first of my tetras died..white spots on others..

[italianxmna89]

so i did a fishless cycle..well i'd say i was 90% done with a fishless cycle and was too impatient so i added some bacteria booster and 11 neon tetras. well its been 4 days and one of my tetras has died. lookin at the others i noticed some white spots on the dorsal fin and btn the eyes. ammonia is at 0 nitrites is 0 and nitrate is not even 5ppm..must be a parasite? im not having luck with fish at all:scry:

[smaug]

ich,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,very common in new tanks.Not because of anything you did,its brought on by stress.Get some quick cure and get rid of it quick.

[italianxmna89]

will they last over night?

[smaug]

That depends on the severity of the ick.If you see just a few spots on them they dont have it real bad yet.Get it going as soon as you can tommarow.

[italianxmna89]

is there anything i can do temp wise? i have melafix..would a dose of that help until i can get some ick treatment tomorrow?

[smaug]

is there anything i can do temp wise? i have melafix..would a dose of that help until i can get some ick treatment tomorrow?
melafix will do nothing but possibly delay any secondary infections.Raising the temps without having meds in the water will accelarate the ick life cycle causing more damage.Unless you have aquarium salt in the house for tonight there is nothing you can do.

[italianxmna89]

i just went out to my local pet store and they only had 1 kind of ich treatment.. its like a blue paint and it turned my water blue! =( does it lighten up or will i have to do water changes to get rid of the blue?

[smaug]

That will work.Follow the directions to a t.Remove any carbon from your filter or it will remove the meds.Yes the blue goes away with water changes and the addition of carbon to your filter after the med cycle is over.

[italianxmna89]

so is ich a one time thing with new tanks or is it likely to haunt me?

[smaug]

it will haunt you if you dont keep up with maintance.It is also more common in unheated tanks.Dont overstock,dont add too many fish at one time,properly acclimate any new fish,do regular gravel vacs and water changes.

[italianxmna89]

this might be a dumb question but how do i vacuum gravel without sucking gravel through the hose? i use a gravity feed to do water changes and usually just suck that water out of my window =) should i just put a net over one end of the hose that is able to suck out little debris but wont let any gravel through?

[rich311k]

The gravel wont come out. you can stick the end in the gravel to suck up gunk. the gravel will fall back. Unless you have sand or a light gravel it will not be a problem.

[italianxmna89]

well the gravity feed i use tends to suck gravel into the hose and out the window if i put the end too close to the gravel. im creative though ill fashion some sort of mechanism for it =)

[rich311k]

You must get some real force going.

[smaug]

If you get an attachment for the end of the hose that is 2-3 times larger then the id of the hose the gravel will not be pulled through the hose 4-5 times bigger is better.Get a python,they have all the stuff needed to do a great job.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[italianxmna89]

ok so i have a problem..another one of my tetras died..my guess is neon tetra diesease...noticed its coloration was very bad and wasnt swimming well at all...now i noticed some more have lightened coloration but theyre swimming fine...how is it possible that theyre gettin neon tetra disease only one week into my owning them? maybe fish arent for me :'(

[italianxmna89]

anyone have any ideas at all??

[italianxmna89]

woke up this mornin and two more are dead...