Fish deformities and ick

[EweSheep]

Can you recommend a good test?

There are too many brands out there that it overwhelms us and too much variations going on. Yes I do know that the pet store tests are somewhat cheap but it was easy for us. Now we can afford a better test, we can get the tests ourselves and see whats is really happening in our tank.

 

[Akane]

Aquarium pharmaceuticals has the most cost effective quality test kits that are easy to use. Just fill a test tube to the correct line with water, add the number of drops listed on the bottle, shake, and come back in a few minutes to check the color against 4-6 different shades on a card. They also sell a pretty good startup combination kit. http://aquariumpharm.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=67

Hagen and seachem are considered some of the best of the best. Generally used by marine or freshwater aquarists trying to breed more sensitive fish. More expensive and time consuming to use though. My seachem and hagen kits required measuring water by dropper full along with 2 or 3 dry chemicals and then stirring it while using a sliding color chart to pick out the exact shade.

 

[Moxiechick]

Yes, female livebearers, guppies included, can store sperm. They can still produce babies several months after being separated from a male.
Be sure to scoop out any dead snails. The decomposing bodies can make the water quality go downhill very quickly! What size tank do you have?

 

[usschicago1]

i Have never bought a ph kit or chemical tester kit. Its a waste of money IMOP. If you do frequent water changes and bi-monthly gravel siphoning (unless your tank is overcrowded then monthly) you will never have problems, i promise (;

 

[EweSheep]

Moxie, I have a 50 gallon tank and have been scooping out dead snails but noticing the other snails eating their own and other fishes sampling it.

Our city water isn't the greatest. A few times pet stores would have heavy losses of freshwater fishes one day because the city is doing their "normal maintaince" already and sometimes it is too late for them to do water changes. Chlorine was pretty good and at times, when it has alot of water lately, the water changes and we would not do any water changes that day or several days. I think it is prudent for us to get some chemical tests because the city water is inconsisent when flooding is going on.

Well that explains why we keep having babies out of those guppies!

We were all scratching our heads where are the males?????

We are going to open one of the blinds closest to the tank so to see if it will take care of the bent spines on one fish. A little sun would not hurt I am sure!

 

[sourland]

It's never a good idea to add new fish to an established tank. Think of quarantine just like you would with your chickens. When you did the Ick treatment, did you increase the temperature in the tank? babyblue was right on as to the causes of bent or crooked spine. In my experience it was more genetic than anything else.

 

[silkiechicken]

I have that API kit and it's great for keeping track and sett up a new tank, once the tank is going though I rarely test it. I had to treat for ick once, and had to remove all catfish from the tank prior to treatment as the bottle had a list of fish they said were best removed from the treatment, forgot which one I had, but didn't lose any fish from the treatment and it was a 30 day treatment which did work.

 

[EweSheep]

our heater in tank is one of those automatic ones, no dials just a set temperature. I dont like those temp. tapes which the water reads at 80-85 degree range.

I ought to smack hubby when he bought the fishes home without having a quarantine tank up and ready. It was one of those "spur of the moment" time. And dumping the store water in there is not a good idea either.

All in all, no losses now...everything seems to be stable for now. No ick showed up this time after the treatment. It must have been one heck of a heavy treatment going on in there for three days.

 

[bagendhens]

for ick treatment you also need to up the water temperature too along with the salt.
id buy a small adjustable heater to add to the tank to bring that tempeature up some to about 78-80 degrees ideally, to force the ich to enter the tomite stage, its only in the tomite stage that treatment will actually work.

 

[CityChicker]

In my experience, ich is extremely common. People typically do not like to hear this, but it is very often not a result of anything the fish/pet store did. I believe it is most often caused by a sudden change in temperature (or other stressor). People will give their aquariums a good cleaning and water change (inadvertently causing a change in temperature), head out to the fish store to get new fish, and then when they see ich shortly after, they are under the mistaken impression that the new fish infected the old ones which is not always the case. Of course, stress in general can cause a fish (how funny, I started to say "bird", LOL) to be more susceptible to ich.

It is fairly easy to treat though. We always had the most luck just slightly increasing the aquarium temperature and using one of the dye products that coats the fish, in effect smothering the protozoan. I believe Malachite green is still the one most often used these days (anyone else remember the days of Methylene blue?). I don't keep fish anymore, but did for years. The other product we used to use a lot was Stress Coat. We always would put a little in the tank with water changes and when introducing new fish. It helps keep the slime coat on the fish when they are stressed so that the ich protozoa cannot attach. HTH.