freshwater disease

Question
HI, I have a 20g L aquarium of fresh water fish containing mollies, swordtails, and tetras.  This morning i found one of my mollies dead and as i closely looked at the aquarium, I saw what appeared to be small white fiber like worms.  A bunch of them.. Are they parasitic and what could they be.  Also, all of my 5 neon tetras were covered with tiny white specs what appeared to be ick.  What should i do?

thanks

Answer
Hello. Yikes! Ich should be treated immeadiatley. And i will warn you now that some of your fish may not survive. My tank also had ich and all of my fish survived so it is possible. You will want to treat it with a salt solution. Add 20 teaspoons of dissovled salt into the tank. then in the next 12 hours vaccuum the stuff off the bottom of the tank (don't take too much water out) then add 20 teaspoons of dissvoled salt again. then in the next 12 hours vaccuum the bottom of the tank and add 20 more teaspoons of salt.  after the third dose stop the salt. the ich should be gone comepletely gone in a week. if not start the salt solution again. I'm pretty sure the salt will kill any of the other diseases in the tank. Next time you change your water add just a little salt to the water to help prevent this and other diseases from happening. Ich is from introducing new fish or the death of a fish so it is basically from stress.
good luck!
corinna