Sick Danio, Danio babies, Territorial Black Skirts...Please Help!

Question
Hi Chris,

I have atleast one sick Danio in My 30 gal. hex tank. I believe it has that Ich or Ick. I noticed that a couple of times he would fling himself at my plants and scratch itself on the decoration. Now it is loosing its colloration on its back half and it just looks itchy or like it has a rash. I have a 5 in one drip test and everthing is stabalizing except for one of the nitrate (there are 2 nitrate test on the strip and the second one is the one that is in the danger zone). I am going to do another water change as soon as I get home and vaccume the gravel. I have not wanted to vaccume the gravel because I had a bunch of danio babies at the bottom but now I am seeing that I should prioritize and focus on the grown fish. I have caught a bunch of them and put them in a breeder net (I do not have another tank). I think they are soo small that they manage to get through the mesh (because a bunch of them are missing), but ther are two that seem to be growing. I bought liquid fry food for them.

I now realize that I should not have added more fish because my tank is not yet fully cycled.[note:The water looks pretty clear. I also know that I have to set up my heater soon because the weather is fluctuating. Just need to buy an extension cord so I can plug in. ]

But I just bought 5 black skirt tetra and they seem ok. The are a bit territorial with eachother but do not really mess with the danio. The black skirts set up in their favoirte spots in the tank and chase away other black skirts who get near. I have also noticed that the 2 smaller black skirts have vertical slit/tear on their skirt. I am thinking of moving around the tank decor when I clean tonight to stop them from being terrirorial. When I first put them in 4 days ago, they would act like schooling fish and swim together and now they dont.

My question is what can I do to cure the Ich or Ick problem? I do not have a quarantine tank.

Also Based on all of the information I have provided you, what recommendations can you provide? I just want to have a successful, fully cycked tank.

Answer
Hi Again.....

I forgot to address the territorialism in the black skirts. Re-arranging the decor is a good idea. There might be too many males in there but see how it goes once the little ones grow a bit more. You might want to add more plants to help them hide when they need to.

Chris  

***************

Hi Monica;

Do the water change as you intended but don't vacuum the gravel yet. The beneficial bacteria could be disturbed too much and that could keep the break-in process from proceeding.

Unless you see salt-like specks on the sick one, he doesn't have ich. Even if it was ick, quarantine would not be the answer. The parasite lives in the water too. You would have to treat the entire tank. He may be experiencing the effects of "New Tank Syndrome" more seriously than the others for some reason. The two toxins you are measuring that sound the same, are actually not the same. One has a letter "I" in the middle and the other has a letter "A". Your high one is probably nitrIte. It can make the fish very sick and can rise very high in new tanks. The other one, (nitrAte) is not nearly as toxic. This less toxic "nitrate" is the end result of the biological filtration occuring in your tank. It is removed by the partial water changes (25%) that we should make in our tanks every week. It is okay at levels of 40ppm or less. In new tanks you may not see any at all until the system has been running with fish in it for 3 months or more.

It would be a good idea to get the heater going. You don't want the temperature to fluctuate or they could come down with a real case of ich.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins