Predator Fish & Schooling Tankmates?

[Potato Patatto]

Nitrites are now between .25 - .5ppm, hoping another 20% water change will keep it at .25.

Nitrates are still non-existent so I don’t know if I’m getting an accurate nitrite count or if the prime/seed are affecting the numbers.

 

[Bluesandtwo]

If I had a 125G (dimensions permitting) and wanted a single predatory fish coupled with schooling fish.. I would chance my arm at a large adult Rhom piranha and large school of small cheap tetra such as neons. I've seen this work a few times now and always found it to be impressive.

 

[Potato Patatto]

Can’t get a piranha in my state, I went with a zebra pike and a few different species of bichirs. When they are a little larger I might still be able to do a schooling affect but need to stabilize this tank first and keep the bio-load low. Gotta add a Pleco after the tank has fully cycled. I still have firm plans for a 300 and think I’m going to stick to the less is more approach.

 

[Potato Patatto]

If you’ve been following, I had to move my zebrina pike to a 20 gallon grow out as the nitrites spiked to avoid a possible death which I wasn’t really willing to risk. The nitrite spike lead to an African butterfly dying previously. I waited till I got the nitrites down to .25 consistently in the tank until I added the pike back into the 125 gallon (about 3 days). The pike had been hiding ever since I put him back in, assuming a high level of stress given his shipment to a importer then to me and the nitrite spike all within a month. As I fed them trout worms and blood worms today, I noticed what appeared to be ich covering his head and gills. He is the only one in the tank showing symptoms. The other grow out has small bichirs and I feel the main tank already has the ich infection/exposure and don’t want to add him to the other tank to only spread it. So I treated the tank with non-iodized salt and cranked the temp to 80 degrees from 77. I am assuming the ich outbreak is due to stress? Should I do anything else aside from salt and higher temp? Do I need to remove the carbon from my canister filter? And how often should I add salt or should I switch to medicine? I just don’t want to lose this fish and this has been another gut punch as I thought I was out of the clear. ?

 

[Cfremont23]

If you’ve been following, I had to move my zebrina pike to a 20 gallon grow out as the nitrites spiked to avoid a possible death which I wasn’t really willing to risk. The nitrite spike lead to an African butterfly dying previously. I waited till I got the nitrites down to .25 consistently in the tank until I added the pike back into the 125 gallon (about 3 days). The pike had been hiding ever since I put him back in, assuming a high level of stress given his shipment to a importer then to me and the nitrite spike all within a month. As I fed them trout worms and blood worms today, I noticed what appeared to be ich covering his head and gills. He is the only one in the tank showing symptoms. The other grow out has small bichirs and I feel the main tank already has the ich infection/exposure and don’t want to add him to the other tank to only spread it. So I treated the tank with non-iodized salt and cranked the temp to 80 degrees from 77. I am assuming the ich outbreak is due to stress? Should I do anything else aside from salt and higher temp? Do I need to remove the carbon from my canister filter? And how often should I add salt or should I switch to medicine? I just don’t want to lose this fish and this has been another gut punch as I thought I was out of the clear. ?

Immediatly take out the carbon and treat with an ich medication ich will kill fast and spread faster i lost my eel and starry night along with 4 other fish to it
as long as you react fast you should be able to save them. good luck

 

[Potato Patatto]

Ultimately I went with salt as that was the fastest way to treat it. Other fish are already showing signs. I have 3.7 lbs of natural salt and temp is at 85. Blood worms that colonized in the sand all curled up instantly so I had to vacuum those out before the ammonia/nitrite spike. This is a full time job

 

[Rocksor]

Ultimately I went with salt as that was the fastest way to treat it. Other fish are already showing signs. I have 3.7 lbs of natural salt and temp is at 85. Blood worms that colonized in the sand all curled up instantly so I had to vacuum those out before the ammonia/nitrite spike. This is a full time job

Raise the temp to 86-87F to prevent the ich from replicating even more. Salt needs to be at 3ppt or higher to create an environment that will kill the ich as they hatch from the substrate. Using fine grain pickling salt, this is roughly 1 tablespoon per gallon (of which take 3 days to reach the full dosage). Salt dosing and temp needs to stay that way for about 10-14 days after you no longer see the ich.

 

[Potato Patatto]

Raise the temp to 86-87F to prevent the ich from replicating even more. Salt needs to be at 3ppt or higher to create an environment that will kill the ich as they hatch from the substrate. Using fine grain pickling salt, this is roughly 1 tablespoon per gallon (of which take 3 days to reach the full dosage). Salt dosing and temp needs to stay that way for about 10-14 days after you no longer see the ich.

yea I used the pickling salt as I found it was the only pure salt on the shelves, even kosher has anti caking agents. I saw Duane on here claiming that some ich is pretty temperature resistant but I cranked it up as the fish in there can handle high temps. The pike is covered from head to tail fin in spots so I’m assuming they will burst/fall off soon? Is that when the killing process takes place?

 

[Rocksor]

yea I used the pickling salt as I found it was the only pure salt on the shelves, even kosher has anti caking agents. I saw Duane on here claiming that some ich is pretty temperature resistant but I cranked it up as the fish in there can handle high temps. The pike is covered from head to tail fin in spots so I’m assuming they will burst/fall off soon? Is that when the killing process takes place?

There is a strain that is temperature resistant, but, I haven't come across it. You know when you have found it is if you cannot kill it with temperature at 90F.

The killing process occurs after they hatch, so they fall off, end up in the substrate (which you can remove by vacuuming), and then hatch

 

[Potato Patatto]

There is a strain that is temperature resistant, but, I haven't come across it. You know when you have found it is if you cannot kill it with temperature at 90F.

The killing process occurs after they hatch, so they fall off, end up in the substrate (which you can remove by vacuuming), and then hatch

I now believe I’m dealing with velvet disease.