Pleco with ick?

Question

Yesterday, I moved my fish from a 20 gallon to a 55 gallon. I also bought a pleco and a blood parrot cichlid yesterday. The pleco went thru a rough day. The lady at the petstore had a hard time getting him into the neck, she kept pushing him out of the water and poking him with her finger. When I got home, and put him in my 20, I decided to put him in the 55 also. So the same thing happened again (only it took longer)

Now im afraid he has ick. Another one of my fish (a black skirt tetra) appears to be bleeding internally.

How should I take care of his ick, should I clean the water. I just set the tank up yesterday, but used the same filter and gravel and water from the 20 tank so I thought it would be ready for fish.

Today I planned on going to the petstore to get more fish, but I guess now I can't

WHAT SHOULD i DO?

Answer 1

You are correct-- adding gravel from your other tank will at least keep the ammonia and nitrite levels safe, though I would still recommend frequent (more so than usual) water changes.  Start treating the Pleco tank with something like Quick Cure or Rid Ich, or any of the other Ich medications (those two are my favorites).  Use a half dose, as Plecos are scaleless and won't tolerate it at full strength.  Be sure to keep the lights out when treating with malachite green based medications, as it degrades with exposure to light.

Aquarium salt would be of little use at this point, as there are far more effective ways to keep fish from getting secondary infections (malachite green and formalin, both in Quick Cure and Rid Ich, are quite effective at this), most notably, keeping the water clean!

Answer 2

First of all, you have stressed the fish so badly I am worried for 2ndary infections. Do not buy any more fish for a while first of all. Second of all get some decent Ick medication and perhaps even some tetracycline for any 2ndary infection. I would also add about 7 tbsp of aquarium salt to your 55 to help prevent water quality issues BUT the directions will say 1 tbsp per 5 gallons - plecos cant take that much - hence I said 7 tbsps.

If all of the fish you have don't die - leave the tank alone for a month or so. If they do die, still leave it alone for a month or so. Put a mystery snail in it and leave it alone.

Perhaps you should set up your 20 gallon as an isolation tank. When you get a new fish, put it in there for 2 weeks and make sure it is ok. Then add it to your big tank

Answer 3

You really should have let the tank cycle for a few days at least before putting fish in it. Also the fish sounds to be under stress from being moved so much. Put the pleco in a quarantine tank, buy ich treatment for him and your tank and just wait it out.

Answer 4

keep the pleco in the main tank and buy some ick treatment and treat the whole water!