Paul B
Premium Member
Well, not really but I almost lost everything. (I still may) Last weekend my wife and I were away on a day that was seven degrees. Our electric went out when we weren't home which is usually not a big deal but the heat also went off. My home is well insulated but when it is seven degrees it does not take long for things to cool off. My tank went down to about 60 degrees and I don't know how long it was like that.
My moorish Idol was laying on his side gasping and the copperband butterfly was not much better. I raised the temp and noticed ich starting to be noticable on the moorish Idol. I know there is ich in my tank and was always in there, especially because I put in a goby a couple of weeks ago that I had to remove to treat. Anyway, the next day I was sure I would lose the Idol since he was breathing very hard and having trouble swimming. I don't have a large extra tank so the only thing I could do was fresh water dip him in fresh water and formalin. The next day the spots were blurry looking which is the way they look after a fresh water dip. Of course he was still not the healthiest so I did it again. That was a few days ago. Today he seems fine and is eating like always. The only difference is that because of the ich he lost some of his fins due to a secondary bacterial infection that usually accompanies ich. The copperband also seems totally "cured" although I did nothing to him. Many of the smaller gobies lost some fins and one was so covered with ich that I don't know how he was swimming. They also seem fine except for some lost edges on their fins.
Lowering the temperature is one really big cause of stress and in that state fish will succomb to almost anything.
I also ran a diatom filter on the tank all week. The other strange effect is that I now have a hair algae bloom. It is not on everything but in some places it is two feet long. Really wierd, but interesting.
One more thing. I don't advocate fresh water dips for curing ich. It is only a treatment meant to remove some paracites to make it easier for the fish to breathe. It will not cure a fish. Only copper and a few other less well known medications will do that along with the fish'es immune system.
If I can nurse them back to the state of health that they were before all will be fine. I actually went out looking for new fish because I really thought they were goners.
I set up a tank with copper for the gobies but I couldn't catch any of them so they are still in there.
I also know the life cycle of ich very well and I know that they are just waiting to complete a cycle to re-infect the fish so it is a race to get the fish healthy before that happens.
Anyway, Have a great day.
Paul:dance:
My moorish Idol was laying on his side gasping and the copperband butterfly was not much better. I raised the temp and noticed ich starting to be noticable on the moorish Idol. I know there is ich in my tank and was always in there, especially because I put in a goby a couple of weeks ago that I had to remove to treat. Anyway, the next day I was sure I would lose the Idol since he was breathing very hard and having trouble swimming. I don't have a large extra tank so the only thing I could do was fresh water dip him in fresh water and formalin. The next day the spots were blurry looking which is the way they look after a fresh water dip. Of course he was still not the healthiest so I did it again. That was a few days ago. Today he seems fine and is eating like always. The only difference is that because of the ich he lost some of his fins due to a secondary bacterial infection that usually accompanies ich. The copperband also seems totally "cured" although I did nothing to him. Many of the smaller gobies lost some fins and one was so covered with ich that I don't know how he was swimming. They also seem fine except for some lost edges on their fins.
Lowering the temperature is one really big cause of stress and in that state fish will succomb to almost anything.
I also ran a diatom filter on the tank all week. The other strange effect is that I now have a hair algae bloom. It is not on everything but in some places it is two feet long. Really wierd, but interesting.
One more thing. I don't advocate fresh water dips for curing ich. It is only a treatment meant to remove some paracites to make it easier for the fish to breathe. It will not cure a fish. Only copper and a few other less well known medications will do that along with the fish'es immune system.
If I can nurse them back to the state of health that they were before all will be fine. I actually went out looking for new fish because I really thought they were goners.
I set up a tank with copper for the gobies but I couldn't catch any of them so they are still in there.
I also know the life cycle of ich very well and I know that they are just waiting to complete a cycle to re-infect the fish so it is a race to get the fish healthy before that happens.
Anyway, Have a great day.
Paul:dance:
