Ich? Sick fish

[Renee C.]

• pH 8
• Nitrates 10-20
• Hardness 100ppm
• Nitrite 0
• Ammonia 0
• KH/Buffer 300ppm
• Water Temperature: turned up from 76 to 78

75 gallon planted tank with 12 cardinal tetras, 9 Congo tetras, 6 Corydora, 1 baby bristle nose pleco, 3 otos, 1 hillstream loach, 2 nerite snails, and a mystery snail, 6 amano shrimp. 
 

I noticed a few spots on my cardinal’s fins last week, started treating with Ich x as directed and doing daily 25% water changes, I am now on day 6 of treatment and they are starting to die (2 today), breathing very fast, hiding in back of the tank, white spots have spread to all cardinal tetras, and I see one spot on the tail of an oto (who otherwise looks ok). Some are still eating and some have stopped, colors faded. 
 

Should I continue to treat with ick x? I want to help, but I am not sure what to do from here? 
 

I did add 3 otos from LFS about 3 weeks ago, they said they had them for about a month with their plants and no issues and no new fish, I did add them in without quarantine, they certainly could have brought in something 😞

[Colu]

I might be wrong but some of the spots look raised so it could be Epistylis he's how you tell the difference between Epistylis and ich if it's Epistylis the best treatment is a broad spectrum antibiotic treatment such as kanaplex in food Epistylis feeds off the bacterial on your fish's skin spreads more slowly at lower temperatures

[Renee C.]

They do appear raised, I do have Fritz Maracyn on hand, would starting a course of this be an appropriate next step? 
 

thank you for your help! 

[quikv6]

To me, it looks like Ich, especially given it is on multiple fish all together, and happened quite rapidly. Being Ich-X is very easy to use, and very effective, I would start there. You can also raise the temp a bit (80-81) to speed up the lifecycle of Ich.

 

[Colu]

You can do is combined treatment of maracyn in food and ick x to treat the water column that  will cover all bases you can use repashy to feed your Otto's the medicated food

[Renee C.]

I appreciate all the advice, despite trying Ich x, maracyn and kanaplex I lost all of my fish except a few Congo tetras who now appear to have symptoms of columnaris? Two appear to have saddles on their backs and despite trying to eat the food pops right back out 😟. They look terrible and I feel so sad about it. I am not sure what to do from here. 
 

The idea of tearing this planted tank apart and bleaching it, will literally take me right out of the hobby. Is there a time frame I can let it sit empty (with my amano shrimp and snails) that it then would be safe to add fish again? Any help or input is very appreciated. 

[Colu]

Sorry to hear they didn't make if your fish have Columnaris I would recommend treating with kanaplex and jungal fungas clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone together following this treatment schedule if your fish aren't eating dose the water column  

[Renee C.]

On 5/20/2022 at 8:24 PM, Colu said:

Sorry to hear they didn't make if your fish have Columnaris I would recommend treating with kanaplex and jungal fungas clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone together following this treatment schedule if your fish aren't eating dose the water column  

Thank you.