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so i just recently set up a 22 gallon community tank, i was adding in an air bubbler and as i was running the tube into the tank i accidently lowered the temp on my heater, to my horror the next day i accidently dropped the temperature in the tank by 5 degrees! I then noticed that my tetras had white spots on them, and as days past i have noticed all the fish getting sicker and sicker, i have added copper medication to the tank, and also have performed a a 25% water change, then i also gradually have raised the temp to 80 degrees, but nothing has seemed to help, ive already lost 2 fish to this, any advice??

2 tanks (for now)
1 30 gallon
1 22 gallon
Barb and oddball/predatory fish fan

Hi,
If the white spots look like grains of salt then your fish are infected by a parasite called "Ich." Read the container carefully and follow the instructions to the letter. Be sure that none of the fish in your tank are sensitive to copper. Many fish will die if ANY copper is in the tank or water. Be sure to treat the tank for the infestation for at least the length of time mentioned on the container. To save money, or thinking that the problem is solved, many will stop treatment when the spots disappear. That is wrong thinking and the infestation will come back, with a vengence shortly after they stop treating the tank.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

so it's been roughly a week or so into the infection, ive added about 3 teaspoons of aquarium salt in order to try and combat the infection, while also medicating with coppersafe. I have not seen much improvement and i have been following the instructions, ive lost about 4 fish /:

2 tanks (for now)
1 30 gallon
1 22 gallon
Barb and oddball/predatory fish fan

Hi,
I don't know about adding salt to a freshwater tank. There are exceptions, a few, but it does not make much sense, especially with Tetras. They are a freshwater fish that live, for the most part, in the Amazon River and it's tributaries. They've never "tasted" salt in their lives and adding it to their water when they are sick and in a weakened condition makes no sense to me.

Adding salt to a freshwater tank to combat Ich, is a decades old, "Old Wives Tale." When you add salt to the water you cause the fish to change its metabolism and extrude (create) more slime. The theory was that if you could cause the fish to produce enough slime then the parasites could not penetrate the slime layer and would be sloughed off the fish and being unable to latch onto a host, would die a quick death. Back then, before the advent of modern medication, "they" used to put copper pennies in a tank to kill off the parasite. The problem was that most of the time they "over medicated" (added too many pennies) and wound up killing plants, good bacteria, and most of the time, the fish too. To my knowledge, no one ever published anything saying that you needed x number of pennies/gallons of water.

At this point, I would change the water and be careful that the replacement water was no more than a degree or two from the original tank water's temperature. Then remedicate with Copper Safe. When using any form of copper to treat a fish tank be sure to read the container as some fish will die when exposed to ANY copper.

Also be sure to NOT mix any equipment such as nets or even hoses between the infected tank and the uninfected tank. There are three cycles to the parasite, laying in the gravel, free swimming, and latched onto a fish. It is easy to infect a second tank if you use the same equipment for both tanks.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--