What meds should I use?

I bought 4 heckelii and 1 yellow zebra plecofrom my lfs. I know they do a 10 day quarantine before they will sell and I also know that these heckelii were in the tank to sell for at least a week before I bought them.
I brought these guys home and put them into quarantine. I started my initial qt with a single packet of paracleanse, a single packet of maracyn, and a single dose of ich x.
On day 3 I noticed one of the heckelii started flashing a lot so I continued the paracleanse treatment.
On day 5 the one heckelii was dead.
On day 7 or 8 I saw another heckelii starting the flashing behavior so I began the full treatment of both paracleanse and maracyn.
On day 3 after starting those meds the yellow zebra was dead but the flashing had stopped.
One week after finishing the meds everyone seemed healthy, no flashing, eating well, so I moved them to the main tank.
Day 2 in the main tank I just saw one of the heckelii flash twice. I’ve been watching and it isn’t really consistent, the two times were separated by 5 or 10 minutes.
Since then one of the silver dollars started to flash quite frequently. It went on for several days to where he rubbed himself raw on each side and has a red spot on each side.
I was hoping this was just from some other irritation and would stop on it’s own but it has been 5 days, I think, and the silver dollar is still flashing frequently.
Not only that but my eba has just started flashing.

There are no signs of ich on any of the fish. I’m assuming at this point I need to dose the whole tank and not just scoop the silver dollar and eba into a quarantine tank but what should I treat them with?
The heckelii all seem good as of right now.

 

Whats your quarantine setup? Is it cycled with filters and heater?

 

Whats your quarantine setup? Is it cycled with filters and heater?

Just a 10 gallon with a small sponge filter. Yeah it has a heater. I kept the quarantine tank full after moving the heckelii to the main tank but I haven’t added anything to feed ammonia into the tank, it has just been sitting for the last week and a half or two.
I haven’t checked the parameters in the qt tank recently.

 

Just a 10 gallon with a small sponge filter. Yeah it has a heater. I kept the quarantine tank full after moving the heckelii to the main tank but I haven’t added anything to feed ammonia into the tank, it has just been sitting for the last week and a half or two.
I haven’t checked the parameters in the qt tank recently.

A quarantine tank should be treated like a normal aquarium, otherwise it will just do more harm than good.

Ive never used any medication, I would just do a water change on the main tank.

 

A quarantine tank should be treated like a normal aquarium, otherwise it will just do more harm than good.

Ive never used any medication, I would just do a water change on the main tank.

I do weekly water changes of about 30%.

 

Hmm maybe try an immediate bigger water change. Flashing is usually due to some irritations with the water. Can be due to presence of ammonia from the sudden increased bioload....or something else entirely. I would just do a water change right away. Goodluck, hopefully they make it

 

I always recommend reaching for the water change equipment before reaching for medications. If we don't know exactly why what is happening is happening medication can do more harm than good. It is always a good idea to test the water too. Adding to the bio-load in the tank could have caused a spike in ammonia and/or nitrites. What level are you keeping your nitrates at?

To be perfectly honest I also would never recommend adding all those medications to the QT. It is possible one or more of them was causing irritation and could have been the reason for the flashing and possibly even the deaths. In my humble opinion QT should be for observation and only if we see a need should we add any kind of medication.

 

I always recommend reaching for the water change equipment before reaching for medications. If we don't know exactly why what is happening is happening medication can do more harm than good. It is always a good idea to test the water too. Adding to the bio-load in the tank could have caused a spike in ammonia and/or nitrites. What level are you keeping your nitrates at?

To be perfectly honest I also would never recommend adding all those medications to the QT. It is possible one or more of them was causing irritation and could have been the reason for the flashing and possibly even the deaths. In my humble opinion QT should be for observation and only if we see a need should we add any kind of medication.

I just tested water parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate 20 or maybe a little above but not near 40.
How high is too high for nitrates?

 

I just tested water parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate 20 or maybe a little above but not near 40.
How high is too high for nitrates?

As long as I see orange in the test tube I consider it good enough.

 

It’s hard to figure out what happened here. But I’m guessing one of the new fish has brought something into the main tank. Thing is you added some much meds at first without knowing what was wrong. I’ve never used any of those meds.
You’ve got the right approach with the qt tank but your qt ing wrong. First the fish should qt for at least a month. Add no meds and change 50% water daily or every other day. This acclimate’s your fish to your water. Then if fish are sick add salt 2 tbs per 10gal. This unstress’s them. Stress is the main reason for sickness. If a fish dies in qt starts over. Last thing you want to do is move sick fish into main tank.
To high for nitrates happens when never changing water. So if your changing 30% weekly with an average load of fish you should be fine. 50% is better weekly. How big is main tank?

 

It’s a 125 gallon main tank. So the question I have now is, since I’ve done it wrong, how should I proceed? It seems like there must be some kind of bacteria or parasite or something. There is no other signs of anything on any of the fish. No spots, no lethargic fish, no loss of appetite.

 

Do you have a uv steralizer?

 

Do you have a uv steralizer?

No

 

It may help. It kills things in the water. This type of illness is the hardest to figure out. I had it in my 90 a few years back and added the uv. No problems since.