Can I Get Some Emergency Help.

[ChuthuluFish]

Around the middle of summer I got 7 black neon tetras. Then last month I got 2 live bearers. A few day after o got them I noticed a single speck of ick. Turned the temp up and it was gone. Now 2 and a half weeks later it's back. it took 4/7 of my tetras. And has 1 livebearer and 1 mabey or 2 tetras at deaths door.
I know my nitrates are a some what high.
17 gallon aquarium.
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
40-50 nitrate

I didn't ask for help right away because I thought I had it under control. Example. Water changes and turning my heater up on notch every 24-48 hours. I was so distraught I couldn't take the dead ones out until a day later.even slept in the living room. Even worse I got picked on for being sad over"just a fish". : ^ ( . Finally is there any thing I can do with limited water. I only have 7 gallons left. And my heater won't go above 87 digrees.

Please help. Thank you.

 

[Princethepurplebetta]

Have you tried any medications? I had ich a few weeks ago and I had to use a medication. The heat didnt work for me.

 

[SixThreeOh]

What temp did you heat it up to? Ich doesn't die until 89f, 86f will only stop it from reproducing. Did you do daily gravel vacs?

 

[Gone]

The visible part of the life cycle of ich only shows a small fraction of the problem. Most of the life cycle is invisible. By the time you see one cyst on a fish the ich has infested the entire tank. It also attacks the gills, which you can't see. When the spots fall off, that's just the beginning phase of killing off the parasite. There are still zillions of little nasties swimming around.

If your water is limited, and you're showing high nitrates, I wonder if you're able to do enough partial water changes. Are you using RO water?

 

[SegiDream]

For ich the water temperature needs to be brought up to 86 degrees gradually. It needs to stay at that temp or slightly higher for no less than 2 weeks. If you turn the temperature down prematurely then the ich will continue to return. Keep in mind that tetras are sensitive fish, so in my opinion the heat method should be tried before medicating.

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