ich or fungal infection

renee

new to the sight , but the pet stores just keep givintg me the run around. We are losing our fish quite often now, all the little aquatic frogs died, mickey mouse fish, 2 beta sharks and a few other little guys.
They keep saying that we have a fungal desease and to treat the tank (55 gals) with pimafix. I know for sure that a few of the fish had fungus because the mouth was white and there were different spots , but other fish had no markings what so ever. Water tested fine, salt added, tempature good all test positive for a healthy tank but the fish keep dying. Please help me on this because my husbands just fed up with the whole thing and I really want to keep the fish.

BJP

Probably the most helpful thing I can add long term is to include a small quarantine tank. Place all new fish into the quarantine tank for at least two weeks after any signs of illness have been seen and cured.

Treating a small tank if needed should save you a lot of money over time and the use will help keep you from introducing sick or diseased fish directly to the 55 where you may never achieve success if the practice continues.

Once the fish in QT are healthy, transfer them to the 55 and aquire more to go into the QT. Repeat until the 55 is filled safely.

For a small QT anything from a 3 to 10 gallon can be used based on the size and quantity of fish you wish to aquire at one time. Substrate and deco aren't even needed and can be problematic if they obstruct your view of the fish for diagnosis or give parasites and stuff like ick a place to reproduce.

For the 55 for now, regular water changes vacuuming well. Don't add anymore fish until you've had everyone healthy for at least 2 weeks to a month and then bring them in through the QT. If you see some specific diseases, you can always catch those fish out and transfer them to the QT for treatment as oppossed to treating the entire 55 even if it means leaving the 55 completely empty of fish in the process. Small additions of clear ammonia or just feeding the tank if that occurs can keep your bacteria bed alive until the fish are healthy and safe to return to the big tank while allowing time for any residual diseases in the 55 left behind time to die off.

Loman

Renee,
Welcome to the forum.

BJP raises valid points regarding the QT process tat will help you going forward. At the same time we need to address the situation that exists now. You did not really give us enough detail to help. Wat is the history of the tank? You said the water is fine but did you get the actual numbers? You mention ick but ten say the fish ave no signs on them - I do not follow what makes you think it is ick.

BJP

Another tip that'll help in the long term is trying not to aquire fish until they've been in the store for a week or more. That may not be possible at some of the bulk retailers that turn over most of their inventory every week or use mass filtration systems that expose every fish in every tank to water that has come in contact with even a single sick fish in any tank.

I used to post the date of arrival on every tank in my store and sometimes the stresses of shipping wouldn't show themselves in the fish for a week. Even a tank with no dead bodies in it can be problematic if a store is dilligent in removing the bodies from view quickly.

In a matter of a week a fish could be caught from a breeding pond in Florida, bagged shipped and dumped into a wholesalers tank on the east coast with different water and disease exposure rates, bagged and shipped to your local store where it once again gets a new water type and disease exposure rate. Along the way the fish will recieve no or little food to minnimize waste loads in the shipping water. They'll be grabbed and handled by net at least 3 times. Wild caught specimans can have even more handling and delays getting to your store. It's really a miracle anything healthy arrives. If you let them sit in the store for a week, they have time to hopefully but not always recieve a few meals and start to get their strength back before the stress is repeated all over again to get them from the store to your tank.

I know in my own case my store was usually the last stop so it was the first order bagged and packaged the evening before so it would be at the back of the truck. The fish might spend 15 hours in a dark crowded bag with steadily declining temperatures bouncing down half the roads in the state it seemed.

A little recovery time in QT at your home prior to being dumped into the competetive environment of a larger tank with many inhabitants already established can only be a good thing.

comptonsk8er

use maracyn the origanal ull need to get to packs for a 55

Tommy Gun

I agree with everyone here and would just hang on a bit before adding a bunch of medications.

To add to Loman's questions, how much salt are you adding to the tank? What type of salt is it? How did you transfer the fish from the bag into your tank?

Again, any more information could help.

I would also say that I really support BJP's comments for your future endeavors.