Heartsick and uncertain sick fish died

[Gail Kali]

I didn’t see my fish were sick until one died. Then I saw a few white spots on all of the fish- 10 harlequin rasboras that I had for 6 months and 11 neon green rasboras I had for 5 months. 20 gallon tank with lots of plants. It’s been stable until I turned down the heater and then changed my mind two weeks later and just cranked it back up. That’s the only change to this. So I treated for ich and 5 fish died. I started to treat with the trio of meds and next day fish are covered with white spots and 4 more dead fish. Day 3 fish look better with much fewer white and then by the end of the day only 2 fish alive. Day 4 all fish have died. The mystery snail and nerite snail are fine. Also have been with aquarium for months. 
I have 4 tanks and this one has been flawless and now I feel horrible and want to not make the same mistakes and also remedy the tank to use again. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I'm very sorry Gail, this is never any fun. The heater could have been an issue as it's the only thing you changed, did you gradually lower the temperature before you pulled the heater? And then did you gradually turn the heat up (over a period of a day or few depending on what you were going from/to)? If not the temperature flux could have caused stress that caused an Ich outbreak. 

Now, if you did gradually lower and raise temps the only other thing I can think of is that maybe the temp got too low for the Harlequins? The Greens are more tolerant (68 degrees). Some sites say Harlequins low end is 73. This could have caused stress and then the outbreak, do you know how low your temp went?

Can you think of any other changes prior to the outbreak? No matter how big or small? 

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/18/2022 at 4:30 PM, Gail Kali said:

Then I saw a few white spots on all of the fish- 10 harlequin rasboras that I had for 6 months and 11 neon green rasboras I had for 5 months. 20 gallon tank with lots of plants. It’s been stable until I turned down the heater and then changed my mind two weeks later and just cranked it back up. That’s the only change to this. So I treated for ich and 5 fish died. I started to treat with the trio of meds and next day fish are covered with white spots and 4 more dead fish. Day 3 fish look better with much fewer white and then by the end of the day only 2 fish alive. Day 4 all fish have died. The mystery snail and nerite snail are fine. Also have been with aquarium for months. 
I have 4 tanks and this one has been flawless and now I feel horrible and want to not make the same mistakes and also remedy the tank to use again. 

Treating for ich was one of the most stressful moments in my hobby.  I did save some of the fish, but my experience was very similar to yours.  I would highly recommend treating the entire tank itself for Ich and be sure to crank the temp up into the range that need be.  The issue, is that you have to give the disease time to progress and this is extremely stressful to the hobbyist as well as the fish 😞 .  I don't know if you can force the ich to progress without fish in the tank, unfortunately, but maybe there is just a method to sterilize the substrate and any remaining cysts that might be in the tank.
 

Edit: Towards the end of the video there might be a pretty good way to finish off any remaining ich. Salt.

Edited April 19, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Gail Kali]

On 4/18/2022 at 4:41 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

I'm very sorry Gail, this is never any fun. The heater could have been an issue as it's the only thing you changed, did you gradually lower the temperature before you pulled the heater? And then did you gradually turn the heat up (over a period of a day or few depending on what you were going from/to)? If not the temperature flux could have caused stress that caused an Ich outbreak. 

Now, if you did gradually lower and raise temps the only other thing I can think of is that maybe the temp got too low for the Harlequins? The Greens are more tolerant (68 degrees). Some sites say Harlequins low end is 73. This could have caused stress and then the outbreak, do you know how low your temp went?

Can you think of any other changes prior to the outbreak? No matter how big or small? 

I turned it down to 68 but it was mid 70s during the day but then we had really cold weather and I was afraid it was too cold so I was not gradual. The harlequins died first so I think you are right. I am sure that stressed them. I wasn’t thinking. But I’m glad to learn they can get ich from stress. I thought it took a sick fish. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

No unfotunately with Ich it does not. Some say that Ich just lives in most of our tanks but if our fish have healthy immune systems it doesn't rear its head. Nobody knows for SURE. It's an opportunistic parasite. I've treated 3 different tanks with Ich- the earlier you catch it the better chance you have. The little dots are diabolical. I usually do a physical inspection on as many fish as I can when I feed them and look for the evil little things (as well as any number of other warning signs). 

Edited April 19, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Gail Kali]

It’s so stressful. Awful. I will get some aquarium salt. 

On 4/18/2022 at 5:16 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:No unfotunately with Ich it does not. Some say that Ich just lives in most of our tanks but if our fish have healthy immune systems it doesn't rear its head. Nobody knows for SURE. It's an opportunistic parasite. I've treated 3 different tanks with Ich- the earlier you catch it the better chance you have. The little dots are diabolical. I usually do a physical inspection on as many fish as I can when I feed them and look for the evil little things (as well as any number of other warning signs

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

It is very stressful. The first time I treated it I treated it with heat and medication (as it speeds up the lifecycle of Ich and hopefully that means treatment time) but higher heat depletes oxygen (so you need to add air) and can speed up decay (and spike ammonia). My fish also seemed very uncomfortable. So though most of them made it through (at the time the tank had 10 Harlequins and 7 Otos, 6 Otos didn't make it- I think they started the infection) - the next time I treated I did no heat just meds- this took a LOT longer but I had no losses. It's a difficult disease- but I really think the key is to catch and treat it early- it's a gamble beyond that. 

[Gail Kali]

I will look more carefully for sure. It’s really a help to just tell the epic fail. I was careful of so many things and then so casual about the temperature. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

We all encounter the hard lessons in this hobby that's for sure....sorry friend 😔 At least we can say we learned something any future fish will benefit from it. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/18/2022 at 5:27 PM, Gail Kali said:

I will look more carefully for sure. It’s really a help to just tell the epic fail. I was careful of so many things and then so casual about the temperature. 

 Just to give you an idea....

On my tank (75G) I went through 2 bottles of Ich-X before I saw improvement (I keep 2 on hand now).  I treated them, couldn't raise the temp enough slowly enough so it took a bit longer to get "through the cycle".  I had the tank starting at 70-72. and to get it up into the 80s was hell on the fish. 

In total time. it was about 10-14 days to get through it.

[Gail Kali]

If all the fish are dead how would you proceed to make the aquarium safe?

On 4/18/2022 at 4:41 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

I'm very sorry Gail, this is never any fun. The heater could have been an issue as it's the only thing you changed, did you gradually lower the temperature before you pulled the heater? And then did you gradually turn the heat up (over a period of a day or few depending on what you were going from/to)? If not the temperature flux could have caused stress that caused an Ich outbreak. 

Now, if you did gradually lower and raise temps the only other thing I can think of is that maybe the temp got too low for the Harlequins? The Greens are more tolerant (68 degrees). Some sites say Harlequins low end is 73. This could have caused stress and then the outbreak, do you know how low your temp went?

Can you think of any other changes prior to the outbreak? No matter how big or small? 

 

On 4/18/2022 at 4:50 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Treating for ich was one of the most stressful moments in my hobby.  I did save some of the fish, but my experience was very similar to yours.  I would highly recommend treating the entire tank itself for Ich and be sure to crank the temp up into the range that need be.  The issue, is that you have to give the disease time to progress and this is extremely stressful to the hobbyist as well as the fish 😞 .  I don't know if you can force the ich to progress without fish in the tank, unfortunately, but maybe there is just a method to sterilize the substrate and any remaining cysts that might be in the tank.
 

Edit: Towards the end of the video there might be a pretty good way to finish off any remaining ich. Salt.

 

On 4/18/2022 at 5:16 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

No unfotunately with Ich it does not. Some say that Ich just lives in most of our tanks but if our fish have healthy immune systems it doesn't rear its head. Nobody knows for SURE. It's an opportunistic parasite. I've treated 3 different tanks with Ich- the earlier you catch it the better chance you have. The little dots are diabolical. I usually do a physical inspection on as many fish as I can when I feed them and look for the evil little things (as well as any number of other warning signs). 

 

On 4/18/2022 at 8:08 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

 Just to give you an idea....

On my tank (75G) I went through 2 bottles of Ich-X before I saw improvement (I keep 2 on hand now).  I treated them, couldn't raise the temp enough slowly enough so it took a bit longer to get "through the cycle".  I had the tank starting at 70-72. and to get it up into the 80s was hell on the fish. 

In total time. it was about 10-14 days to get through it.

 

On 4/18/2022 at 5:45 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

We all encounter the hard lessons in this hobby that's for sure....sorry friend 😔 At least we can say we learned something any future fish will benefit from it. 

So many kind words here. Thank you 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

If you want to go full sanitation I guess I would pull the plants and do a hydrogen peroxide dip, then put them in QT with the snails. I would raise the temp in that tank as high as your heater would go with salt for a week or 2. That should sanitize as far as Ich goes but might break your cycle.