Glengoyne wrote:
I was considering using the little tank as a hospital tank to treat the
Loaches and their Ich. At least until I learned of the nature of the
parasites.



The coppersafe is working some. It has been 5 days and the spots on
the loaches have diminished from half a dozen down to two or three.
One troubling thing is that I've noted spots on one of the other fish
in the tank, a Neon Rainbow. More troubling is that a Diamond Tetra
that we've had since April(when we started the tank) started having
trouble and died rapidly. He seemed to be swimming and not moving, and
opening his mouth in what looked to be gasps. I was thinking that
maybe the copper was giving him trouble, so planned a water change and
change of treatment to quick cure.


As for the Amonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates...Amonia is good, Nitrites
are good....Nitrates were 80+. We did our water change with lots of
Distilled water, so that should come down.

Distilled water is not a good thing to put in fishtanks that were
running on tap water. You shock the fish with a drop in pH, GH, KH, and
DOC along with the nitrates. Copper toxicity changes with alkalinity as
well, so the drop in KH makes the copper more toxic.

Your tetra was suffering form low oxygen and may have had ich in his
gills. Another possiblity is low oxygen in the water if you warmed the
tank. Either way, start running an airstone if you have one. It's
always helpful with medications in the water.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com