The Feeder Fish for my Crawfish have Ich

Hello,


So this is kind of a complex question and I haven't been able to find a concrete solution regardless of extensive Googling.


Ok so starting off I got my first aquatic pet almost a week ago. A Blue Crawfish named Miss Blue. I wanted her to be able to develop her hunting skills so I bought her some feeder fish(aka minnows). She is starting to become good at hunting and has even caught and ate one of them. However last night I noticed some white spots all over some of the minnows. I came to the conclusion that it was ICH!! It most likely developed from the stress of her hunting them. With some research I found out that crawfish can carry the ich but can't get it. Is this true?


So the question is should I remove all of the minnows from her tank and let her sit alone for a while until the ich has time to die off? Would it be safe to leave the minnows there so she can continue to hunt them? Or should I remove the fish give her something else to hunt like shrimp?

Extra Info:
She is in a 10 Gallon tank and their are currently 3 minnows in the tank.
The tank has been up since Monday, I put the Minnows in on Tuesday, and Miss Blue came home on Wednesday.
I have been doing frequent water changes and also have the water well aerated. And all readings seem to be fine.
I don't believe this is something the minnows brought in as I have a separate tank for extra minnows and they are all doing well.


She's my baby and I don't want anything the harm her. Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

Did you cycle your tank? also you shouldn't feed live food it can spread diseases. a good quality shrimp pellet is good and the odd algae wafer for food. and cray fish will clean and eat anything off the bottom

 

I believe I did. I did my research to do everything the best that I could. This is my first tank so I'm extremely new to the whole thing.

I am feeding her shrimp pellets, algae wafers, and a fresh zucchinI alternating everyday between them so she doesn't only rely upon the minnows, but they are there if she wants to try to catch one.

 

It's highly unlikely your tank was cycled in just one or two days. Unless you seeded the tank with media from an established tank. When you say all your readings are fine, did you test for nitrates? and if so, what did you see?

 

Good to know about the tank cycling I did put in a bit of fish food to help thing out, but did not seed it.

When I tested the nitrates were at 0 and the nitrites were at 0.5.

 

Good to know about the tank cycling I did put in a bit of fish food to help thing out, but did not seed it.

When I tested the nitrates were at 0 and the nitrites were at 0.5.

Ok, then the tank is not cycled. The tank is not cycled until you see a reading for nitrAtes. The NitrItes and ammonia can be very deadly. So right now you will want to do daily water changes and look into some of the products used for cycling tanks safely for your fish. Your crayfish is also in jeopardy right now. They don't do well with ammonia or nitrites either.

 

Ok, I will go look or some stuff after work today. What kind of reading an I looking for on the Nitrates.

 

. What kind of reading an I looking for on the Nitrates.

Anything really!

Usually people like for it to be under 20 though. You want nitrates, but you don't want them to be extremely high. There have to be some nitrates in order for the tank to be properly cycled. What kind of test kit are you using?

 

Ok that really helps.

I bought the strips that you dip in the water then compare the color to the chart. Is there a kit you'd recommend because I feel like it can be kinda hard to read at times.

 

Ok that really helps.

I bought the strips that you dip in the water then compare the color to the chart. Is there a kit you'd recommend because I feel like it can be kinda hard to read at times.

The strips are known for NOT being accurate. Everyone always suggests the API liquid test kit. That is what I use. It is much more accurate! But I still have a hard time reading the level on the liquid test sometimes. The colors are so similar from level to level.

 

Very nice! I do have an API kit for my PH and I'll pick up the other ones tonight and report back with my findings.

Thanks for all your help. Hopefully I'll eventually get all this figured out.

 

Very nice! I do have an API kit for my PH and I'll pick up the other ones tonight and report back with my findings.

Thanks for all your help. Hopefully I'll eventually get all this figured out.

I am happy to help! Don't hesitate to ask as many questions as you need!

 

Alrighty,

So yesterday I went and got the API Master Kit so I could know exactly what all my levels are. It was a really good thing I did though because the Nitrite and Ammonia levels were extremely high like top of the charts high. I was extremely scared.

So I called the pet shops and got some advise. In the end I vacuumed the gravel and did a big water change and added some PRIME.

I tested the water last night & this morning and got the same readings both times:
PH - 7.2
Ammonia - 1.0
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - 5.0
I know these levels aren't perfect, but they are a vast improvement over last night. I could tell Miss Blue noticed the difference too, because she was back to being her adventurous silly self. And NO MORE live bait in the tank. Miss Blue just means too much to me to risk it.

Quick question though. When I talked to the petshops they said that if I did daily water changes that my tank would never completely cycle. Is that true?

 

Not true. Though if you do water changes to the point that your water never has ammonia or nitrites in it for long the the bacteria you're trying to grow on your media won't have enough to eat! But if your water gets too much in it then the bacteria won't do well either. Now that you have the test kit you can monitor it and do water changes as much or as little as you need

 

So what would be the healthy amount of ammonia while the tank is cycling? Enough for the media to eat but won't hurt my crawfish.

 

Prime can neutralize up to 1ppm of ammonia and nitrites (total) for 24 hours so I would try to keep it to around that range. And when you do a water change, dose Prime for the volume of the whole tank.

 

Wonderful!!

Thanks you so much for your help. You don't know how much I appreciate it and I know Miss Blue does too.

 

Welcome to fishlore!
I agree, don't feed live fish. It's really not good for them. What you're feeding (shrimp pellets, algae wafers, you could also feed flakes) is fine.

 

Thank you for the Welcome I really like it here! Everyone is super friendly and helpful.

And yes, no more live food for Miss Blue, but she doesn't seem to mind too much. Last night she was literally jumping up and down for the shrimp pellets. Lol Plus she seems to really enjoy having the whole tank to herself. She has just been super spunky and adventurous.

 

Welcome to forum and glad you're here. Maybe you can eventually post a picture of your little princess.

 

Thanks so much aliray!!

Here are a couple pics of my baby.

 

Adorable. Alison