fish i.d.s & is it ICH?

Question
I have a 55 gallon tank. 4 big "white fish", and 5 baby "white fish". About a dozen and a half Mickey Mouse Platty's. 1 big Blue Gourami. 1 sickly lookin' Danio(his/her partner died. 1 older albino catfish or "Corydora". 1 "algae eater of some kind" don't know exact name. 1 medium size Pleco, or "the algae eater". 1 big fat Bichir, Wal-Mart says it's a "dinosaur eel". The Bichir eel likes to stay on the left side, while the pleco and Gourami like it on the right side. is this territorial or something?
I quess what I want to know is if I send you pictures of the "white fish", can you identify them. All the sites I look at have a list of names, if I knew the name I wouldn't be searching soo much and getting confused, right? also they have ICH or something. You can see that there fins are deteriorating with white blotches on them. They are the newest addition to the tank. My mother got them from a friend, they said the white fish were taking over there tank so they gave us some. Also, if you could I.D. my Bichir, something a little better than "dino eel" would be great. Just some names so I can research them a little better.
I did a 50% water change on 3/8/08. The heater I had "burnt out". So the fish probably got sick from the cool water, it was about 66-70. It was one of those Whisper submersible heaters, and I was using it like an older non-submersible heater so that probably ruined it. I got a new one now(30-60 Gal.)and got the temp above 70 to help them get there "slime" back. Right now the temp reads about 77. I have the Jungle Labs "Ick Guard" and there site says you don't even need to raise the temp, but everyone says raise temp to make the ICH's life cycle faster. I don't want to boil my fish for no reason, nor treat for a disease I'm not sure of. When I changed water I vacuumed all the gravel, and rinsed all plants and larger rocks. I rearranged the tanks plants and stuff, and I have no real live plants.
I tested the P.H. and it's over 7.6, so I'll try to drop that. My testing kit only goes to 7.6. The water from the faucet I used to change water says about a neutral 7.0 maybe 6.8.(well it has a light green color while the tank water is a blue color obviously over 7.6) What P.H. should I be shooting for?
I'm confused about what I should do, so any names, info, or websites you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanx

Answer
Hi Henry:  Dinosaur eel... aka the ropefish or reedfish (Calamoichthys calabaricus)They are part of a family called polypterus.  Eels are night time creatures so they hide during the day and while you are probably asleep... they are out causing trouble, etc.  My e-mail address is: davenmidtown@gmail.com send me a picture and I will see if I can further id the eel and the white fish....  

Temperature:  raise the temp to about 82 degrees but do it slowly ...about one degree per hour.  Tropical fish like their water to be between 78-82 degrees and many will tolerate temps of up to 90 degrees.

pH:  keep your pH the way it is... most tropical fish like a pH between 7.0-8.0... so your pH is just right.

TREATMENT:  raise the temp of the tank to about 82 degrees, add aquarium salt per its instruction label... and medicate.  ICH has a 9 day life cycle with the higher temps it drops to about 3 days. It is immune to meds while in your fish... the fish skin protects it... it is only vulnerable to medication when it is free swimming... that is why we raise the temp because most medication says to use for three days... etc...

The raised temp and the salt will help too.... send me a picture... and keep me posted... dave