Can cleaning and intruding fish's space cause Ick

**snipa458** · 30th Dec 2009, 01:41

Can monthly water changes and gravel vacuuming cause the fish to develope "Ick"? In addition to this one of my cardinal tetra's bought just recently has erratic swimming patterns, it swims up and down all the time and looks quite pale but the 4 other ones i bought with it are just fine, also is it normal for guppies to hover round the top of the tank when "resting"

**stormhawk** · 30th Dec 2009, 02:02

Nope. They only catch ich if there is an infected fish amongst them.

Erratic swimming patterns for your cardinal tetra can be attributed to several conditions. If it is unable to balance itself in the water, then it might have swim bladder disease.

As for the guppies, at times they will just hang right beneath the water's surface. This is usually the case if there is insufficient aeration, but sometimes they are just skimming the surface scum. You need not worry unless they are exhibiting signs of stress and disease.

**snipa458** · 30th Dec 2009, 18:10

luckily that fish has stopped its strange swimming patters but its colour although looks to be showing fully( deeps red not pale) it's sort of missing in some places along the stripe lke its been scraped off, what could this mean? there are 14 fish, 2 orange swordtails, 6 guppies 5 cardinals and 1 neon, this is in what i think is a 2.5 gallon tank, actual water colume possibly around 5 litres, is this dangerously crowded?

**stormhawk** · 31st Dec 2009, 05:01

I mentioned in another thread by you, that your Cardinal probably has Neon Tetra Disease. If I was you, I'd isolate that fish right away, because that particular disease has no known cure.

14 fish in such a small tank is asking for disaster, especially when swordtails can get pretty big later on. Use this site to calculate how much fish you can stock in that small tank:

http://www.aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php

Calculator done by yhbae, a fellow AQ member.

**snipa458** · 3rd Jan 2010, 22:02

Can neon or cardinal tetras be kept with swordtails? I have 6 tetras, 5 guppies (1 quarantined in a seperate tank due to very small patches of fluff on its skin)and 2 swordtails, recently 1 guppy has gone missing somehow, today one of the tetras jumped out of the tank, before now they have got along fine, suddenly i notice the tetras are very pale, you can't even see their red stripe, should i move the swordtails somewhere else? right now they are slowly regaining their colour just about an hour ago they were fine. Can coppersafe cure the fluff on the quarantined guppy, im not sure it does cause i found an article somewhere that said it could but i didnt find any supporting articles

**stormhawk** · 4th Jan 2010, 04:16

The "fluff" on the guppy is probably a fungus attack. Your guppy can be treated but chances are it will probably die from secondary infections.

You can keep swordtails with cardinal/neon tetras, but the tank must be large enough to accomodate them. Swordtails can get pretty large, and the neon/cardinal tetras require space to swim about. There is a chance that the swordtails might bully the tetras, especially if they are hungry.

**snipa458** · 6th Jan 2010, 17:21

-.- just had another guppy die, had 6 now only 2 left, the last 2 died after that fungus, one just died a few minutes ago, at first i thought maybe i didnt dechlorinate the water, but it doesnt show any symptoms of chlorin posioning but the fluff seemed to have gone after some while of treating with copper safe, but i think the fins looked a bit ragged, the texture, it was physically intact and fine but before it looked more silky, whats happened to my fish TT

**stormhawk** · 6th Jan 2010, 17:26

Could have been other infections. If the slime coat was affected, and the fish has a slimy appearance, it could be a Costia infection. Some medications meant for treating certain external parasites might help.

**snipa458** · 6th Jan 2010, 17:32

by the way what is normal behaviour of neon or cardinal tetras, in general if their red stripe is nice and deep it means they're fine because they aren't stressed or feel ill right?

**snipa458** · 6th Jan 2010, 17:35

Originally Posted by stormhawk

Could have been other infections. If the slime coat was affected, and the fish has a slimy appearance, it could be a Costia infection. Some medications meant for treating certain external parasites might help.

well it didnt look slim infact the moment i saw it i thought it looked just fine until i got up close and release it was upsidedown at the bottom of the tank with large blank black eyes and its gills were't moving if it weren't dead i wouldn't be able to tell anything wrong with it apart from the fact its tail wasnt as "silky" as it used to be
anyway a friend is giving me a spare tank which is larger and should be about just right t accomadate the remaining neon tetra 5 cardinals, 2 swordtails and 2 guppies

**snipa458** · 10th Jan 2010, 11:58

another guppy just died, this one was in the main tank and also appeared just fine

**snipa458** · 30th Jan 2010, 18:14

FINALLY, got my new tank much bigger than the last, 21 litres 30 cm high 40 cm wide, but with a curved front. im not quite sure how to use tank stocking calculator, no way this tank is over 200% stocked with 4 cardinals, 1 neon and 2 swordtails, using the old tank to quarantine 2 new swordtails. does the filter intake have to reach the bottom of the tank?