Are my other fish definitely infected?
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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vicious326
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:03 pm
Are my other fish definitely infected?
I was curious, is it possible that despite the fact that one of my fish had ich, that my other fish remain uninfected? The GSP I had ended up dying = ( (I believe from Ich or Gill flukes, whichever disease he was actually suffering from and not because the tank was not a suitable home). So is there any chance that the fish I do have left, a tetra and an otocinclus, were resistant enough that they have not contracted the disease, or is it nearly definite that they too are infected? I do not believe either is showing any signs of being diseased, but its possible that it is simply harder to detect on these two than it was on the puffer.
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mikeosoft
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:35 pm
- Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Re: Are my other fish definitely infected?
It's very possible that the puffer's immune system was so weak from being in an unsuitable home that he got sick. I would watch and see what happens. Do not add any more fish for at least a month (assuming the other fish never get sick).
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mikeosoft
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:35 pm
- Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Re: Are my other fish definitely infected?
It's very possible that the puffer's immune system was so weak from being in an unsuitable home that he got sick. I would watch and see what happens. Do not add any more fish for at least a month (assuming the other fish never get sick).
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vicious326
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:03 pm
Re: Are my other fish definitely infected?
Will do. Thank you.
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mikeosoft
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:35 pm
- Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Re: Are my other fish definitely infected?
Make sure you keep up with large regular water-changes to keep the stress levels down.
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vicious326
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:03 pm
Re: Are my other fish definitely infected?
I don't think it will be too hard to maintain... there's about 2 inches of fish in a 10 gallon tank, pretty boring right now ><
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mikeosoft
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:35 pm
- Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Re: Are my other fish definitely infected?
10 gallons is a lot smaller than many people realize. Even the regular feeding of a couple very small fish can foul up the water pretty quickly.
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Myaj
- Tech Team
- Posts: 4587
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:27 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Bubba, turgidus
Paris, lined burrfish - Location: SE Wisconsin
- Contact:
Re: Are my other fish definitely infected?
Ich is one of those parasites that is often present, but doesn't start reproducing and spreading until the fish are stressed/sick and their immune systems can't fight it off any more.
Puffers are very sensitive to poor/improper water conditions, so they would be the first fish in a tank to show signs of a parasite like ich. The other fish might be infected, but successfully fighting it off.
Clean water is the best route now. Keep the fish you have healthy and there should be no more problems. But if you add any new fish to the tank without quarentining them, or slack off on water changes, or overfeed, or overstock, you will start to see problems that all come back to water quality. Remember too, you have to stock a fish tank according to the fish's full grown size, not the "baby" size they are when you buy them at a store.
Puffers are very sensitive to poor/improper water conditions, so they would be the first fish in a tank to show signs of a parasite like ich. The other fish might be infected, but successfully fighting it off.
Clean water is the best route now. Keep the fish you have healthy and there should be no more problems. But if you add any new fish to the tank without quarentining them, or slack off on water changes, or overfeed, or overstock, you will start to see problems that all come back to water quality. Remember too, you have to stock a fish tank according to the fish's full grown size, not the "baby" size they are when you buy them at a store.
