I had to euthanise her. I had vodka on hand which believe me came in handy after this and I had to go out and buy some clove oil first.

susitna-flower

JOHN, sorry about your fish....that sticks...

Raise the temp up OVER 82.....that is the ticket....I have just had to do the same thing....have a platty with it, and I thought it was out of my tanks....

Problem with me I just had to change my routein and started shutting my generator off at night again, means the temp drops in my tanks each night....this is the first sign of what might be problems.....

Watch that clove oil........don't get a DUI!

Gamer

Oh I'm not going to drive anytime soon lol.

Clove oil to make the fish fall asleep and of course the alcohol (in this case vodka) to make sure it doesn't wake up. I followed this two step method of euthanising the fish as opposed to just mixing the vodka and clove oil together which would be more stressful to it.

She was dying on her back, not recoverying and suffering so I had to make the choice to euthanise her.

Peterpiper

Gamer,
Sorry for your loss mate, hope it all comes good now for you and your fish

COBettaCouple

We're sorry that you lost them.