What do you do when you see a neglected tank?

[jobber604]

With respect to and in addition to what Ursus Sapien talked about, I have experienced and learnt that ich break out if your fish are stressed in which there is something wrong with the aquarium environment.

Before going ahead and wasting money in medication, it's always beat to assess the tank conditions and ask yourself what could be stressing the fish. When you catch the ich, there's already a highly likelihood that the infected fish may not survive.

I found that if you have the right conditions for your fish, then they will I overcome most common ailments simply with more frequent water changes but in small percentages of 10% or so every day or two. Almond leaves have helped improved the health and well being of the fish in my tank.

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[Morainy]

I appreciate that info, jobber604. And I agree completely. I'm not exactly sure whether the neglected tank was responsible for these fish having ich, or whether my encouraging the teenager to clean the neglected tank was responsible, but now the fish are at my house in clean water, with lots of space and a good filter and heater. I keep emergency meds on hand so I'm trying them out, gambling that getting rid of the ich will be helpful to them .. But I'll try to make sure that they aren't over medicated. I haven't treated ich before, so I don't know how long it will take to respond. So far, no visible difference that I can see. Fish are eating well, though (possibly because I didn't feed them the first day).

My worst nightmare for this situation is that after convincing the young man to clean his tank and take better care of his fish, I end up actually killing all of them! From meddler to murderer in one week! Reminds me of the time I killed my friend's goldfish when I was eight or ten, while looking after it.

[Ursus sapien]

"from meddler to murderer" lol sounds like an Agatha Christie novel:-)

[jobber604]

You have to keep an eye out for the fish when you swap them from a "neglected tank" to a really "clean" tank. That in itself is also stressful for the fish as the fish has adapted to the "negated" tank environment, they may be not be as adaptive to the "cleaner" tank. So in hindsight, this may stress the fish leading to the ich outbreak. See how it goes. Great job for finding a new home for them, hopefully they'll be happier in the their new surrounding.

[gklaw]

In my limited experience (2 or 3 cases I think) with FW ick kill fish, I found it kill fish faster. I also has luck with the SERA brand, two treatments and usually gone. So I usually treat as soon as I see them.

In SW, ick always seems to be there especially if you have a couple of tangs. I observe if it is serious, if not I will just let the fish ride it out. Just treated my entire 250g system with 2 bottles of Ick-X because it is spreading. So far seems like the battle is almost over but still monitoring.

Otherwise, I am with Storm, don't like chemicals in general.

[crazy72]

Good luck with this, Maureen. And keep in mind that even under the assumption that the ick outbreak is related to the change of tanks (which isn't certain), and even if you do lose a few fish to it, you are still giving them a chance. According to your description of the original tank, every single fish in there was doomed if it weren't for you.

[Morainy]

Thanks, everyone. The fish are looking pretty much the same -- one sick one, the others not really showing much in the way of symptoms.

Just to clarify -- the fish showed signs of ich in their own tank, but after we cleaned it. The young man brought them over to my place because they were sick. It's possible that they had ich before we cleaned the tank (the fish in the other tank were all sick and dying when I went over) but I suspect that cleaning the tank stressed them. So, now I realize that they were probably double stressed by the cleaning and then the subsequent move to my house. I hope they survive.

The only upside is that if the young man hadn't brought them over, the boy's mother was going to euthanize them like the other tank's fish. She's quite freaked out by sick fish. So, at least they have a chance, even if I'm possibly killing them with love.

I hope that the young fish keeper attends the aquarium workshop this weekend at one of the community centres (Dunbar and Kits). Or joins BCA!