Morning surprises

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gilamonsterz

gilamonsterz

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 17, 2011
133
0
31
Louisiana
I woke up this morning and suddenly I have (I believe) ich in my 20g. I haven't added any fish since some black skirt tetras about 2 weeks ago. The only new thing is some hornwort I got from a friend (who has not reported any illnesses) and some amazon frogbit from a power seller on PlantedTank.com that I added last night to 2 tanks, a 20g and a 10g. I also installed a new heater (Hydor 300W in-line) to replace an old Marineland Stealth in the 20g. The weird part is that ONLY my tiger barbs have the white speckling. All four have lots of white spotting on their fins. None of the 20g fish came up to eat, but this isn't unusual as they are always nervous when I am nearby, and wont eat until I leave.

There are four tigers, 7 black skirts, a firemouth, and about a dozen nerite snails in the 20g. Sparsely planted.
There are 2 bettas (male and female), 5 zebra danios, 5 otos, and some more nerites and mystery snails in the 10g. Heavily planted.

I plan on starting the salt treatment in the 20g as soon as I get off work today. Should I treat the 10g, too? I'm worried that the 10g is more delicate than the 20g (fish, plants, and smaller). Also I'm not sure how salting with affect my snails. Like I said, the tiger barbs in the 20g are the only fish showing illness. This is the first time since I started keeping fish that I've ever had any disease in my tanks, so I'm inexperienced except for reading material.
  1. Tank size: 20g and 10g
  2. Parameters: I haven't bought kits in ages, my water has always been very well filtered and they are both stable, mature tanks.
  3. FW/BW: Both freshwater
  4. Age: Both are over a year old
  5. Stock: 20g- 1 firemouth, 4 tiger barbs, 7 black skirts, nerite snails. 10g- 1 male betta, 1 female beta, 5 zebra danios, 5 otos, nerite/mystery snails.
  6. Quarintine: N/A
  7. Temperature: the 20g is kept 78-80 F, the 10 is at 75-76 F.
  8. Planting: 20g- java ferns, hornwort, amazon frogbit. 10g- dwarf hair grass, java fern, java moss, hornwort, amazon frogbit, sagittaria
  9. Filtration: 20g- Fluval 206, 10g- AC 20. Cleaned regularly, AC20 is cleaned during water changes (weekly) and the Fluval's coarse sponges are rinsed out weekly. The fluval contains Purigen.
  10. Additional equipment: none
  11. Lighting: No natural sunlight, both tanks are on a 10 hour light cycle.
  12. Last water change: Last night I changed out about 2 gallons of the 20g tank during filter maintenance and heater installation.
  13. Food/Feeding schedule: 20g- mixture of dried krill and 2 brands of floating and sinking pellets. 10g- mixture of dried shrimp, betta food, tropical flakes. Both tanks are fed twice a day. Occasional frozen bloodworms in both.
  14. Behavior: the fish in the 20g have always been very skittish and freeze up whenever I come near, so hard to say. The 10g is acting normal.
  15. Treatment: None so far, plan to raise temperature to 84-85 and salt the 20g.
  16. Photos: none
 
Ich can come in on plants. Some new plants almost completely wiped out a friend's fish. He got a UV sterilizer after that and that was the last he saw of the ich.

Anyway, ich can't survive without fish so you could separate the fish from the plants/snails. After enough time passes, assuming no cross-contamination resulting in re-innoculation, ich in the plant/snail-only tank should die out. While this is going on, you can do the salt or other treatment on the fish.
 
yeah, that's what I read. So snails aren't susceptible/carriers, good to know. Been wanting a sterilizer for a while but it's hard to justify that much money for my smaller tanks. I guess this shows me >.<

I'm about to leave work and head to the store for some salt, I assume I should salt it incrementally to avoid shocking my plants/critters?
 
Yeah, anything that changes the osmolarity should be done slowly. Even reducing salt concentration with a water change.

My friend has his UV on a 10 gal. Several years ago, I told him he would never have to worry about ich again if he got it and it's been true (at least in his case).

I still recommend quarantining stuff though. It's easy to quarantine plants because ich can't complete its life cycle in a plant-only tank.
 
I was all set to add my first dose of salt but did a last minute check to make sure I was doing the right amount. I'm seeing mutliple threads and care pages stating ~2 tablespoons or ~2 teaspoons of salt per 5 gallons. Which one is it?
 
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