75 Gallon Tank Fish not responding to meds

I have been treating my tank with ich x for 6 days. Today will be the 7th day. I have also been using ultimate water conditioner, because ich x says not use sulfur water conditioners. At first the rope fish were eating fine. Then 3 days ago they seemed disinterested in food. Last night I did put garlic infused tilapia and this morning most of it was gone. Tried bloodworms this morning and nothing. Usually bloodworms are their favorite. I do feed twice a day because the rope fish are juveniles and it is recommended to feed twice for juveniles and once a day for adults. The butterfly fish seems perfectly fine, eating and no heavy breathing. One rope also seems a but better with much less flashing and less labored breathing. Then there’s the other rope, who for three days has been swimming up and down the tank near the intake rubbing on the heater. I did originally turn heat up to 86F because I read ich stops reproducing at 86F. I felt it was too stressful for the fish and turned the heat back down to 83F. I am keeping it at 83F to help speed the life cycle of ich. Most of the white spots are gone, but that doesn’t mean they are not in the gills where we cannot see. I am going to attach a video of the one rope who has not stopped this behavior in 3 days. I am thinking I may loose this one since she seems so stressed out. All shrimp are fine, snails are fine and plants seen fine. Anyone ever experience this behavior and have suggestions to calm the fish?

 

Add more water agitators like a pump at the top so more oxygen gets in the tank and maybe either do a lower medicine dose or switch to just methylene blue/or blue planet fungus cure.

Ich X has malachite green and formaldehyde. Formaldehyde affects the fish's gills.
The main consequences of formaldehyde exposure to fish are damage in gills and alterations in mucous cells.

I would say the fish are irritated both due to ich and the formaldehyde.

Methylene blue is a lot safer and won't irritate the fish so I would suggest doing water changes and switching meds.

 

I am running a fluval fx6 on a 75 gallon, with one head pointing up to agitate water. I also have an air stone that is about 3 inches in length running as well. The other inhabitants are fine, just the one ripe seems stressed. Based on this I am pretty sure water is fine. I must stick with the current ich x due to the fact I have rabbit snails, amano shrimp, and live plants. This is the only medication that is safe for all the above species of aquatic life. I was looking for ways to calm a crazy fish. Today will be day 8 of treatment. I even used a calculator to het the exact volume of my tank, using lengthxwidthxdepth divided by 238, just to make sure I am not overdosing. The lfs where I purchased the fish suggested ich x because it’s gentler on the fish (I have a bottle of api ich meds) and they use it on all their tanks because it won’t kill plants, snails, or shrimp.
Just trying to calm the crazy fish down and not sure what to do for her.

 

The manager of my local Petco cured an Ich infestation in the Silver Dollar / Denison Barb tank at his store. Those were special order fish specifically for me.
The med used was " Herbtana", which is sold at Petco. It's an all natural, non chemical med. I've never used Herbtana, but after seeing the results, I will if the situation arises in the future.

 

With that much feeding are you keeping up with water changes? Id do two 50% water changes instead of medication. With 75g its a lot of water so a pretty big holding tank is needed

 

Formaldehyde is most definitely not gentler on fish.

 

With that much feeding are you keeping up with water changes? Id do two 50% water changes instead of medication. With 75g its a lot of water so a pretty big holding tank is needed

Yes every day I do a gravel vac and 1/3 w/c per directions on the ich x.

With that much feeding are you keeping up with water changes? Id do two 50% water changes instead of medication. With 75g its a lot of water so a pretty big holding tank is needed

I have been doing 1/3 w:c every single day with the meds. I do not think it is that much feeding, especially when it is recommended to feed juveniles twice a day. At night its maybe 7 tiny pieces of tilapia. As seen in pic. Then in the morning one cube of frozen blood worms. The African Butterfly eats about two crickets in the morning (unless one more jumps out as I tap them out the container). Shrimp get maybe an algae wafer or veggie stick two times a week. Snails get a blanched veggie every two days.
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Formaldehyde is most definitely not gentler on fish.

That may be true, but perhaps it’s the actual amount of the ingredient and not the ingredient itself that makes it gentler. It does not seem to be having any negative affects on any life in the tank. The only one who seems stressed is the olive green rope. Even the gray rope is back to itself a little.

 

Yes every day I do a gravel vac and 1/3 w/c per directions on the ich x.

I have been doing 1/3 w:c every single day with the meds. I do not think it is that much feeding, especially when it is recommended to feed juveniles twice a day. At night its maybe 7 tiny pieces of tilapia. As seen in pic. Then in the morning one cube of frozen blood worms. The African Butterfly eats about two crickets in the morning (unless one more jumps out as I tap them out the container). Shrimp get maybe an algae wafer or veggie stick two times a week. Snails get a blanched veggie every two days.
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That may be true, but perhaps it’s the actual amount of the ingredient and not the ingredient itself that makes it gentler. It does not seem to be having any negative affects on any life in the tank. The only one who seems stressed is the olive green rope. Even the gray rope is back to itself a little.

I only use formaldehyde as an emergency bath for external parasites because it's carcinogenic to humans and likely aggitates fish and their gills.
But it is very effective.
I don't use it on ich because imo cons outweight the benifits of it when it comes to ich.
I only use it if I suspect something nastier like gill cryptobia or some hidden gill parasite or skin parasite.

 

Ok tough to see ick in your video. Tank looks clean. Fx6 in a 75 should be adding pleanty of air to the tank. So my question is how old is the tank? Do you have a test kit? A great device for ick is a uv steralizer. Should kill of ick in 3 days. Green killing machine. Don’t even have to raise the temp. It kill all the free swimming stage of ick before it can find a host. I have one in all my tanks. For a 75 you will need a 24w one.
Next I’m thinking you may need some caves for a rope fish. Also what is that thing in the middle of the tank gravel?

 

Ok tough to see ick in your video. Tank looks clean. Fx6 in a 75 should be adding pleanty of air to the tank. So my question is how old is the tank? Do you have a test kit? A great device for ick is a uv steralizer. Should kill of ick in 3 days. Green killing machine. Don’t even have to raise the temp. It kill all the free swimming stage of ick before it can find a host. I have one in all my tanks. For a 75 you will need a 24w one.
Next I’m thinking you may need some caves for a rope fish. Also what is that thing in the middle of the tank gravel?

I do test water with api master test kit. I tested water yesterday and I am not sure if the dye in the meds affected the test kit. The reading was ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. The pH was extremely hard to match with the color chart. It said maybe 6.4-6.6, although usually it reads 7.4-7.6. All the research I’ve done says ich meds will not affect pH, therefore I concluded it must be the greenish/bluish dye affecting the test kit. The tank itself is about 6 months old. I took almost 10 months establishing plants and making sure nitrogen cycle was complete before adding fish. The first inhabitants were two rabbit snails (they had a baby, so now its three). I then added amano shrimp about a month later. Then another month later added two ropes and one butterfly. At first they were fine. Then I noticed weird behavior from the ropes, flashing like behavior. After closely inspecting I saw the white salt looking spots. Which are visible in the first pics posted. I first started with garlic infused food until meds arrived (maybe two to three days).
They do have two caves in the tank right now. I removed the huge castle and another cave decoration due to the dye in the meds, so that is why you do not see the hiding places in the tank. In the gravel is a sand area. It was supposed to be a sand waterfall but I gave up after not being able to get it work right. But left the sand and rocks, since ropes like sand.
I think I am going to stop treatment today. I will do a w/c and hope things improve. Or maybe I’ll just continue until bottle is done. Not really sure.
I did however loose one rope. Not to the meds or ich, but somehow she was able to push through the tape around the input hose and I found a stiff fish on the floor this morning. I am super sad because that’s the one who seemed to be doing fine. I guess she was doing so well she had the strength to break out. I will be using more tape on that one hose to prevent the other rope from escaping. Although she is so busy going up and down the tank I don’t think she is escaping any time soon.

 

Well ropes are escape artists. Sorry for the lose. Tank looks great. Wish I knew more about ropes. I would invest in the uv. What is the temp for ropes? Got to say your plants look great!! I can never grow those red ones. You’ve got red leaves top to bottom. Very nice!! Are you using co2? To me a discus keeper . That tank is screaming for discus .

 

Well ropes are escape artists. Sorry for the lose. Tank looks great. Wish I knew more about ropes. I would invest in the uv. What is the temp for ropes? Got to say your plants look great!! I can never grow those red ones. You’ve got red leaves top to bottom. Very nice!! Are you using co2? To me a discus keeper . That tank is screaming for discus .

Thank you. I keep the temp at 80F. I use APT complete for the plants at first. It’s when you have more plants than fish. I just recently switched to APT 1, which is missing two ingredients found in the complete and is designed for when you have more fish than plants (i think it is missing phosphorus and nitrate). No co2 is being used just the APT products found at 2hraquarists online. I have tried other products, but this is a one bottle plant food care vs. multiple bottles for different vitamins and micro/macro nutrients.

I made the decision to stop medication today. The rope fish has just been too stressed and the bottle states (in tiny writing) to stop treatment if stress occurs. Well 5 days of stress I think counts as stress. I still did a 1/3 water change and used the ultimate water conditioner instead of my usual prime, in case the meds are still in the water (which they probably are). It’s been maybe 45 minutes since w/c and the rope seems a little better. She is still going up and down the glass but the extreme head jerking has subsided a bit and she doesn’t appear to be as frantic as before. I will still monitor for stress and the dreaded salt specks. If specks return, I will start treating again… but maybe use that herbtana stuff someone on here told me about instead. All other inhabitants in tank seem great and are eating.

 

Was anything else showing ich? What else is in the tank?

 

Was anything else showing ich? What else is in the tank?

I believe the African Butterfly fish actually brought the ich in. I did see a white spot on her fin. It went away maybe a day or two later. I thought nothing of it. Until the topes started acting crazy about a week and half later. After spending lots of time observing them, I noticed tiny salt sprinkles. I did some research and after learning about the life cycle of ich, I figured that white spot on the ABF had to be ich. I don’t think snails and shrimp get ich (but I could be totally wrong).

Was anything else showing ich? What else is in the tank?

I believe the African Butterfly fish actually brought the ich in. I did see a white spot on her fin. It went away maybe a day or two later. I thought nothing of it. Until the topes started acting crazy about a week and half later. After spending lots of time observing them, I noticed tiny salt sprinkles. I did some research and after learning about the life cycle of ich, I figured that white spot on the ABF had to be ich. I don’t think snails and shrimp get ich (but I could be totally wrong).

 

Day 10: I tested water Parameters today, since I did a w/c without adding meds yesterday. Readings are somewhat normal. pH is back to 7.4-7.6, ammonia is barely even light green, I’d say maybe .10, nitrite 0, nitrate is yellow with just a hint of orange.


I was able to get the sick rope to eat a tiny piece of tilapia last night! It was my first time hand feeding a fish. She was on some floating plants hanging out and I was able to feed the tilapia to her. She is still up and down the tank glass, but made me feel a little better knowing she are something. I tried my best to look at all glass catfish, but it’s not exactly easy to do, considering they run away as soon as your face gets close to the glass. I will continue to monitor and hope the rope gets better. She annoyed the african butterfly who snapped at her, but nothing serious.