my guppies are getting ick and other fish infections please help.?

Question

i have three guppies, 2 females and 1 male in a minibow2.5 [yeah I know too small of a tank no room right now] a few days ago my male got ick and so I separated him into a fish bowl and treated him with quick cure and did water changes he now shows cottonlike webs on fins and open sores, in the mean time one of my female guppies [the yellow one] was ready for birth so I moved her to the hospital [minibow1] she showed small signs of ick so i treated her as lightly as i could with 1/4 to 1/2 the meds, she successfully gave birth to 25-30 healthy fry and so i moved her to the other temperory hospital tank, which is a small betta bowl, she will soon be moved to a bigger tank.
my other black/gray female who is also pregnant is showing signs of ick in the home tank [minibow2.5] should i place both females in the home tank and treat them there? the male has been completely removed to a different tank how should i go about treating him? please and thank you for the help!!

Answer 1

Ick is a parasite that infests the whole tank, not just individual fish and that's where you made your mistake. It's great to treat the fish, but you must treat the entire tank as well for this disease. Try doing this for all the tanks:

To dispell some common myths ick is not caused by poor water quality or low temperatures, or ammonia, or dirty filters or anything else like that. It does not lurk around in a tank waiting to attack fish, it does not only attack weakened fish, it is not airborne. None of that is true. It is caused by a secific parasite and must be introduced into the tank. This usually happens when you bring in new fish from an infected tank. The best trestment for ick in a tropical aquariums is:

Change a large portion of the water, about 50-60% while cleaning the gravel very well.

Clean the filter and change all the media but leave out the carbon.

Add 4 tablespoons of salt per 5 gallons of the tank.

Raise the temperature to 86-90 F. Raise it slowly, about 1 degree per hour. You may need to add an airstone or two depending on the type of fish and how heavily the tank is stocked.

Add a good ick medication as directed on the bottle. Try to find a medication that used Malachite Green as the active ingredient. (CAUTION: Malachite Green is a known carcinogen. Be careful not to get it on your skin!)

Change 25% or more of the water daily being sure to clean the gravel as you do so.

Continue the treatment for at least 7 days after you see the last white spots on any of the fish.

After the treament, return the carbon to your filter and lower the temperature to normal.

This will work and will remove the ick from your tank.

Go ahead and get rid of the ick before youtry to treat anything else going on. If after this you still have problems post another question or drop me a line and I'll help out.

EDIT for post below: It does not sound at all like your fish has velvet, but even if it does the treatment I gave will kill the velvet as well.

Your fish may also have fin rot even though you don't mention frayed or badly damaged fins. If so you can treat for that after the ick treatment.

MM

Answer 2

These fish may have more than ick. They may have a parasite or VELVET.

I got you some good info from online. I looked over it, and it's pretty accuate. Just be carefull with the babies. I don't know if they can handle medication vary well.
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Velvet (Oodinium)
Velvet is a parasite that is often confused as ich. The difference is, velvet is smaller and infects predominately the body and looks like a fine powder rather than salt sprinkles. Velvet attacks the body of the infected fish and is very contagious. Velvet is most likely caused by stress, poor water quality or chilling (sudden changes in water temperature). Velvet is a bit easier to cure than ich because the life cycle is shorter. However, this disease can prove fatal if left untreated.
Symptoms: Fish will dart around and flash or scrape its self against aquarium d�cor, appearance of fine yellowish or white dust on body, fins clamped and/or rapid gill fluctuation (breathing heavily).
Treatment: Increasing the temperature to 82�F and application of a commercial chemical treatment is most effective. It is also said that adding salt will aid the fish in its recovery as in ich.

Answer 3

Since all the adults are ill, you may as well put them in the same place and treat them all at once. Follow the directions for the ick treatment and do partial water changes every other day. Also, are you adding any aquarium salt? Ick doesn't like brackish water, but guppies do, so you might want to start adding some to the tank bit by bit. I think its one teaspoon per a gallon of water.

Answer 4

i had the same difficulty when I 1st began protecting chilly water fish, bypass away the tank be, shop working it the snails would be superb, feeding flakes each 3 days, do a 50% Water substitute and commence the ick tub lower back (purely to verify) next week do a 25% water substitute with one million/2 the unique ick medicine in it and bypass away yet another week, week 3 do a 25% water substitute without medicine, placed carbon on your clear out to attraction to out the medicine left and attempt the water to verify the micro organism interior the clear out remains alive, week 4 you would be waiting on your new fish :) the medicine won't artwork if carbon is interior the clear out because it attracts it out so undergo in strategies interior the destiny in case you get a trojan horse on your tank, carbon out 1st!! stable success ....h

Answer 5

You may be treating the wrong disease. You are describing the symptoms of fin rot.