I set up a quarantine tank for my black molly - want to make sure I haven't done anything that will kill her!

Question

I don't have anything but a 1 gallon fish bowl my ex-Betta (RIP) used to live in. I do however have an extra submersible heater that I am using with it. I believe she has ick, so I put some aquarium salt in the bowl and used an 1/8 of a tablet of LifeGuard All-In-One treatment as well. Is this okay? I am terrified to leave her in the quarantine tank for fear it will kill her, but I'm also terrified of leaving her in the main tank and having her die. Any ideas or suggestions?

Answer 1

Was the molly in the main tank when the ich developed? If so, there are probably other ich parasites still in the tank, so you could put her back into the regular tank and treat all the fish together. The only exception I'd make is if you also had fish that were sensitive to salt or medications. Then you woudn't have to worry about the temperature being to low. And you are correct that too low of a temperature will cause further stress to your fish.

You should also be sure you've made the correct diagnosis. Salt will loook like there was salt sprinkled over the fish - there will be distinct white dots. Another parasite which looks similar and is sometimes confused with ich is velvet. This has smaller dots, which grow together to make a more "powdery" appearance, but under bright light - like a flashlight - the dots will have a gold or rust-colored iridescence. Both ich and velvet can be treated with malachite green and formalin (Quick Cure, Rid Ich), but you should be careful with these, as both are carcinogenic. For velvet, you should also turn off the lights directly over the tank since the organism causing this is photosynthetic. You'll need to continue treating for 10-14 days, or 3-5 days after you no longer see spots on the fish.

If your fish aren't salt-intolerant, you can also use salt (at 1 tablespoon per gallon) and raised temperature (slowly increase to 88-90o over several hours and maintain good aeration) to speed up the lifecycle of the parasite.

Here is some more info on these conditions:
http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html - this link contains photos you can use for identification
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/othprotist.shtml

Answer 2

If your going to keep her in 1 gallon bowl I suggest frequent water changes ,like every other day! As soon as she is better get her back in the tank! She will not live long in 1 gallon bowl!

Answer 3

you place it up a similar way you may set up a typical fish tank, (with each and every of the chemical compounds (salt if mandatory) and set it up so it could sustain life) in basic terms you do not might desire to make it look nice because of the fact the fish will in basic terms be there quickly and the tank is often not on show. so gravel clear out heater lighting fixtures would be mandatory yet plant life and adorns are an selection