polyguard, ich and more

[Idahospud]

I set up my 79 gal. tank just after Christmas. I have had this tank many years but because of a move I have not had it set up the last two years. I Bought 3 fan tailed gold fish to get the biological filter kicked in and had no problems until after 8 weeks when I bought the rest of the fish I wanted in there.

I picked up 3 oscars and 10 tiger barbs. About a week later I notice one of my oscars has a few white spots on his fins and a couple tiger barbs are flashing on the decorations. I picked up some ick med (quick cure) from the local petshop here. Sorry they don't carry your products. I have treated the last 8 days with that stuff and have had no luck. In fact the ich is getting a little worse on the oscar and one more is showing a few spots now. The worst thing is the fan tailed gold fish are now losing some scales and fins are splitting.The best thing I can say is the fish all still eat but I'm not sure why things are suddenly going so bad.


I found a tube of your polyguard in a box of fish stuff I had and put some in tonight. It is 3 years old, hope it's still good.

I have two questions. Is it possible to over medicate the fish meaning 8 days of the stuff that didn't work then use the polyguard for the next two weeks? I have done two water changes (around 25-30%) since the start of this. I also raised the temp of my water to 80f. Also do I do a water change between treatments with your polyguard?


Thanks for any help!

[Tech Support GL]

Before you begin to treat with PolyGuard make sure to remove the other medication first. The water changes are good at removing medication and activated carbon is good at removing medication from the water.

Raising the temperature will help to speed up the life cycle of ich. You can do water changes as part of your normal routine, but it is not necessary.

As for the age of PolyGuard, there should be an expiration date on the bottom of the tube.

You may want to try adding some Gold Salt also to help with any stress and to change the salinity to have more of effect on the parasite to help kill the parasite or so it does not reproduce at an alarming rate. Add about a tablespoon of salt for every 5
gallons every 12 hours three times. The salt additions
will not ensure treatment of ich, but Gold Salt can be a good addition. Here is a link to Gold Salt;
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/GoldSalt.html

[Idahospud]

Thanks for the reply. I seem to have cured the ick issue in my tank. White spots are gone and the fish seem happy. Well all of them except two of the three fan tailed gold fish. Due to the lack of another tank to put these poor guys in, I put the largest in a hanging quarantine basket I have just to keep the other fish from attacking him and the other two who both also started losing scales I put in a large bowl with an airstone.

Two weeks later my fish are doing good. The large fin tail is still in the basket and getting his scales back and will be moved to another tank as soon as the stuff gets here. Sad to say the other two gold fish did not make it. Just the day before yesterday they gave up the ghost. What I don't get is how bad they got and even with small water changes every day they got worse and worse. Take a look at the photo at the bottom and tell me what the heck this is and why it happened. I did drop a couple drops of meds into the bowl every time I changed the water but they just never got better. What started out as ich turned into something beyond what I have ever seen and I could not help them. Thanks for any help.


Scott J.

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