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Pictus crisis
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 02:57
by ticklemepunk4739
Ok I diagnosed my pictus with ich on friday. Today is sunday and one of my cats died in a powerhead accident
When I took out the powerhead the other cats kind of sunk to the bottom by the bubble bar and are breathing very hard and kind of panting? that is the best way to describe it. As for my ich treatment I have had the light off and turned up the heat slowly to around 84 to kill the bacteria. Could this high temp be depleting the O2 so much that the fish are suffocating? there are 3 tiger barbs and a rainbow shark who are acting normaly. Is this just the ich getting into their gills and killing them or is something else going on?
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 03:01
by Silurus
The pictus are stressed and weakened, which probably explains their increased sensitivity to the lowered oxygen levels.
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 03:02
by ticklemepunk4739
soooo can I do anything or should I get the funeral supplies together?
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 03:03
by Silurus
Do you have something that will agitate the water without causing an accident? Say, something like an air pump or a small internal filter.
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 03:05
by ticklemepunk4739
well I was thinking that I could put a sponge over the powerhead to protect the fish since it is the only thing I have to stir the water besides the bubble bar.
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 03:08
by Silurus
That might work, or you can sit most of the powerhead out of the water and leave the outlet immediately below the water surface.
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 03:11
by ticklemepunk4739
ok great thanks. I also heard that salt and most ich meds are bad ideas with pictus cats because they don't have scales? is there anything I can put in there to help solve this ich problem because the cats aren't eating and I am worried.
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 03:27
by Silurus
Salt should be OK. Most ich meds contain copper, which scaleless fish are sensitive to. It is suggested that you use half the recommended dose for scaleless fish because of this.
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 07:21
by ticklemepunk4739
ok so I have a 25 gallon tank how much salt do I add? and should I keep the temp high or will just the salt do the trick? I pretty much just need to know what to do based on the type of fish i have and the size of my tank.
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 10:03
by Silurus
Posted: 24 Nov 2003, 19:45
by ticklemepunk4739
It doesn;t matter anymore. All the pictus are dead.
I put in less than 6 tsp into my whole tank just to see if they would react and they seemed fine but when I woke up they were dead. I think that I just didn;t catch the ich in time and they got stressed by all my attempted remidies and died.