death toll rising and now ich

Question
QUESTION: I've been trying so hard to do all the right things that I've been advised to do to make my fish happy. Including adding live plants, regular water changes, and graduating my channel cat, Mr. Kitty, to a pond thinking perhaps the fish were disappearing because his mouth had gotten too big.  Since his departure on Sunday; however, 4 more fish have died. One minute they were swimming around  nicely, eating, and the next; dead! I raised my tank temps to 76 as advised; my 5-n-1 test strip indicates all perfectly normal levels. The tank is beautiful, the water crystal clear, and yet, there appears to be a silent killer invading the citizens of the tank. As if that's not enough, I awoke this morning to find that my female rainbow is covered in little white dots; I'm guessing that's ich.  What am I not doing right?

ANSWER: Hello Debbey:  Let me ask you a few questions before I start answering yours.  First how big is your tank?  What kind of fish and how many are in your tank?  When do you feed and how much do you feed your fish?  

Now... about the ICH... I'd like for you to go down to your local aquarium... please avoid the pet store and just deal with the aquarium as they will likely be more informed and have better products on hand... and buy some aquarium salt and something called RID ICH... I try to treat my fish without medicines but in this case it sounds like you have an epidemic going on in your tank...so we can jump start the cure-all with some Rid ICH or another similar product.  I'd also like to have you raise the temperature of your tank to about 80 degrees... you will need to look up your fish online and make sure that they will tolerate 80 degree water... if they wont you will need to adjust your tank to the highest level they will tolerate... you will NEED to adjust your tank temperature slowly... one degree every three hours until you reach the ideal temp.  You should began to add the aquarium salt per its label instructions as soon as you get home.... Please send me the answers to my above questions and lets see if we can cure your fish and improve your aquarium experience.... dave

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QUESTION: My tank is 55L. The fish I have left: 2 plecos, 3 clown loaches, 2 platties, 1 powder blue gourami, 3 honey gouramis, pair of australian rainbow, 2 swordtails, and seven baby giant danios. My last water change was sunday afternoon (25%) at which time I added 5 tablespoons of aquarium salt (1tbs/gal as instructed by box). I had to adjust the ph following the water change, but it now tests dead center of the ideal range. This morning, seeing the outbreak of the white spots on my female rainbow I added 55 drops of "cure all" (that was the only medication I had on hand) which is suppose to treat ich according to the label, but I can get RID ICH if it works better. I removed all the filters (which scares me a bit about the amonia issues). I've been feeding the fish each morning (which is more often than I use to again because of my concerns about amonia buildup, but not sure if its enough). Does that you help help me?

ANSWER: hi Debbey:  yes... this helps me a lot... a 55L tank converts to about 12 US gallons... that is way too many fish for that tank.  Aquarium tanks are delicate balances of chemicals, bacteria and live plants/fish, etc.  the smaller the tank the more difficult it is to keep the water clean... this is also true if you have a large tank that is over populated with fish... your ammonia build up on a daily basis is probably due to the amount of fish fecal matter that occurs each day.  Constant water changes are going to help the ammonia but not the cloudy water... the tank never has a chance to recuperate from one water change to the next.  The fish are probably not all getting enough to eat which leads to malnutrition and then disease.  The pleco's themselves are going to probably get huge... about 12-18 inches or more... the gourami's can get to be medium sized too unless they are dwarf gourami.  You are either going to have to get another tank and separate some of those fish or you are going to have to get rid of some of them... one pleco per tank...is a good rule to follow... let me know if you have further questions.... dave

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QUESTION: I'm sorry; my tank is 55 gallons; not liters...I should have paid closer attention to what I wrote.  Do you mind reassessing your view of what the problem may be based on this correction. thanks.

Answer
Hi Debbey:... well that makes a big difference... how big are your pleco's?  I had two pleco's ( one was 8 inches and the other 12 inches) in a 55 gallon tank and I could never keep the water from being yellow/green and my ammonia was up... it may be the pleco's.... let me know... dave