Ich and dying fish

[fuzzysocks]

First off, since I'm going to get asked, might as well get the water parameters out of the way:

pH: 6.8-7
Ammonia: 0 (just used Prime though)
Nitrite: 0 (see above)
Nitrate: 30 ppm after a 30% water change
Temperature: 26 C

The tank: 80 gallon low-tech planted setup. Was running 2 XP3s for filtration till Saturday, had an o-ring bite the dust in a highly inconvenient manor, so only running one now. Contains four adult angels, 5 juveniles and several dozen sub-quarter sized fry all living fairly peacefully. Also has a few rosy finned tetras, two juvenile SAEs and a cleanup crew of cories and kuhli loaches. I'm afraid the plants and driftwood make it impossible to complete a long form census on the exact numbers.

The problems:
a) There's ich in my tank. One of my adult male angelfish erupted in white spots that look like grains of salt on Sunday. The other angels exhibited a few other symptoms like hanging out in the corners of the tank near the surface, and not eating as much as they once did. I started dosing the tank with Quick Cure on Sunday (half strength thanks to the tetras), and the symptoms are gone except for the fish who still has white spots. A few new white spots showed up today. I have not seen any fish with clamped fins, nor are any flashing.

b) My fish are dying. I lost a few fry over the weekend, and today I lost an adult angelfish. The dead fish today was somewhat hidden, so I didn't find it and bury it at sea till it had been dead for at least half a day. I did a 30% water change and threw in extra Prime, though the tank water is pretty cloudy still. I suspect the cloudiness will clear up overnight though, and hopefully take the smell of dead fish with it.

My question: What the @#(%*& is going on, and how do I keep more deaths from occurring?

Bonus question: How do I get the smell of dead fish off my hands and out of my house? I'm about to cook bacon to help with the smell in the house, but I'd very much like to not have to bring a durian into the office tomorrow...

[jobber604]

What is the water hardness? GH?
Lots of causes for ich. There is a source that is stressing the fish. I'm just taking a guess that there's a high likelihood that the fish is not getting enough oxygen through osmoregulation. minerals in the water help the fish absorb oxygen more efficiently through it's gills

Check further to see if the fish are gasping for air and if the gill a are red.

Extra water changes may alleviate some of the stress.

Keep us updated so we can help you resolve the source of the stessor which is causing the ich.

Use soap and scrub. Takes a few extra washing to rid the hand of Stinky fish smell.

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[April]

Use alcohol on your hands.
Sorry to hear. Very strange as
My big
Livebearers tank also got it. No new fish and I haven't had ick forever.
I did do a
Wc though a bit ago. Maybe it's the weather or water source. Who knows.mine had patches also. We are
Close to each other.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=49.235693,-123.185106

[fuzzysocks]

I'll check GH and KH when I get home tonight. I'm pretty sure they'll both be low, based off previous readings, no more than 3 degrees for both of them. Do you have a recommendation for GH and KH levels? I've never had any issues before, as angels are soft water fish, and I stopped using Equilibrium when I noticed it seemed to make them shed their slime coats regardless of how well I mixed it.

I threw in a bubble wand on Sunday when I noticed that their breathing seemed labored, and that made quite a difference. I don't see any red gills, though they seemed to be breathing a little fast today, so I put in an airstone as a stopgap measure.

I haven't added any new fish lately either...there's no way ich could be carried by freeze dried black worms, is there?