Ok so i had posted a while ago regarding what looked like hole in the head on one of my Glowlights. Since then i have been treating with paragard and the infection has cleared and the scar has gone away and is regrowing new skin.
I check my water fairly regulary and ph is about 6.6., Ammo at 0, Nitrites at 0 and nitrates between 5-10ppm. I have been doing PWC of 25% with half RO and the other tap water and temp is 79 degrees. Water has no foul smell as well.

Now the problems

A little background my male sword had ick (while the first GL had the infection on its head) and i treated the tank with paragard. The sword also had whitening around the mouth, (cotton mouth i think) and the sword is fine now. I have a fry sword and he had a clamped tail also (same time frame) and this has gone away. I have black fin tetras, glowlight tetras, brilliant rasboras, 2 guppies, adult male sword and a fry sword and an amano shrimp. All are fine except for the glowlights and one guppy.. read for him at bottom of post.

My problem now is my 3 glowlights are getting inflamed gills that are white, and have tiny little worm like parasites sitting inside the gills just poking out to see them. The gills also look like they are starting to rot away. All but one seems as if the color has just drained out meaning the bright orange line and silvery body just looks muted now. I have read on gill flukes, gill maggots, ergasilus, costia, Glugea and Henneguya and so on but they all seem to have some of the same symptoms but different treatments so a diagnosis is kinda hard. One of them has a tiny, tiny sore on the head like the previous glowlight. I have noticed the original glowlight has always stayed at the bottom of the tank so i see nothing abnormal on that but the other 2 used to patrol the waters but they all stay at the bottom in a pack most of the time. They havent lost their apppitite as when i feed they come out to feed. So im still dosing 10ml for a 20 gallon tank. I bought melafix tonight but havent used it as it may not be the right thing for them. Any suggestions. My main goal is to limit this to the glowlights and not have it spread, but i would like to cure this. Short of that the only thing i can think of is Holly12 stating on one thread put them out of misery by putting them in the freezer to go to sleep.

My next thing is one of the guppies has what seems to be fin rot. Will the paragard fix this? Im assuming no as it has only presented itself since the paragard treatments. Will melafix work? I have read on giving a salt bath but not sure how much salt to use or how to go about it.. Ex. dosage, length of dosing in time, how many days to dose and so on. Again no other fish seem to exibit the fin rot not even the glowlights.

Jeff,

Not to sound rude, but you are medicating the #%^$^ out of your fish and that might be what is causing your worries as far as fin rot. Also, DO NOT add Melafix with the shrimp in there - I learned that the hard way after killing about 50 of my RCS. Do a few days of water changes and put fresh carbon in the filter to get all the meds out of your water, dose some aquarium salt and API stress coat to help rebuild your guppy's fins, then consider your next move as far as meds.

As far as the parasites in the gills, I'm not sure what to tell you. I've never been successful at treating parasites, so my modus operendi (sp?) as far as parasites go is to euthanize and cut my losses. Others on here will chime in hopefully.

Good luck.

__________________
Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Gizmo, dont worry, not taking anything as rude. When i had my tanks before i never had severe problems like this i guess. This disease and treatment is a learning experience for me now for anything in the future. As of now the only thing im dosing is the paragard, at 10Ml a day. Bought the melafix but havent even opened it. Ok so ill stop the paragard and add the carbon. How long should the carbon sit in the tank?
Also you say do a few days of water changes... do you mean daily water changes and if so at what percentage would you say? On the Aquarium salt how much should i use and will the salt be ok for use with the Black fin tetras, rasboras and shrimp? Im pretty sure i read that guppies and swords come from areas with some salt so im assuming that the salt wont hurt them..? What do you recommend for amounts of adding salt and for how long? I will look into the stress coat and get that today. How long would i give that and would that be a daily dose as well? One last, i have jungles start right that adds a slime coat, removes Chlorine and conditions water, would that be ok?

Sorry for all the questions i just want to make sure i have more water in the tank than products or dead fish turning it into a saltwater tank filled with meds and junk hahaha

So basically im on the fence now of euthanizing the Glowlights. I mainly want to save the tank. I guess ill wait to hear other opinions but im leaning towards the big sleep.

If I had a fish that had those type of issues it would be in it's own tank. They should be separated and treated. I don't have a hospital tank anymore, but if I needed something to put the fish in it wouldn't have to be a tank per se. You can use anything and also set up a dip vs treatment over a period of time.

Ben, i was reading on the salt baths and wondering if i did a salt bath for the guppy this is my plan of attack
1.fill one gallon of aquarium water in a bowl
2.add x amount of salt ( the salt amount was all over the board so i dont know the amount i should use)
3. Let the guppy sit in the gallon of salt treated water for 5 minutes.
(watching to make sure no signs of stress occur)
4. Put back in tank after treatment
5. dump treated water down drain
6. add one gallon of new water to tank and this would give me a tiny PWC of 5% in my 20 gallon.
7. The length of treatment (days) im not sure of either.

Does this sound like a reasonable plan for healing?

Also im looking for GLowlight tetras and salt but dont find any info. I read cardinal, neon, rummy nose tetras dont like salt but it did not state glowlights, so im assuming that since a glowlight is a tetra it will not tolerate salt, am i correct?