Ich...and something else?

[peckka]

Hi.

Well, I've had my 75 gallon tank up and running for a full week now, and it is fully cycled already (thanks to bio-spira) and I've got six mollies, six platties, and six guppies swimming around. I also have a small, four inch pleco in there. One of the guppies gave birth already, and I have twelve little guys in the fry tank floating at the top of the tank. The temp is right at 80.

To my great despair, I noticed that most of the fist were covered with ich this morning. And the fish aren't happy at all - scratching, shimmying, or just sitting in place with fins clamped. I usually use either the salt/heat method for ich, or coppersafe. However, my pleco is 60-70% covered in some white patch substance, along with the ich spots. I've never seen those white patches before, but he's just covered in them! Upon close inspection, it MAY be a cotton-like substance, but if it is, it's not very thick. All I know is I have ich, and the pleco is covered in white patches and the ich spots.

Should I still stick with the coppersafe, or should I go with something else due to the patches on the pleco?

Thanks for any advice!
Kevin

[TheOldSalt]

Start with the coppersafe by itself. The cloudy patches on the pleco could by any of a few things, some of which copper will cure and some which it won't. No sense in complicating things until you find out which it is.

[peckka]

Thanks for the reply. I'll start with the coppersafe. I just noticed that the fish are pooping a white cotton-like string now, and that tells me internal parasites. I've got a parasite medicated food, which I can feed.

I'll keep you posted. This is a real bummer, one week into my tank.

[Doodles]

You could also add some Melafix and Primafix. The patches you see could be fungal or bacterial and the melafix combined with the primafix should help and they aren't strong.
Just a note, plecos are sensitive to some medications so it's recommended to use half dose, especially with parasite meds. Pleco's can't handle copper or much salt.

[peckka]

Thanks for that advice.

Just a little update, the fish are still suffering from the ich, but just a little over 24 hours after adding coppersafe, some fish seem to have cut the white spots in half. Hopefully they'll all be gone in the next few days. I do have one black molly that I don't think will make it, though. She is COMPLETELY covered in ich, and just swims in place with fins closed and her tail is hanging down at like a 35 degree angle from her head. Hopefully she pulls through, but it's not looking good. Oh, and she seems to be getting real skinny as well.

I'm also feeding the parasite medicated food. It says to use it twice a day for three days, for up to three weeks. I'm not sure what that means - do I feed regular food the other four days of the week, and then start on the medicated food again for another three days?

Thanks for the advice - I'll keep you posted on their progress!
Kevin

[fish_doc]

Remember to continue treating the tank for awhile even after all visible signs are gone. There is a lifecycle with ick where part of the lifecycle is where it is not on the fish but in the substrate.

[peckka]

Yeah, the coppersafe says it will treat for a month, and when I do a weekly partial water change, I will replace what was taken out.

[peckka]

Well, bad news. Both the pleco and a female molly have passed.

Hopefully that is all that goes. I'm keeping an eye on the rest.

Kevin

[TheOldSalt]

The way the molly was acting is called "shimmying" in case you ever read about shimmy in the future and wonder what it means. Mollies frequently get shimmy when they get sick or chilled.

[peckka]

Yeah, I've read about shimmying and mollies in the past. Funny, that's the way my female guppies are acting as well. The male guppies are swimming around just fine, yet the females are stuck at the top just shimmying. They all still eat with great energy, though.

I'm just hoping that I don't lose any more fish. The two dead fish did cause the ammonia to go up to .25, but hopefully that won't be too big of a deal as long as it doesn't shoot higher.

Interesting to note - while all the adults still have either a small amount or a lot of ich all over them, the baby guppies in the fry tank are swimming around without any noticeable spots, and they eat up all of their crushed flakes in about five minutes! That's one positive note!

Thanks!
Kevin