Ich and water questions

Greetings from a wet and humid Hong Kong

Help I have a few questions as a newbie

Living in Hong Kong make use of a dehimidifyer just about every day over the wet season - the water gathered like this - is distilled water - yes or no - would this be better water to use in the fish tank rather than tap water - tap water in Hong Kong is very high in metal - no please do not laugh but I started using mineral water in the tank for my fish babies.

The fish in my big tank
I noticed that one of them had a salt like looking crystal close to his/her head - immediately logged onto this site - was able to learn about Ich - got some meds from the Fish shop and was told that I should add 7 ml of this for the next 4 days to my tank - to remove the carbon out of my filter for this period. On the 4th day to do a 50% water change and then to put the carbon back into my filter. I notice that the fish with the spot is swimming around again and is eating - no longer just sits at the bottom of the tank.

I am doing the right things - all my other fish are still happy and going strong.

Thanks to all of you for the learning

Elize

 

HI Shatin

Sounds like you're doing excellent. Again, thanks on behalf of your fish for being so serious about it. So many people just see them as toys. Onto your questions.

Some other people on the forum use mineral water, so you're not on your own, but it might be an idea to test exactly what and how much metal there is in the water, because your water conditionner should really be able to take care of those.

Yep, grain of salt-like growth sounds like ich and is very common. As for dosage, if your pH is higher than 7, then you have to use slightly smaller doses, as substances become more potent with higher pH - I don't get why. Am sure a science-bod like Lunyin or someone else could explain it.

The whole removing the carbon filter while medicating thing is a great idea. Couple of notes on carbon. After medicating a tank, I use activated carbon to get rid of medication. Is that the kind you have (activated, as opposed to regular)? Because I think that's what you need after medicating. Secondly, if you use carbon as a regular filtration method, you have to change it every 2 weeks or so (it will say so on the packet). That's a little too high maintenance for me so I only use carbon after medicating, but that's your call of course. It's just a matter of personal preference.

Something that will help your fish get his ich cured is to increase the temperature by a couple of degrees (no more than 28C, though) and to add salt in the water (1 tblsp per gallon), but I seem to remember you already do the salt.

Hope this helps

 

Hello again

Thanks so much for your sharing.

I use 1 teaspoon of salt on a 64 liter tank - is that enough? I found two of the fish dead when I came home - see their fins seems to be gone as well and both had the salt like cristals on them - last night was the first time I removed the carbon - did not know about it before - I see one more fish with the cristals on. I did a gravel vacuum, drained about 5 liters of water out and added more meds plus another teaspoon of salt and more water. On the meds container it says change water daily, Daivd Fish says not wait 4 days - yet the water seemed to have a lot of dirt just above it and then cleaned it out. Gravel vacuum - am I doing it right - I have a suction pype that sucks water from the bottom as you glide it over the gravel. The medication for the white spots is Qtotto White Spot Treatment and used 7mils on the 64 litre tank. Being hot here the water temperature is on 28 - 29 degrees naturally - I was told it is OK as long as it does not go higher than 32 degrees. On the bottle it says after treatment use carbon - but it does not state how long "treatment" is - David Fish said 4 days. Today thus will be day one without the carbon - does it mean I count this as day one.

Thanks for the compliment of taking great care - my value just is that whatever comes to me I need to do my best to take care of it. My pet doggy Poppy too - she has her medical aid and I have her checked every few months even if she is not sick - her teeth, her gums etc. as a speaker I often share the responsibility that goes along with having a pet - here in Hong Kong - you see the most wonedrful sea creatures when you walk along seafront area where all the restaurants are - sadly they end up on someones plate, even goldfish I am told is edible - at times I feel sick to my stomach walking past them as at times I can feel how trapped the fish are - I often wish I could say a magic word and they all escape back into the sea - I know it sounds crazy and no wonder a number of my friends call me a space cadet or a crank.

 

Another question - you say 1 tablespoon of salt per gallon - my tank is 64 liters that means it is about 10 gallon does it mean 4 tablespoons of salt - I have only used 1 teaspoon in the whole tank - it may not be enough then?

Is using water from the Dehumidifyer OK - it is distilled water am I right?

Thanks for helping

Elize

 

Yes, that's a little on the low side. Good news is that not enough salt won't hurt the fish, but it also won't do them much good. It's better to have erred on the low side.

It's basically 1 tblspoon per 5L, so that would mean 12 tblspoons for the whole tank. I tend to be cautious (although people say they don't need gradual salt increases) and add it gradually: I add the salt in proportion to the bucket, so if I change 10L of water, than it'll be 2tblspoons in that bucket. What I mean is I wouldn't put 10L of new water with 12 tblspoons (total tank), but it's up to you, as you are working against time as they're sick and they need urgent treatment.

Do you only have livebearers in that tank? Because not all fish take kindly to salt. Livebearers tend to like it.

Oh, and of course put the salt in the water in the bucket and mix it really well - i.e. don't put the salt directly in the tank. And another thought: you can only use aquarium salt, and no other salt. Sorry if you knew already, but it isn't necessarily that obvious.

 

Thanks again

I have been using rock salt (sea salt) as I do not have aquarium salt read on the site that rock salt is also OK. Not table salt due to added things.

I hope it is OK - the two fish that have the spots on them seem to be OK for now - I added another 4 tablespoons of rock salt. - I will add more in a few hours time and then gradually increase it to the 12 tablespoons over the next day. - I just hope I can save the others - they are all livebearers.

Do I still have to do water change frequently or does it mean I can now leave it for the next two days.

Sorry for asking so many questions

Elize

 

That's alright, no problem. It's a steep learning curve, but after 2 or 3 weeks of asking a million questions, you'll be the ones helping others out. It doesn't take that long to get up to speed. I am really sorry you lost some fish. It must be frustrating that they've finally found a good home after being badly neglected, and now is when they decide to get ich and die. Perhaps they were on survival mode before getting to your house, and now they are exhausted and letting their guard down because they feel they can relax.

Changing water is related to the tank cycling rather than ich. Ich doesn't really warrant water changes, especially if you're medicating (then you want to keep the meds in). But you must change the water, regardless of meds, if you see uncomfortable levels of ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. I'm assuming that Fish Dave had the test kits and you got a chance to get them. So if your levels are above, say, 0.5/0.5/25 respectively, then I'd change some water. Note that these are my personal safety numbers. Other members will have different thresholds that trigger them to change the water, but at least this way you get a ballpark idea. When you change the water, preferably no more than 25% as that's less unsettling for the system, but more if necessary (if the ammonia, etc. are high).

So if they're all livebearers then it's OK to add salt. I just wanted to check as some fish people commonly have with mollies (e.g. plecos) really don't take salt well.

Mmmmh. Rock salt. OK, I see that you've read that that was OK. I remember reading that it wasn't OK, but am sure this one is a matter of personal opinion, like activated carbon, permanent salt, and so many other things in fish-keeping. Might be worth starting a separate thread with that question (is rock salt OK for livebearers), to get people's attention if they've experienced with this.

 

Thanks again

I was not able to get a testing kit - went to a few shops none had any in stock. I will keep on trying.

Something I noticed - each time I gave the fish dried bloodworms - the same day there seemed to be a problem.

What I did is the following
bought 4 shrimps from the supermarket. freezed them overnight. Cooked some peas - deshelled them - took a few spirulina flakes, another flake brand, and about a teaspoon of fry food. Put all of this into my coffee grinder and mushed it all up. LOL I collectively judged what size all the eyes put together will come to for the fish I have in the tank - made up little balls into that size. then spilt that up into smaller pieces and dropped them into the tank - what a feast they seem to have - the Mollies seem to like pecking at the equipment in the tank - I took the plastic spoon that I used to mix the food up, clipped it to the side with a clothes peg - the Mollies ate from that - this way I know they get a variety of foods and good quality food at the same time.

I added another tablespoon of rocksalt diluted in warm water and more meds - they all are still around - I can see that the two with the salty things to them - are still covered bit seem to be OK. I hope they stay around - I agree they must have had this when I brought them home - when I went to the shop to look for the kit - all the others that were in the tank had died - there was 9 and I had bought three of them. I need to look up their kind - little silver triangle shaped fish with stripes.

I hope to have the kit soon and also aquarium salt rather than rock salt.

About my job - I see there is an area where people share this and will post it there for you to read.

Many thanks

Elize

 

Oh, bless you! I really had to laugh at how cute it is that you went through all that trouble to make them home-made food, and the summing up the estimated total eye volume You have more patience than I have! It's great that they loved it.

I hope it continues looking up and there are no more casualties to ich.

The fish you describe sound like angels. Is it something like this?

 

Thanks

glad I made you laugh as I had to giggle at myself as well.

The good thing I found about the food is once frozen and then defrosted it seems to be more pasty and was able to drop pea sized pieces into the tank - I did it slowly dropped in two then noticed how they ate it up added more - this way it was easy to - or should I say would have been easy to remove the left overs - within two minutes it was all gone though.

Thus far the two sick ones are still holing on - the one does not look too well - let me see what happens overnight - it now is about 10PM.

Prior to adding new fish to the tank - I will place them in another tank treated with salt and other meds and then only add them - am sure the triangle shaped ones - is what had the Ich on them when I bought them. No they do not look like the angelfish - they are small, silver in colour, flat and really looks like a triangle and has black stripes across the body.

I added more salt - thus added the 12 tablespoons of salt over a 2 day period - rather than adding it all.

Many thanks for your help

Elize

 

That's quite alright. Hopefully, the worst is over and they'll all pull through. Good idea about the quarantaine tank. Good luck with it all, Shatin.

 

Wooppppppiieeee

They all made it - At 4 am this morning - did a 30% water change, added all the products bar the Ich meds. added more salt, filled the tank, put the carbon back into the filter with new filter white cloth around it.

Now I will leave the tank with no water change for the next few days and see how they go.

I also noticed that the parasites from my triangle shaped fish is no longer on the fins and the little orange fish also seems better, the white spot on his tail is just about gone.

I used Rock salt and am sure this did the trick together with the Ich meds and good home made food.

I made a batch and freeze it in feeding sized balls.

Perhaps for now all will be OK for the period that I will be in Hawaii.

Would it be a good thing to do a 4 day Ich treatment once a month - to prevent it from happening again or does one only do it when the illness starts again.

My Baby Mollies are still in their own tank filled with mineral water, a filter and air system.

I thought of keeping them there for the next few weeks - until I am back from Hawaii.

Am also thinking of getting a second tank just for the Mollies as they seems to love to dash for the food and gobble it up before the others get a chance to get to it - they are so funny and often eat the food from my hand. They also seem to love moving around as a school rather than mixing with others.

Many thanks for all the help - from me and my fish friends.