I am in a real delima. I started my tank with 3 mickey mouse swordtails (2 female one male). everything went fine for about a month (one swordtail had fry which are now in a seperate tank). about a week ago I noticed what looked like white salty or sandy spots on my fish which I presumed to be ick/ich. I went to Jacks aquarium and told them and I purchased a medication that had malachite green and formalin in it. I treated the tank one drop per gallon daily with a 25% water change in between treatments and the fish not only all got worse, they all died . I was absolutely devastated. a friend of mine who has aquariums reccommended that I drain the tank and bleach everything and rinse it well and start over. I even bleached the gravel. I started the tank back up and added one lemon swordtail(female). I checked the tank yesterday (I love to watch my fish swim and I do so daily) and everything was fine. now this morning she is covered in the same thing. it looks like someone dumped salt all over her fins. I began treatment but it seems to be getting worse. I don't want my fish to die!!! what do I do?!

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~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

What are you treating with? Can you post a pic?

Its called quickcure. It has a red cap and clear bottle. I also have stuff called Nox-ich(which is malachite green and sodium chloride) but I have used that because I was told the quick cure was better. But it seems like nothing is working :'(

here is a link to the picture:
Redirect Notice

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

Need a pic of the fish.

here is a picture that I just took:




also I heard from a friend that the heater I had might not be working because my temp was down a little. so I rushed to walmart and bought a new heater (as seen in picture) my fish keeps hovering right next to it and doesnt really swim far from it. I also heard that I need to double filter my tank... does this mean I need to buy a filter for the next size up(20 gal) and stop using my 10 gal filter???

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

right now the temperature of my tank is at about 72/74 ish. I do not know what my levels are but I did a 25% water change today. my poor fish looks so stressed. what should I do?

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

also should I consider using a different type of gravel?? I keep it clean regularly but does it hold in the parasite more?

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

If your heater is working , raise the temperature to 84-86 deg. gradually for a couple of days

It's ich. Raise your temp to 82F. Treat the tank again but don't do a water change. If you run carbon in your filter,remove it. It will filter out the medication. Keep your filter on for circulation. Wait 3 days an see if the spots start to disappear. If so, do a 25 % water change and treat again. Wait 3 more days. By now they should be clear of spots but you will still have juvenile spores in your substrate. That is what the high temp is for. Ich Doesn't do well in temps of over 82F. Keep your tank at this temp for 2 weeks and you should be good to go! Look at the image for ich life cycle. HTH

Attached Images

ick life cycle.GIF (17.9 KB, 7 views)

82F will do nothing to ich. Ich isn't affected until you hit about 85 and even then it only stops reproducing. You need 87-89 to kill.

If doing meds, I wouldn't do a higher temp unless you are doing something to aerate the tank a little more. Meds and heat deplete oxygen....doing both can be deadly.

Well after 35 years of doing this I have had no problems............

What if the spots just continue to get worse??

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

Did you look at the cycle I sent above? Doing the treatment they will decrease.

I appreciate all the experience you have. I don't have near as much. I just go by articles that I have read on treatments and some of the things I have seen. I had a tank that I kept at 82F and seen a couple of the fish get ich.

I am increasing the tank temp slowly and it is at about 80 degrees currently. my fish seems to be doing the same if not a little better but it looks like the spots on it may be getting a bit worse. I added the reccommended dose of the quick cure and took out my filter cartridge since it has activated carbon in it but left the filter running. my tank already has an air stone... do I need to add another or will this one be adequate? Thank you so much for your help everyone. I am going to purchase a test kit but I'm not sure what to get. Should I get a master or can I use 1-14 PH paper??

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

Not sure but her mouth seems to have fungus.That could be causing more issues than the ick.I treat ich using the quick cure as well, and have had great success with it.Do you shake the bottle?The way I treat is I raise my temp up to about 86 and dose.I add an airstone to keep water oxygenated.

On the fuzz,it could be fungal or bacterial.Columnaris is a pretty serious thing,and though its fuzzy its bacterial.It attacks the mouth of a fish as well as leaving saddleback leasions on the back,and other symptoms.Treat this with a copper based med.

If it were me,and that is indeed fuzz on her mouth,then you need to stop the quick cure as I dont know if it will interact with the copper based med.Get something for that fuzz and raise the temp to battle the ick.

Did you get this fish at the same place as the last bunch?They could have sick fish and you just contaminating your tank with them.

__________________
http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Yes, there is something fungal going on also. Some of the tail has disappeared and if it is a male (not 100% sure) it has lost a lot of it's tail.

It is a female. In fact I think she is pregnant. Here is another picture of her that I took today. hopefully you can see it clearer than the one from yesterday. It has only been a week or so since I started the tank up after bleaching. but I added some gravel and a decoration from my smaller tank that I have had no problems with and is cycled and added bioboost. I did get this fish at the same place as the other ones (although I got my other fish about 2 months ago and never had any probs until now). She looked completely fine when I got her and one day was just covered.. I don't get it.

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~

It looks like you got a fish with ich, inflamed gills (hard to tell), fin rot, and possibly hemorrhagic septicemia (the red blotch on the side of her body). Even a female Swordtail has a huge tail. Hers is clamped, but you can tell it is not all there. I think you need to be doing at least daily 25% water changes. Perform the water change, medicate, replace salt for the water removed and repaet the next day - until the fish improves, if it improves.

I added 5 tsp. of aquarium salt. tank temp is at 82. should I speed up the process a bit?

__________________
~*~2.5 Gallon with one male Crowntail betta~*~

~*~20 Gallon with
1 male gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female gold tuxedo swordtail
1 female lemon swordtail
2 black skirt tetras
1 female orange platy
3 female dalmation mollys,
2 mickey mouse swordtail fry
2 platy fry
breeder net with 4 platy fry~*~