albino oscar turning black

Question
i have a 55gl. tank. with a small albino oscar a large tiger oscar, they get along well. two monos, and a firemouth meeki. which i just recently added yesterday. and also a albino pleco. small. anyway my albino oscar and pleco have been slowly getting black on the fins, small at first but now it is getting kinda bad and im worried.

i also have a second question. a few days ago i noticed one of my monos had ick. so i increased the levels of aquarium salt, and turned up the temp in the tank to 82. the next day i went and bought treatment. and the pet store owner said to just scoop some in so i did, then after a while when it didnt seem right i read the label and it said to take the carbon out, realizing i might have injured my fish i qiuckly took it out, and have recently put it back in, although the ick hasnt cleared up yet.

any advice about either question would be greatly appriciated. thank you

Answer
Hi David,
  The darkness on the fins can be a result of fighting. Do you see any other signs of that?

  It takes a week or so for ick to go away.  The reason you need to take the carbon out is because it will remove the ich medicine, so if you leave the carbon in, and add ich medicine, nothing will happen.  You need to leave the carbon out for the duration of the treatment.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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