Weird survivor fish, what can I do?

TL;DR, inexperience happened and most fish perished from a community tank in my house, besides one. I cleaned the tank thoroughly and replaced the gravel - the tank is perfectly clean now and doesn't stink or anything, and has nothing harmful in it. I decided to add two more fish (since one guy will get lonely) but those two fish are now dead, the only one still alive is a single molly. He has an interesting looking condition and I'm wondering if it's even a good idea to add any other fish to this specific tank:





He seems to swim occasionally but a lot of times just rests at the bottom doing nothing. Still eats food though. What can I do to save him and make the tank habitable for other fish again?

 

Update: as of 6:30 PM, he has perished

Is this tank safe for other fish? Or should I clean it out entirely?

 

I’m sorry your fish died. I can’t tell you what he had but to be safe you should probably not add any new fish until everything in the tank has been cleaned.

 

I can't tell from your description what might be going on with your tank, but the molly photo was a classic case of ich. It looks like someone sprinkled salt on your fish. Probably the most common way for the disease to spread is introducing fish from another source. Ich is a parasite.

If any fish in a tank has ich, the entire tank is infested. There are several stages to the life cycle, but the white spots are just one of the phases. By the time you see it, it's already been in your tank and attacking your fish for several days. It's so contagious that using a net or siphon from one tank to another will transfer the parasite.

The white spots are one phase of the life cycle, and all the other phases are invisible. The white spots will fall off in a few days, form cysts, and lay on the bottom for a while. Then they'll blast open and send zillions of tiny nasties into the water column. The parasites will attach to the fish, and the white spots are the fish body's reaction to the parasite. Then they'll fall off, the cycle repeats.

The problem with treatment is that you can only kill the parasite in the free swimming stage, when it's invisible. You can treat by medication, temperature, or salt. Pick one method and go with it. Treat for at least a couple weeks or it will come back.

 

Clamped fins + white spots. You had Ich. Definitely clean out the tank now that there’s no stock before getting more. Also for future reference. High temp for a bit can help rid the tank of it. Think 82 ish degrees for a week or 2 is the go to but would suggest more research other than my word

 

Clamped fins + white spots. You had Ich. Definitely clean out the tank now that there’s no stock before getting more. Also for future reference. High temp for a bit can help rid the tank of it. Think 82 ish degrees for a week or 2 is the go to but would suggest more research other than my word

By clean out do you mean just a water change or an entire full-house cleaning, removing absolutely everything and scrubbing it thoroughly with soap?

 

Clamped fins + white spots. You had Ich. Definitely clean out the tank now that there’s no stock before getting more. Also for future reference. High temp for a bit can help rid the tank of it. Think 82 ish degrees for a week or 2 is the go to but would suggest more research other than my word

Everything I've read says minimum 86° for two weeks if you aren't medicating. I think it's 82° if you're combining heat with medication.

 

If your tank was cycled I would clean everything but the filter media. Take the media out the filter then fill the tank with warm water and Milton tablets ( the ones for sterilizing baby bottles ) and let it cycle through the empty filter leave it for a day. Then give everything a good rinse.
Next fill the tank with dechlorinated water, add the media back and crank the heat right up ( you could add 1.5g salt per liter ) and run for 2 weeks to kill any ich left on the media add a drop of ammonia each day to feed the bacteria.
Then you can replace the water and your ready to go.
When you remove the media keep it damp. I suggest putting it in a pot or bag with some water.

 

Leave tank with no fish for 10-14 days . This is called 'Fallow ' .
Ich does not live without fish for over 7 days after hatching no matter what temp so 10 -14 day is all you need ..
Just wait it out and learn what went wrong for you and your tank before getting new fish ..
After 14 days just change water ,dechlorinate and you should be good .
Welcome ,sorry your fish got ich .

 

It may also help to buy fish from reputable sources with lower chance of infection. As I see it there is no chance to always stop infections. The best chance you have is the prevent it.

 

I'm sorry for your fish,the main reason for ich is usually dirty tank and very low temps,but 90% of the times its dirty tank and overstocking,treat the whole tank with metronidazole at least 3 times and let it be for at least 10 days before u add any fish
can you please tell the tank size and the stocking that was in there?

 

Some more info:

- Tank was ich'd, then I did a full cleaning of tank (changed gravel, thoroughly washed everything else)
- It came out of nowhere. I think a fish I added had ich and spread it around, since it really was spontaneous.
- Tank has a 5 gallon footprint but is mostly vertical, totaling to about 14ish gallons?
- Likely overstocked, but no fish were exceedingly large. Mostly Mollies, a couple platies, and a swordtail
- Before cleaning the tank out, I noticed a lot of tiny fish that seemed to hide in the crevices of the gravel. Wonder if this was livebearing or anything to do with the outbreak since they appeared at around the same time all of the fish got the dotty whites.
- After being cleaned the fish were put in the clean tank. Now they are all dead and the tank has just been sitting there for a while

 

Some more info:

- Tank was ich'd, then I did a full cleaning of tank (changed gravel, thoroughly washed everything else)
- It came out of nowhere. I think a fish I added had ich and spread it around, since it really was spontaneous.
- Tank has a 5 gallon footprint but is mostly vertical, totaling to about 14ish gallons?
- Likely overstocked, but no fish were exceedingly large. Mostly Mollies, a couple platies, and a swordtail
- Before cleaning the tank out, I noticed a lot of tiny fish that seemed to hide in the crevices of the gravel. Wonder if this was livebearing or anything to do with the outbreak since they appeared at around the same time all of the fish got the dotty whites.
- After being cleaned the fish were put in the clean tank. Now they are all dead and the tank has just been sitting there for a while

if there is nothing in the tank anymore,I suggest u remove everything from the tank bleach the entire tank and decorations,after that let them be for at least 1 week then fill the tank and let it run for a while without fish
one more important thing,from now on always use apI general cure in separate tank on new fish,no matter where u get your fish there is always a chance that the fish has something

 

Also, you may want to check out a video where he talks about his med trio and how he uses it. It's General Cure, Maracyn and Ich-X and he uses it on every fish that comes into his store.

It's preventative medicating, which some people do not like to do, but if you are picking up fish from places like petsmart, petco or shady lfs who won't talk about their quarantine practices then it's probably best to use it, in my opinion.

 

By clean out do you mean just a water change or an entire full-house cleaning, removing absolutely everything and scrubbing it thoroughly with soap?

Sorry you lost your fish Ranko. You’ve gotten lots of good advice about treating Ich, but one thing you said really stood out to me. You should never use any kind of soap to clean a tank (or filter), or anything in it! A minuscule amount of soap residue in a corner of a tank, filter, crevice of a decoration/rock/gravel can poison a whole tank. Plain bleach, with no added scent/surfactant can be used to sterilize just about anything (although I wouldn’t bother trying to salvage substrate), and thorough rinsing and use of a dechlorinator will safely remove the bleach.