Thanks everyone for your input. My other thread was "Dude died." My son actually took it very well. He did alot better than I. I apoligize for not posting back sooner. My mom is in the hospital and things are crazy right now.

I was treating Dude for Dropsy not for ich. Most of the white specs that showed up on his tail seemed to grow the last day he was alive. I would assume this is because his condition took a turn for the worst.

ph 7.6
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
ammonia .50
water temp is 80 degrees w/ no heater

I did a 50% water change last night and the night before. I also added 2 tbsp of aquarium salt with both changes. There was alot of waste in the tank and i wanted to get it out of there as I never changed the water during the maracyn 2 treatment as instructed on the box. I stopped the treatment on tuesday. I took my carbon filter (carbon was removed when i started treatment) out and give it a quick rinse and something happened to my power filter. UGH!!! So Dega went out 8 hours with no filter until I could get to the store to buy another one. I now have a cascade 80, is this a quality filter? Will anything happen to Dega?

Dega is showing no signs of Dropsy. Is very active and eating well. I see no signs of ich on him either but i know that doesnt mean it has infested my tank. I will look up ich treatments on this site. If anyone else has any info on ich, it would be greatly appreciated. I have also found a red spot on one of Dega's small front fins. what the heck is that? I hope nothing serious.

I am doing the right things for him to ensure he stays healthy?

Should i do another 50% water change and keep adding the salt? There is still some waste I want to remove from the tank. Would a "sucker fish" be a good investment?

Sorry for all the questions...I dont want to lose another fish.

One more thing....how often can you feed your fish peas?

Thank you. Chris

So many questions.

First of all, about your power filter. It probably just needs to have the impeller cleaned out a little bit. Sometimes mine won't start back up after I have it off for a water change and I take the inflow tube off and find the magnetic impeller and give it a little scrub down, put everything back together and it always starts right back up. So now maybe you have two filters. I never heard of the new one you got.

It looks like your tank is not cycled. Ammonia reading, and zero nitrite and nitrate. You need to monitor your water parameters closely until your ammonia is zero and you have a nitrate reading. Do frequent water changes to first, keep the ammonia down and then keep the nitrite down. Keep the tank salted at 0.3% until you are finished cycling.

Water quality is the number one thing you can do to keep Dega healthy. Ich is easily treated with salt, I wouldn't worry about it unless he gets it. Keep an eye on the red spot, clean water and salt could clear it up.

Peas can be feed as often as you like. Many people feed once a week to "clean out" their fishie's system.

edit: I would not add any fish until your tank is cycled and Dega is healthy. Then, quarantine before adding them to ensure no disease is introduced.