Quarantine Quandry

HI All,

So I had set up a quarantine tank a few weeks ago when I noticed a few fish getting ill in my tank. The illness (I found out) was related to stress because even though I had a 29G, my 2 male swordtails ended up killing a 3rd swordtail and a few females.

As a result, I decided to separate the females out into quarantine to allow them to heal and get a few more females to spread out the aggression. In addition, a platy or two were looking off so I decided to extract those guys as well and treat the newcomers and old ones as a precaution.

So, long story short, 2 of the 4 new females had ich a day or two after I brought them home.

In addition I noticed that one of the female swordtails seemed to be a bit lethargic and had white /clear stringy poop.

Therefore, I started with the "Aquarium Coop" method of tank treatment before I deviated a bit.


Saturday: Change 5G of water, Started treatment with General Cure and Erythromycin (10G quarantine, so 1 packet each). Added aquarium salt (1 tsp / gal)
No Food
Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Changed 25% of water, added 2nd dose of gen cure and Erythromycin
Tuesday: Noticed Ich, Treated with Ich-X, increase temp to 74F (was at 72F)
Wednesday: Changed 25% of water, Noticed Ich worsening, increase temp 2deg F to 76F, treated with Ich-X
Thursday: Changes 25% of water, treated with Ich-X, fed 1/2 (slightly less) Sera Tab
Friday: Change 25% of water, treated with Ich-X, fed some Nori

Currently, I notice that the Ich is clearing up. One of the lyretail swordtails I got lost part of her tail due to the ich or something... That is unclear.

Th question I have now is that while the Ich is getting under control, I still notice 2 fish (a platy and a swordtail) that are still not "feeling well". The platy has white poop still while the swordtail just appears a bit listless and not super interested in food (she pecks, but is not really... Interested). She's always been off since she's been in the tank and still has a red mark on her side from the bullying from the main tank.

During the "starvation" time, I noticed she'd still be pooping, but it was clear mostly.

I did have one smaller platy die of bloating / bleeding during this time (I put him down as he looked like he "blew up").

The question I have is, should I try Triple Sulfa to cure these guys? Another round of Gen Cure / EM?

I will still have a few days of Ich-X to treat as I need to ensure that the Ich is dead in the water phase and doesn't stick around.

Should I also just stop with the salt? They are livebearers, but I do have a source of hardness (aragonite) in the tank and dose with GH booster to keep up the GH.

 

HI All,

So I had set up a quarantine tank a few weeks ago when I noticed a few fish getting ill in my tank. The illness (I found out) was related to stress because even though I had a 29G, my 2 male swordtails ended up killing a 3rd swordtail and a few females.

As a result, I decided to separate the females out into quarantine to allow them to heal and get a few more females to spread out the aggression. In addition, a platy or two were looking off so I decided to extract those guys as well and treat the newcomers and old ones as a precaution.

So, long story short, 2 of the 4 new females had ich a day or two after I brought them home.

In addition I noticed that one of the female swordtails seemed to be a bit lethargic and had white /clear stringy poop.

Therefore, I started with method of tank treatment before I deviated a bit.


Saturday: Change 5G of water, Started treatment with General Cure and Erythromycin (10G quarantine, so 1 packet each). Added aquarium salt (1 tsp / gal)
No Food
Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Changed 25% of water, added 2nd dose of gen cure and Erythromycin
Tuesday: Noticed Ich, Treated with Ich-X, increase temp to 74F (was at 72F)
Wednesday: Changed 25% of water, Noticed Ich worsening, increase temp 2deg F to 76F, treated with Ich-X
Thursday: Changes 25% of water, treated with Ich-X, fed 1/2 (slightly less) Sera Tab
Friday: Change 25% of water, treated with Ich-X, fed some Nori

Currently, I notice that the Ich is clearing up. One of the lyretail swordtails I got lost part of her tail due to the ich or something... That is unclear.

Th question I have now is that while the Ich is getting under control, I still notice 2 fish (a platy and a swordtail) that are still not "feeling well". The platy has white poop still while the swordtail just appears a bit listless and not super interested in food (she pecks, but is not really... Interested). She's always been off since she's been in the tank and still has a red mark on her side from the bullying from the main tank.

During the "starvation" time, I noticed she'd still be pooping, but it was clear mostly.

I did have one smaller platy die of bloating / bleeding during this time (I put him down as he looked like he "blew up").

The question I have is, should I try Triple Sulfa to cure these guys? Another round of Gen Cure / EM?

I will still have a few days of Ich-X to treat as I need to ensure that the Ich is dead in the water phase and doesn't stick around.

Should I also just stop with the salt? They are livebearers, but I do have a source of hardness (aragonite) in the tank and dose with GH booster to keep up the GH.

Did you ever test your water in the 29 gallon tank?

 

Did you ever test your water in the 29 gallon tank?

Yep... I test weekly / bi-weekly.

Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are 0, Nitrates are around 30 (planted tank) usually.

The pH is around 7-8 and the GH/KH are in the range of 8-9.

I use API liquid test kits.

However, I'm unclear what this has to do with my QT tank since all the fish I'm having issues with are still in the QT tank and have been there for about 2 weeks.

 

WhenEVER someone mentions "illness" or fish being "off" and because you said: "So I had set up a quarantine tank... when I noticed a few fish getting ill in my tank. The illness (I found out) was related to stress..." And because you said "...a platy or two were looking off...." . Also, as you might know, healthy fish in clean water don't typically become "ill" because of a couple of aggressive fish in the tank (unless the ill fish are the object of the aggression), and because you bought new fish and put them in QT with fish that you knew were"sick" (almost guaranteeing that ALL the fish would end up with the bacteria you were treating PLUS whatever the new fish brought with them, which turned out to be ich) THAT'S why I asked about your water. Poor judgement and bad water tend to occur simultaneously. I can justify my question further if you'd like. I'll let other members advise you on how to finish treating your fish.

 

Ok, that's fine. I was genuinely curious about why you were asking. No need to be judgemental. This is why people rarely ask for help.

At any rate, I had tried several times to clear up "bacterial issues" before that looked different, but it was clear aggression was the primary issue here. The bacterial thing also persisted despite the "low stress" new environment, daily water changes, and treatment with a combination of antibiotics and salt.

I have used the QT tank a bit before as I started QTing my new gouramis in there. One of them had passed from a bloating issue, but after 3 weeks of seeing nothing else wrong and undergoing extensive observation, they needed to move to a new home.

One thing I do as part of the QT process is move a few guppies fish over into the tank in order to see if anything transmits from my fish at the same time or if something new crops up. That also went well.

It was during the time I was quarantining that noticed the aggression starting and pulled out the female swordtails and a few platys. One of the swordtails and one platy I noticed had a bacterial issue. But on observation of the main tank, no other fish looked ill. Nothing had changed from the weekly testing. In fact, that was the first thing I tested.

Unfortunately, part of the reason I did move the new new swordtails in together with the old ones is that I only have 1 QT tank and no room for 2+ QT tanks to treat each fish individually. I was being responsible within my means.

In addition, it is extremely difficult to find koi lyretail swordtails I like locally or anywhere, so opportunity struck and I could not pass it up. Moreover, they all have to be grown a bit more to ensure the aggression would be lessened, so it made sense to group them together. After observation at the store, I took them home.

As you probably know, male swordtails ARE an aggressive fish by nature despite their size. 30G is a lot of room, but a heavily planted tank is still no match for the speed of a male swordtail. I noticed a single male I had before bully an entire tank of platys and 3+ small females.

The aggression had been the issue with the swordtails I orignally had thought was a female turned out to be a male. Upon advice from Dan's fish, I found that this was their nature.

So now you see, I could not return the females to the tank as I needed more and only have 1 QT tank.

 

She passed away. Not like anyone ever helps out with these kinds of issues...