hello

Question
Hi there,
I have 65 gallon fresh water tank and around 30fishes. We use Canister filter ...3 week ago I bought (mistake) fishes from walmart...(one male and 2 females) guppies and 4 neon  ..many died ..but one female guppy and 2 neons are ok ....then 12days ago I again bought fishes from petsmart ....one male guppy died again but pair of dalmation mollies are ok ....so this is the past story...now the problem  .. few fishes have ich disease ...last week I use ich medicine for 4 days and changed 25% of water everyday ...but still some of them have white spots ..I noticed there tales( guppy, sword tail....)have white patches and broken fin from the end ( may be they have tale rot )...now 3 days ago I used binox ..by looking at them now they still have the same problem ...i dont know what to do next.   How do I check, if I am using carbon in our filter too. ..plz help
thankyou

Answer
Hi Sarwat,
Sorry to hear about your fish.

Make sure you have removed the carbon from your filter. If you have a cartridge type 'pad' filter, then you can cut the pad at the top and shake out the carbon into the trashcan. With the canister filter, simply remove the carbon out of it. Most canister filters have different compartments with sponges and other filter media.

I would keep up with the water changes, make sure the temperature is at least 82-86, and keep the ich medication in the aquarium for at least 14 days. It takes a while to completely destroy ich. As for the white patches and broken fins I can't be completely sure if it is finrot. All you can do is compare with pictures. Fin-rot is usually seen on the fins as a discoloration at the edge and the fins seem to be melting away and looking very ragged. This most certainly is stress and water quality related. I don't know much about the Binox medication, but make sure it is compatible with your ich medication. Combining medications can be harmful.

You may in fact need an ich medication and a antibiotic to prevent secondary infections. A really good ich medication you may want to consider is- "Ich Attack" medication it is very safe and effective. Your fish may be developing fungus with the white patches and Ich-Attack does help get rid of that as well as ich parasites.

Make sure you continue ick treatment for at least a full 2 weeks even if the ich parasites dissappear. This is essential to make sure every last ich parasite is gone.

I hope this helps!
Karen~