My 55g is currently very over-crowded due to an unexpected and successful mating of my two jewel cichlids. My tank went from 14 fish to about 50 and I have been doing water changes every 2 to 3 days (about 30 to 50%) for weeks now. Apparently this was not enough because my male jewel became extremely sick (on deaths' door) and at the advice of someone online, I began medicating with Maracyn II and Coppersafe. After 4 days of this treatment, along with daily water changes of about 30 to 40%, my male jewel has made a miraculous recovery and although he lost almost all of his fins, they are all growing back already.
However, the disease is running its course now through the rest of the tank inhabitants and they don't seem to be responding to the treatment the way he did. My medication regimen has consisted of 1 dose of Coppersafe (good for one month) and I started a round of MII 4 days ago so I'm on day 5 now. My pkg says to do the initial larger dose on day 1 and then treat in smaller does for 5 days after that, so that would make it a 6 day cycle. However, my tiger barbs (6 regular and 6 albino) are all displaying very frayed fins and red streaks at the tips of their tail fins. I lost one albino this morning. They are swimming about frantically and just look miserable. I am wondering why they don't seem to be responding to the meds the way the male jewel did. Is it possible that they could have something else? It looks like fin and tail rot to me and supposedly the MII and Coppersafe both treat that condition. Do I just need to be patient and let it run its course, or should I treat with regular Maracyn simultaneously? I'm afraid of over-medicating, esp. since my jewel is recovering and I also have about 35-40 fry (6 weeks old) in the tank, too. I've also been doing daily doses of Melafix. I've been keeping a close eye on my water parameters and they are all reading perfectly with the exception that my
pH could be just slightly on the low side. Also, I've been doing daily water changes of about 30%. I'm also wondering if that's good since I believe that this all started from lack of water changes since my tank is so over-crowded at the moment due to the fry. Am I reducing the effectiveness of the meds by doing the water changes and since my tank doesn't seem to be cycling should I hold off on water changes until I'm done treating? Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what to do from here and if you've ever used all of these products in conjunction with each other. I really don't want to lose any more of my barbs as I've had them for a long time. Also, now my male peacock cichlid is displaying the same symptoms!! Help if you can and again, thanks so much for taking the time to do this and offer support. I really appreciate it. My
LFS store (manager in the fish dept) told me to let them all die if you can believe that!
Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads 
