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I have a 3 gallon sponge filtered tank. Had 5 baby guppies in there, 1 small aglea eater. The tank was overcome with Ick, treated with salt and ick medication, and after 1 week of treating 4 of the guppies are now dead. 1 is left, is laying on the ground, very lethargic, covered in spots, doesn't look like he's gonna make it through the night.

So basicly I am left with the 1 aglea eater. He has no spots on him, but could he have Ick? I want to move him into my 10 gallon, but do not want to pass the ick on to my other fish. Is there any way to know for sure? Should I just wait a while?

I want to move him, then get a crown-tail betta for the 3 gallon. The ick may still be in the gravel though, and I wouldn't want the betta to get it. Should I take down the whole tank and somehow sterlize it? How can I do this?

Any help is great.
Thanks in Advance.
-Meg
P.S. Rest in Peace, my babies

Don't move any of the fish. You say your guppy still has spots, so you still have the parasite in your tank. It sounds if you did the right things, but what's your water temp? Do you remove your filter cartride? IMO methylene blue works the best in removing ick. But the water temp should be over 80F. Your temp should be gradually increased to 83-85.

Ugg...I knew I did something wrong. The tank is that kind of plastic material (not as strong as arclic though) so if I put a heater in there it would melt. The tank is in the warmest room in my house. Its in the same room as my goldie tank so I'll see the temp on that tank...
Ok, its 67 degrees. Yikes. There is no way I can raise it...Darn.
On all the other meds at my LFS it said "not to treat on small fish" and all the guppies are small (1/2 inch)
Its a sponge filter (with the sponge circling it) so it doesn't have carbon.
The guppy looks even worse now...

What have you treated with?

The parasite has a life cycle which has three stages; as a visible spot (cyst) on the fish, which then as a mature cyst - a 'tomont' - drops off the fish, settles on the substrate or any other surface, and then multiplies within itself. Eventually this 'tomont' bursts, and releases thousands of 'swarmers'. These swim off in search of a host, to start the cycle all over again, fixing itself to a fish, and growing to show itself as a white spot.

At cooler temeratures, the cycle can take weeks to complete!

The parasite can only be killed when it is a 'swarmer'.

Sounds like the guppy will die. Remove the dead fish immediately, as the cysts do not have to be mature to leave their host and become a 'tomont' and then hundreds of 'swarmers'.

I would do a large water change, add some carbon for a short time, and then begin treating the remaining fish, assuming it is carrying ick. Its unlikely to not have any parasites on it! Moving it without treating will infect your other fish.

Can you not add a heater which will not touch the sides of the tank? USing a heater holder which suckers onto the tank wall??

I have been treating with Mardels Copper Safe. It was the only thing that could treat small fish.

I was told not to add a heater at all, even if it doesn't touch the sides it may burn. Its a 3 gallon so they don't even make a heater that small (and if they do, I won't find it here)

Fortunatly, the male guppy survived through the night, and he looks much better today ^.^

Forgot to add, there is no way I can add carbon. The sponge filter has no where to put it in.

Update:
The male guppy died...
So now I have the aglea eater left, which I am treating with the CopperSafe, and hopefully I will be able to tell (nobody did tell me how...) when the Ick is gone so I can move him into my 10 gallon. Acutally, I might just leave him in there and get a snail to eat the aglea in my 10.

I guess I'll have do find some info on sterlizing tanks...I think that is one of the first question I asked, but it never ended up getting answered. I'm not too sure if anybody saw it, so I'll post it here so hopefully people will:
<b>How do you sterlize a tank and the stuff in the tank?</b>
-Thanks for everybody's help! (don't worry, I'm not being sarcastic, LoL)
-Meg

Hi Meg,

The only way you can tell that the parasite has died is if it doesn't return onto your fish. In a tank with a low temp like yours at the moment, the life cycle could take a couple of weeks to complete. So only after the spots vanish and then do not return for a few weeks could you say that it was gone.

You don't need to sterilize things to get rid of ich, either let them dry out which will kill the parasite, or leave the tank running fish-less for a few weeks (at a low temp, less time at a higher temp) as the parasite dies if it doesn't find a host within a short time.

x

The aglea eater doesn't have any white spots on him though...I just assumed that he had ICK because he was flashing a few times. I havn't seem him do it agian though.
So I'll continue with the CopperSafe for a month or so, to be on the safe side, then put him in the 10 gallon. After that I'll take down the tank and dry everything out.
-Thanks,
-Meg

"Forgot to add, there is no way I can add carbon. The sponge filter has no where to put it in. "


There are these nifty little disposible filters at Petco (I'm sure other places too, but thats where I got it). That costs about 4 bucks, runs off an air line, sucks onto the inside wall of the tank,and has carbon in it! I'm sure it's not even close to the best filter around, but it's a way to get some carbon filtration in your tank.

I have a possible trick for you heating problems too. It won't be pretty, but how about putting you hospital tank INSIDE the 10 gal tank? I'm assuming that it has a heater, but I've got that setup going with some fry right now. I have a 1 gal tank with healthy fry inside my 10 gal hospital tank. You can heat 2 tanks with one heater.

good luck.

-Dennis

im pretty sure you could place a small heater on that tank with out worries of it melting. heaters dont get hot enough to melt a tank full of water. the heater from the heater would have to get so warm that the water around it would have to get hot enough to melt the plastic. you could hang it in the center of the tank from the hood or you could place the heater so the filter shoots on it.
guppies and other fish shouldnt be in such cold water they are tropical fish. this is prolly the reason behind ich showing up in the 1st place.

Meg, I check my med. methylene blue and it said it was safe for all fish, fresh & saltwater, even eggs. It is also used for fungal infections, tail rot, & nitrate toxicity. It said to avoid using if invertebrates are present. I believe your water got too cold also.