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RE: Ich, Uncycled Tanks, and Balloon Mollies! Help me!

se1an — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:49:03 GMT

I would medicate both tanks because the mollie was in the tank with others and when she gets better medicate her still so you know shes alright

RE: Ich, Uncycled Tanks, and Balloon Mollies! Help me!

Bubbleboy — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:11:59 GMT

ALWAYS treat the entire tank when even one fish has ich. It is very contagious and can easily incubate and infect the entire tank. Hospitol tanks are no good i a situation like this. Read the ich post and it'll tell you what to do.

RE: Ich, Uncycled Tanks, and Balloon Mollies! Help me!

David Lass — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:55:10 GMT

My experience, for whatever it is worth, is ich is a very common problem and one that is easily cured. Raising the temperature and adding salt does nothing but stress the already stressed fish more. Also, since ich is very contagious, you are much better off treating the entire tank. There are a number of excellent products out there that will cure ich easily, but you really should treat the entire tank rather than removing the fish that show ich.

The pinned thread on ich can be found by going to

http://board.fishchannel.com/Topic129268-21-1.aspx

RE: Ich, Uncycled Tanks, and Balloon Mollies! Help me!

princessotfu — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:32:36 GMT

Ich IS a disease that can be treated with regular table salt, but as Nikita said, go read the pinned topic on it. Almost all of the info that we have here is in that thread, including the dosage instructions for the salt. Good luck.

RE: Ich, Uncycled Tanks, and Balloon Mollies! Help me!

FattFishy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:28:36 GMT

HEY FASTFOWARD

Quickly, if you haven't already, take some of the brown slimy stuff from inside your filter intake tube. Turn off the filter, take off the intake tube, and with your finger, take out some brown slimy stuff and put it in with the molly. (Don't forget to reassemble and turn it on) It's bacteria and can do for "makeshift" cycling. It's better than nothing.

Adding salt isn't really necessary. Instead, go buy some medicine. Follow according to instructions BUT keep the medicine going for 2 weeks to completely irradicate the water of any ich. To allow better effects, raise the temperature SLOWLY each day. So day one, start at 78 degrees. Then every day, increase in 1 degree or two. This speeds up the ich life cycle and allows the free swimming ich to be killed faster as they are released faster. Although some people might disagree with me.

Remember to use activated carbon to extract of medicine. Carbon is only active for 2 weeks, so if your carbon has been there for more than two weeks, it is inactive. The carbon CAN release the chemicals it absorbed so remove after 2 weeks.

If your molly dies... then it's obvious. Stress by disease, stress by high ammonia levels, stress while it adjusts to the new 10 gallon, and stress with babies.

Believe it or not, medicine can be the best solution at times. It's just that many people misuse use or mistakenly diagnose a disease. That's when the medicine is against its purpose.

If you have loaches or any other sensitive skinned or "naked" (non-scaled) fish, then reduce the dosage to half the amount.

Lastly, do a large water change on the main tank to reduce stress with clean water and get rid of any free-swimming ich.

RE: Ich, Uncycled Tanks, and Balloon Mollies! Help me!

Nikita — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:37:38 GMT

I believe there is a topic on ich in the Pinned Topics section. Try lookin' there first off for info and treatment options? And I hope everything goes well.

Ich, Uncycled Tanks, and Balloon Mollies! Help me!

FastFoward5k — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:33:01 GMT

My black balloon molly (Shadow) got ich! Luckily I caught it right away and put her in the uncycled nursery so my whole tank wouldn't catch ich too. The tank is not awful (don't know the exact parameters) but it isn't lethal. I really don't want her to die, and she is PREGNANT! Will the babies and her be all right? What should I do? I have her in a 10 gallon alone, with live plants, and at 79 F. What else can I do? I don't like to use those Ich-Be-Gone chemicals and stuff like that. Could I add like 2 tbsp. of table salt? Please help me.