ian2mic

Ok, so after talking with a coworker about his fishtank for several days, I quickly realized that he was doing everything wrong and so after a few lectures and printed info for him, he decided he didn't have enough time for his 2 55 gallon tanks. Long story short, I got one...OMG.

When I got to his house to get it, I litterally couldn't even see the fish. The water was soooo mucky and disgusting, eccchhh! Anyhoo, I fixed the fish 2 buckets of fresh water and plunked em in. Time warp....I have the 55 gallon all clean and setup fresh and put the fish back in. Had to..2 had died already in the buckets.

These fish are in such awful shape, please tell me what the best course of action is to help them along. There are:

about 10 cichlids of some sort--only about 1 1/2" long with light vert. stripes but a darker horizontal stripe down the side.

4 swordtails--1 male 2 females

2 fancytail goldfish--one gold, one black

1 4" pleco

They all have ich and most of them have very little finnage. It doesn't look like the fins have been eaten but more like they are just disentegrating. The two goldfish look awful with ich, very short fins, very dull and eyes clouded over. I'm currentlly treating the water with Quick Cure. I added TLC to the water before putting the fish in hoping this would make them more comfy. What else can I do for them?

Tommy Gun

First, I applaud your efforts to not only save your friend, but to save these fish. Great job IMHO!

Secondly, since you have so many issues to deal with, I would point you towards the forum's article section since there is some information stored there which could help you address each one specificially.

Third, I would just point out that dealing with this sort of situation, one in which you need to address a lot of things in a short amount of time, we all must use some caution as far as how quickly we change our fishes' environment since this can lead to more stress, or complicate things even more. For example, you may have lost the couple of fish you did becuase of something as simple as the amount of dissolved O2 in the tank's water versus the amount in the bucket's water. While this is certainly not a diagnosis by any means, it is something to take into consideration.

As far as the cichlid ID goes, a picture would be much better as far as getting an accurate answer, or at least some colors of both the main body and stripes. There are simply too many varieties to whittle them down into dark and light stripes.

You may also want to consider providing a different home for some of the fish you have in this tank right now. While I have no experience with goldfish, I have read in multiple places that keeping them in a tropical waters can be detrimental to their overall health, and vice versa for tropical fish in a coldwater tank. Additionally, while I am sure it is possible, keeping the more aggressive cichlids with community fish like livebearers may have some bad results for the community fish. There are certainly exceptions to this, such as dither fish, however, I bring it up becuase it is something you might want to keep an eye on so you can act rather than constantly react. Make sense?

As far as the quick cure and other meds you might be advised to use, I find them to be a bit harsh at times and can be just are harmful to fish as they are to the illnesses/diseases they are intended to treat. This is probably even more true in a situation such as yours where your fish are already dealing with a recent move, a short stay in a bucket, and having to acclimate from poor water conditions to a more positive water quality (yea, I know, sounds like an oxymoron, but it can be stressful). Since you are already on the Quick Cure "program", I might be leery to say that you should stop, but if you are not having success with it and want to change, there are some more 'natural' or less harsh methods of treating for some issues such as Ich (i.e. the 'salt and heat' treatment).

In any case, like I said, you are doing a good thing by taking these fishes' health as a concern of yours and you should be applauded for that. While no one can really tell you that you will be able to save them all, or that another fish will not die as a result from your friend's inexperience, I am sure that you are doing them all a HUGE favor.

Kuli_Loach

The cichlids need to be seperate from the other fish by far. O and I am very glad you did this, you possible saved a few of them fish. I figure a few of the cichlids and the pleco might make it but the others will probably perish quickly if they are in that kind of shape, swordtails are hard to take care of. Do more often water changes and if you can, use a water polisher to take out some of the ick.

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Too Many tanks!!!

Tommy Gun

As I have said before...'concrete' statements such as this one which do not allow for exceptions are usually best if avoided. There are exceptions and I do know of at least one person who uses swordtails as ditherfish.

...I will include the additional words of "in my opinion" to the end of that sentance for you. Sound good? Swordtails are kept successfully by many hobbyists and while each species of fish present unique challenges and/or requirements, I haven't heard of one regarding swordtails which would make them all that 'hard' to keep.

While I would mostly agree with the water change idea (keeping in mind my previous comments about changing a fish's environment too rapidly), I am not aware of any sort of 'water polisher' which will 'take out' ich specifically. As I said, there is some very good information on Ich in FTF's article section, which can be found by using the link in the upper right hand corner of this, or any forum page, or via the links in my signature.

ian2mic

Thanks for your advice. In my haste to get quick answers I posted my questions and THEN went searching on this site for some info. So after that and your answers here's what I've done.
I put the carbon back in the filters to help remove the quick cure. I decided I would rather go with the salt/temp method since I feel salt may be a bit more theraputic at this point than meds. So I mixed up my salt solution and stuck my heater in. The heat is slowly, slowly rising and I'm siphoning in about a cup of saltwater every now and then.

I completely agree with seperating the fish, but as they have been together this long and considering the size of the tank, I am leaving them just for now till I get the survivors in better condition. But I have already asked friends which ones they would like to keep as, honestly, I dont have a whole lot of interest in these types except for the swordtails. My only concern is for their welfare right now.

I'll try and photograph the cichlids but they are hiding in a stump and pretty much refuse to come out untill I'm across the other side of the room, is this normal by the way?

Tommy Gun

I agree, probably the best bet for the time being, not to mention that your current stocking might prove to be a non-issue completely. My thinking was that if your cichlids are still very young, which based upon your comments regarding their current size, you could get lulled into a false sense of security in that the cichlids will get progressivly more aggressive as they get older. It is certainly not a guarantee that this would happen, and it would rely strongly on what exact cichlids you have, so it is possible that you can keep these fish together for as long as they live. However, I might still rethink the goldfish topic...although someone else would be more apt to tell you about your goldfish in more detail since I don't have a lot of experience, or any experience actually, with them.

Just to be sure, you would want to be using sodium chloride (e.g. table salt, aquarium salt, etc...) with the 'salt and heat' ich treatment and can raise the water temp up to around 85 or 86 degrees, with the exception being if a goldfish can handle that temp. It is also VERY critical that you continue treatment for a minimum of 2 weeks after the last white spot 'dissapears' from all your fish. In fact, some people might say to continue treatment for much longer, even a few months, just to be sure that the odds of a reoccurance are as small as possible.

Tbx

Do not get mad at me but this is not totally true but in most cases it is but I have had success with apistogrammas and rams with an oscar with no aggression problems. I didn't put them together intentionally the small cichlids tank cracked so it was my last resort but they did fine up until I gave them back to the pet store because I had to leave my fish behind when I moved.This could be because I had extensive rock work though.

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ian2mic

Ok, I have pics (sort of)...oh, on the salt thing. I am using Kosher salt, only because it's all I had on hand and I didn't want to wait till I could get out to buy any other. I did quick searches and didn't see anything warning against table salt. Since I will only be using it as treatment and not an ongoing thing I figured it would be ok, PLEASE let me know if I wrong on this and I'll take steps to remove it.
Oh, and, I don't think this heater is working, will the salt work on it's own?

Anyhoo, here's pics....

Tbx

I am pretty sure you can not use regular table salt but I could be wrong well anyways there is 1 problem those cichlids you have there are jack dempseys and a 55 gallon is to small for 2 of them and you have 6 of them.

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Tommy Gun

That is exactly what I said Tbx...not mad, just putting my words back into content.

Table salt is fine, and so is kosher salt. The iodine content in table salt is so low that you would need to use it for a long time before it became an issue. In fact, fish can benifit from iodine, just like humans.