Unfortunately many of my fish have started itching (is it really called flashing?) themselves as well... and if it's something bad I bet 100% that the problem has come from the live plants I put in a week ago. They came from a populated tank at the LFS. This was obviously a big no-no. I didn't do anything but pull them from the bag and drop them into the tank... don't flame me for doing a stoopid thing, I already know that.
I guess there are numerous questions that could be asked, but here are some...
- How should I have rinsed or cleaned the plants to make them disease or critter free? Mild bleach solution?
- I can't see anything on the fish, so I don't have a diagnosis to treat against. Is there something I should do now to try and ensure things don't get worse? Or something I should do to fight the most "common" things? Today is my weekly water change and gravel vac day and I'll do about 25%-30% and use Prime for the refill. FWIW, I sometimes do a smaller mid-week water change without a vac. Should I use an stronger concentration of Prime? I use 2 drops per gallon (of course based on the gallons added, not the entire volume of the tank).
I see in this thread that people use salt to fight some critters. Prime is some sort of "complex salts" (IIRC from the label)... does this help fight ich etc?
Last I checked my ammo and nitrites were 0, and the nitrates were only about 25. Water temp is 76-78. This is a basic 26g community tank with 5 red-eye tetras, 5 neon tetras, 2 cories, 2 bala (I know, they will have to go eventually), and 1 chinese algae eater.
EDIT: FWIW, this appears to be a "mild" case thus far. If I watch the tank for 5-10 minutes I'll only see a couple of fish do this a few times... it doesn't appear to be a widespread constant problem... yet.
