10 gallon tank
tank running about 2 weeks fish in about 1
one blackmoor goldfish, app 2.5 inches
no live plants, gravel substate, 8' bubble wand
Topfin (petsmart brand) filter came with tank; carbon filter and an extra bit of sponge for bio filtration (carbon out right now because of medicine)
Temps between 78 (never lower than 74) and 82 (however the air in my dorm was out this weekend and temps reached almost 86)
(test with an API freshwater master test kit)
Ammonia: 1.0
Ph: 7.6
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Conditioning the water right now with samples that came with other things I bought including API Stress Coat, a Top Fin conditioner, and and Aqua Plus tap water conditioner
Have treated the tank with API Stress Zime biological filtration booster (one dose package) and Seachem Stability (the 5'th day in a suggested 7 day treatment)
Feed a mix many things (again got lots of free samples) including Hikari Algea wafer (he loves them) Omega One sinking goldfish small pellets, tetrafin goldfish flakes, ultrafin max complete and Tetra sun dried baby shrimp (doesnt seem to like them much but will eat them)
The medicines I have used for the ich is Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Inc, Goldfish Super Ick Cure which uses Benzaldehyde Green and a Providone/Colloid Mixture. The instructions say to use 5 tsps per 10 gallons and add a second dose in 48 hours, wait another 48 hours and do a 25%water change, repeat if neccesary.
The Jungle Binox Extra Strength which the lfs guys suggested for the possible tail rot does not actually list tail rot as one of the things it cures but it does say "clears irritations such as fungus (columnaris), gray slime (costaisis), scratching (flavo bacteria) and open sores (furunculosis). Directions say to use one teaspoon for 25 gallons. Contains sodium chloride, nitrofurazone. Says to wait four days and do a 25% water change before adding more.

Ok now on to my problem...my fish had/has ich. I bought above medications for it and what I suspected was the beginings of fin rot...treated with a salt dip to knock off the ich too...used the first dose of what I think (told by lfs) is a cure for fin rot....he looks worse now than ever, I can actually see the edges of his tail starting to flake off, its soo sad! My question I guess right now is, should I do a water change? My params are great (see above) but the meds said to wait two days! I dont think i can possibly wait that long...also should i start treating with melafix in case the stuff I bought wasn't good or is it too soon to dose it too? Please help!

Unfortunately your parameters aren't great at all. Ammonia at a level of 1.0 is deadly so doing a massive waterchange now is so important

Just on water conditioner, you only need to use one. A few of the ones you are using basically do the same thing and adding too much is not good (unless it's Prime of Amquel + - you can't overdose on these).

Also as your tank hasn't cycled yet, I would try stepping up the waterchanges to daily and as for the ich, you could switch to salt which is the most gentle way to destroy them.

The best way to do this is by:

1- adding 1 teaspoon of predissolved sea, rock or aquarium salt per gallon of water (for your your 10 gallon/10 teaspoons)
2- 12 hours later repeat step 1
3- 12 hours later repeat step 1 again and this will take you to a salt level of 0.3%. At this salinity, it's enough to destroy ich.

Then each time you do a waterchange, all you need to do is calculate how many gallons you remove and add back either the 1, 2 or 3 teaspoons of salt per gallon.

So first thing to do is get your ammonia down to 0 as quickly as possible - this will help his immunity strengthen to fight off the ich.

I hope this helps

PS. Just on the meds, I would stick with the salt for now and perfect water because until your water is perfect, any meds you add will only compound the stress. Without perfect water, they won't work unfortunately. I think you may also find that once his water is better, he may improve on his own but I would try to resolve the ich problem first.

yea I certainly meant to say "arent" not "are"...wish they were but no such luck.... i just did about a 50 % water change before I read your reply hope it helps

looks like I got my ammonia down some...not as much as I had hoped but between .25 and .50 now so thats better
I'm kinda scared of the salt after his reaction to the dip so I decided to try the melafix this time used one teaspoon after I changed the water
I removed some of my gravel too, I think i might have had too much and it was trapping gunk and making more ammonia perhaps...hope this helps, let me know if anyone has anymore suggestions

oh and I'm not using all those at once, I was just noting different kinds I have used for water conditioners at different points. they were all little sample sizes so each one is for like just 5 or ten gallons so between the initial setup and water changes I have been through several already, just wanted to note them all in case one was bad or something

Don't be afraid of the salt - a salt bath is a lot stronger but a salinity level of 0.3% is very gentle on fish.

I think you may have to do a couple of waterchanges daily because you will soon enter the nitrite phase which is equally dangerous to fish.

As a suggestion, I would go with salt for the ich, melafix as a tonic and the most important is perfect water (I know I keep harping on it but it's so necessary to improving his health)

There is one thing you can get which will help neutralise the toxicity of ammonia and that's Prime. It's highly concentrated and will render ammonia and nitrites harmless which is why it's such a fabulous product during a tanks cycle

Is it just called Prime? Is it the Amquel you mentioned earlier? I just want to make sure I get the right thing...
Ok so right now should I add salt? Or wait until tomorrow when I change out the water again? Just to make sure I am getting this right... I should
1) change my water as often as possible to keep my params in line
2) buy Amquel Prime to help keep ammonia down
3) dose with 10 teaspoons of predisolved salt every two to twelve hours until reaching .3% salinity and keep it at this level (for how long?)
4) continue using the Melafix as a tonic

right now the ick looks alot better, i know it hides in the substrate so I need to continue treating even though I dont see anymore on my fish but my biggest concern right now is his poor fins...I hope hes ok
Also I have some anti-bacteria food that says its good for helping to repair finrot should I feed him this or something else?

Yes, if you have medicated food - that's a grand idea.

Also it's either Prime or Amquel Plus (Prime is the favourite of mine and many members on this board).... and yes to the waterchanges until you see significant improvement in the parameters. While your tank is cycling, your levels will look great after a waterchange and then sure enough, a few hours later they'll be back at toxic levels. These will start to come down nicely once your filter has housed enough beneficial bacteria to convert them.

I would start adding the salt once you remove the meds - salt and ich meds don't mix well together.

Just on adding the salt - the best way to look at it is:

1 teaspoon per gallon x 3 times, 12 hours apart and this gives you 0.3% salinity.

Something that helps rid your tank of ich is constant vacuuming of your substrate because they do fall into the gravel so the quicker you can remove them from the tank the better

ok so i let the salt disolve over night and put it in today after a large (somewhere between 50-75%) water change to get my ammonia down (its about somewhere between 0 and .25 now) and vacummed my gravel pretty good...so far he wont he the medicated food, just sucks it up and spits it out and for some reason the way if floats makes it get stuck to the filter intake. Do you have any suggestions on anyway I can make him eat it or make it more palateable for him? If he wont eat it eventually should I just go back to regular food or hope if he gets hungry enough he'll eat it? I have more salt dissolving now that I'll put in tonight and I'm goin to the store to buy amquel or prime....He seems alright today, there is only one ich spot but the fin rot is more noticeable...its almost like not rotted away but just clear on the ends like the color came off but they are getting very thin and ragged looking but he is still swimming around ok and using his fins an all. His anal fins dont move much but they dont seem to much in the first place and its only his two main back tail peices (sorry I dont know the correct terminology at the moment) that are showing signs of rot...Hopefully the salt and better water will help...Let me know if anyone has any suggestions about the food...Thanks
Sarah

When the ich start dropping off it will makes tail/fins look horrible if you had a big infestation. The ich cling to these areas and makes all kinds of damage when they fall off the fish. And the salt works great. Dont be afraid to use it. Its cured my ich problems several times.

update...I have done two pretty large water changes today and got my ammonia close to zero (somewhere between that and .25 but far closer to zero according to the color) I have added salt to the water that I added back in each time but I'm confused because if I am removing water for water changes I am also removing salt correct? So how do I know what my salinity is at as long as I am removing water for water changes. I dont want to shock my fish or my tank by adding the salt too fast but if I wait 12 hours between each salt dose to reach .3% salinity (36 hrs total) which has been previously suggested my ammonia will be too high before the next water change. Right now am have done thus.... 1) At 1:30 this afternoon I added my first ten tsps of predisolved salt and set out more to dissolve 2) just now at about 2:00 am I did a water change, about 35-40% or so (I never get too exact with it, I really just keep vacumming until I feel like my substrate is clean enough then I add back in however much I took out to get to that level) And added back in the water and another 10 tsps of predisolved salt.... So right now I am confused as to how much salt I am going to need to continue to need to add for the recommended salinity levels. Does this make sense?
Anyways as a general update I think things are getting better he seems to be a little more active than yesterday after the salt bath and his fins dont seem to have gotten any worse (not to say they look good but still...no change is better than getting worse) He still doesnt seem to like the anti-bacterial food too much so I tried mixing it up into a pea which he loved, I'm not sure how much of the medicine he actually got becuase it fell apart in the water and he mainly picked around it but I hoping maybe he accidentally picked some up...He looks a little overfull at the moment I think I fed him a bit much today so perhaps I wont feed but once tomorrow or maybe even fast for a day ( I'd hate to get swim bladder or something like that on top of all the rest he's been through lately)...Still no more signs of the ich thank god ...thanks for all your help and I will keep you all posted on his condition... Oh and btw does anyone know why his belly is turning more orange than black? is this a normal color change possibly due to the stress he's under right now or something else i should be worried about. Could it possibly be due to his rubbing his belly against the gravel and if so should I switch it out for something softer like river rocks or even go bare bottom? If I decide to do this will it affect my cycle too much? Sorry for all the questions....

oh and one more question...I am no longer using the ich meds I first bought, just the salt and the Melafix so do I need to continue to keep out my carbon filter or can I put it back in? If so is there anything I need to do do it before putting it back in? Rinse it in some tank water maybe? ok thanks let me know

When I had to do waterchanges during ich I took a piece of tape and marked on the outside of the tank the 1/2 way mark so I knew I was taking out 1/2 the water and therefore I knew how much salt I had to add back in. If you took out 40% of the water and added back in 10 tsps more of salt, you probably need to put in another 4 tsps or so so youre at the .2%. Marking the tank will definitely help you to know how much salt to replace when doing a waterchange.

The orange belly Im sure is regular color change since its orange but Ill let Jen help you with that! I hope he continues to improve.

Just on your carbon - IMHO, I would ditch it and replace it with something that will help either your mechanical or biological filtration. What kind of filter do you have?

Carbon is only necessary for chemical filtration ie. to remove meds from the water but other than that, it doesn't play much of a role in removing waste or converting ammonia and nitrites. Good bacteria doesn't house itself on carbon much so replacing it with something like sintered glass, ceramic noodles, filter wool or sponge would be more useful

I have the filter that came with my tank its a TopFin 10 (Petsmart brand) and it came with a little filter cartridge thing that is sort of like insulation type stuff on the outside and carbon on the inside, i also have a bit of sponge inside to help with the bio filtering...so carbon really serves no purpose? why are there so many filters out there with carbon in them, out of curiosity? should I just get rid of the carbon thing all together and put another sponge in there? or some of those little noodle thingies? Is it possible to put too much stuff in you filter and render it hard for the water to flow?

No - I purchased an aqua one filter which is very similar to the top fins and removed the all in one cartridge and inserted my own sponge and noodles. They shouldn't reduce the flow at all because the noodles are hollow and the sponges allow good water flow.

I'm not sure why most filters come with carbon... The problem with carbon is it's only useful for around 2 weeks before it becomes 'full' and if you leave it too long in your filter, it can leech chemicals back into the tank. I will use it if i need to remove meds but I will then toss that batch out

thanks for the info I"ll pick up some noodles if I ever get to the store for that prime...had a flat tire....I'll keep you guys posted about Gilly

I hope your fishy does well. For a ten gallon with one fish I would recommend testing your water twice a week (once the tank is cycled) to keep tabs on your water parameters. If you have any ammonia or nitrites you are still cycling. Your fish will constantly put ammonia into the water but the good bacteria in the filter will change it into less harmful stuff. Once your tank is completely cycled you will have 0 ammonia and nitrites, with a reading on the nitrate test. I strive to keep my tanks below 40 ppm nitrates. The only way to remove nitrates is with water changes. You never really remove stuff from your water, only dilute it. If you have 40 ppm nitrates and do a 50% water change then you will have 20 ppm nitrates. Have you read the articles on this site about cycling? They will help you out a whole lot. Keep us updated!! Good luck!

Edit: If you goldfish was orange with black splotches on him and now the black is turning orange is was ammonia burns. High level of ammonia will burn a goldfish, causing it's scales to turn black. With good water they will regain their original orange coloration.

Any way you can post a pic of your fish? I would love to see him/her!

Update!

Jen- I took your advice and put aside my carbon filter, I got another sponge and an aquaclear Biomax filter insert which is basically a mesh bag of those ceramic noodles you were talking about (I figured they would be better because the loose ones only came in huge amounts that were way too much for my filter) I also finally bought some Seachem Prime and used a tiny bit in the tank hopefully this will help keep my ammonia levels lower. Did a 50%ish water change and the second dose of salt today. On this note, does anyone know of any sort of test kit/stip thing that will tell you your salinity? I looked at the pet store today and didn't see anything but I'm sure something of the kind exists and I think it would really help me keep the right amout of salt becuae I am terrible with measurements and such. After my water change today my ammonia was about .25 which is still not great but better...I'm going to test and probably change again tonight after I have let the Prime set for a while and maybe hopefully get it to almost zero. Gilly still seems ok, moving around as usual, ate a pea today so far, I might try some more of the anti bacterial food today but he hates it so much and then it just clogs up my filter...Still no more signs of the ick and the fin/tail problems seem stable, not really any better yet but not any worse. There does seem to be more orange showing through though and this confuses me, its not a lot and its mainly on his belly but there is a tiny patch on his side now too. it doesnt look infected/red/soar/oozing or anything like that just like some of his black is wearing off and there is orange underneath. Lady_D, Here are some pics I'm gonna just post the link because I've had trouble resizing them. I took these right after I got him so you cant see the fin/tail issues but I'm going to try to get some of that later and post them too...Thanks everyone

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine.../Picture006.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine...icture001-1.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine.../Picture008.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine.../Picture009.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine.../Picture007.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine.../Picture003.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine.../Picture002.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/pine.../Picture010.jpg

ok so I am replying to myself now but I just want to keep whoever may be trying to help me and is watching this thread updated as much as possible. I just did a 50%-ish water change with more salt and some prime (and water conditioner obviously). Put in some more Melafix and removed even more of my gravel as I think its holding too much gunk and is one of the reasons I have had trouble getting my ammonia down. Tested my ammonia and its even closer to zero but still not quite...havent tested the rest yet today but it was all fine last night. Its been a bit of a frustrating day, for some reason my bubble wand keeps unattaching itself from the wall and tonight when I feed Gilly he sucked up a too large piece of pea and coughed/choked until I poked him a bit and he coughed it up. The ick really does seem to be gone although I do know it could come back but his poor fins and color are getting a bit worse I think. Now the fin on his back is starting to look ragged and he is getting lots of gold spots all over him. Activity wise and all else he seems to be fine, still eating, swimming and acting fine as far as I can tell. Still looks a tad constipated to me but nothing major. So I guess my questions right now are this
1) Are the fin/tail problems I am seeing a side effect of the ich or are they fin rot or is this one and the same and depending on what you think about this...
2) ...Should I just keep up with the salt, melafix, prime and water changes and hope this clears up or should I go back to the Binox or some other sort of medicine for fin rot
3) Are my tank decorations or gravel making the situation worse on his already delicate fins? (look in my pictures on my last post, the last link is a picture of my tank you can see my decorations, I have two plastic plants that are a bit pointy, a silk plant that is pretty soft, a buddha which is nice and round so it shouldnt be a problem and an asian style pagoda which is also a bit pointy in places)
4) If you use too much Prime can that have bad side effects? I dont have a good way to measure it at the moment becuase one capful is for like 50 Gallons so I am using just a tiny drop but I will hold off doing more until I get a better measuring system if there is a chance it could be bad. The same is true of my water conditioner, one capful is good for ten gallons so when I am doing a water change I use like half a capful but its not exact, is this a problem? If so does anyone have a better method?
5) Right now I am using salt, melafix, seachem stability, seachem prime and my usual water conditioner for water changes...is this too much? could the combo actually stress him out more than usual or since all these are pretty natural should it be ok?

ok so for the long posts but I am really starting to this little fishy and I want to get him through this, get my tank cycled, be a good fish mommy and watch him get big and old and happy!

I was just going to let you know how I keep my salt straight. This will only apply if you arew using buckets though, not if you are using a hose or a Python to refill your tank.

Simply, I add the salt to each bucket that I am adding back into the tank. The bucket I use is a three gallon, so if I am at .1% salt level, then I add 3 teaspoons of salt to the bucket and pour it in, then do the same for any additional buckets. If I was salted to .3% and already at that level, I would add 9 teaspoons to each 3 gallon bucket and add it back in. This way you are adding the exact amouint of salt needed per gallonage without having to do a bunch of math! You are adding in exactly what you took out. Also, make sure you measure carefully, if you add a little extra each time it can add up fast!

Hope that wasn't too confusing and that it helps a little. Good luck with your fish!

The one good thing about Prime is it's impossible to overdose and based on your ammonia reading, you can double or triple dose with no bad affects.

If you have prime, then you don't need to use anything else - that's too much chemical in the water. So Prime and only Prime is all you need

The ragged fins would be related to the ich. Because ich penetrates the skin, it leaves it open to secondary bacteria/other ailments and fin rot is a prime example. I would see if your fish will eat the medicated food otherwise, try to get some medigold as it's krill based and fish love the taste. Plus it's very effective

So perservere with the waterchanges and salt (using just Prime) and try to feed medicated food to tackle any secondary bacterial infection and he should do well.

As for the ornaments, IMHO - they're best removed until your fish is 100%. This way it's a better, sterile environment.

PS. Your fish is lovely and just on your filter, i know the aquaclear bags of biomax you're talking about - they're excellent so you should have some good filtration for your tank

Prime is great! my ammonia is down to practically nothing overnight! Thanks so much for telling me about that stuff. So right now all that looks good. Ph: 7.0-7.2, Ammonia: 0-.25, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: 0...However Gilly seems a bit sluggish today and is kind of sulking it seems like (he might just be a little scared, there were men spraying for bugs in my room all morning, moving stuff around and making noises) Also I am concerned with his poo because right now he has a very long whitish clear super skinny one trailing him around, it looks almost slimy like at first I thought it was a piece of his slime coat coming off until I looked close and saw where it was coming from.
But ok so I will cut out the water conditioner and the stability and use just the salt and the prime....I should cut out the Melafix too? I assumed since it was natural it would be ok to continue to promote healing but if you say cut it out I definantly will becuase all your info has been dead on so far. He still doesnt seem to care much for the medicated food but he does pick at it...I am going to look for Medigold today and see if he will try that.
Also I took out all my ornaments last night for about two hours but he kinda freaked out and swam frantically around the tank like he was wondering where all his cool furniture went. I know health is more important than looks but he really did seem stressed not to have things to swim around and hide behind. I might try taking them out again today and see if he handles it better or if I was just imagining it (does this happen? can fish "miss" things?)
In other news the bubble wand is finally staying put and I havent' had to do anymore fishie hiemlich maneuvers so all is well in that department.

I think if it would be helpful to keep the flow of information open one of the moderators can move this to the non-emergency section now if needed, but I would love for people to still check back in so I can keep asking questions and give updates in case something changes....
thanks again everyone

You can find MediGold at Goldfish Connection and no where else. Rick is also very helpful if you have any questions. He gets a lot of e-mails, I am sure but he will get back to you if you contact him.

I use little plastic syringes from the drug store to measure my Prime. I asked for one and they gave it to me. You could give that a shot, that way you always get the perfect amount.

I use two dechlorinators because I have copper pipes and I don't know if Prime tackles heavy metals, but if you have good pipes and good water strait from the tap then you will only need to use Prime. Make sure to test your tap water and do it about once a month, especially if you have city water.

You have a very pretty black moor! And I love the tank setup! Too cute!! I think it is possible for fish to miss their belongings, I know mine did when I slowly went barebottom. When the plants left, they started hanging in the corner, but when I glued them to different bases and put them back it worked wonders for morale.

I hope they didn't spray for bugs around your tank?

Thanks for the note about Medigold I'll look it up and order some...as for the bug spray I told them specifically not too but I wasnt here the whole time (had to go to class) so I cant be certain but I think they usually just spray near the floor so he should be ok.

The bug spray could easily have gotten into his tank, even though not sprayed close to the tank. The airpump sucks air in and delivers it into the tank.
Is he still sluggish, or back to his old self again? How is his poop today?

He's back to normal today, swimming around and all....His poop is good now too, looks like peas mostly, still trailing him sometimes but not as bad. Fins seem about the same, not any worse but not any better really. He's eating more of the medicated food now so thats good. Ammonia is still about the same, cant seem to get it down anymore which is frustrating but it is very close to zero so I think its ok. gotta get to work, will keep you posted.
Sarah

That is good news, Sarah! Him eating at least some of the medicated food is very helpful. His fins might take some time get back to where they were, but that is okay too.
I'll move the thread out of the emergency section for now, but it will still be checked in the diagnoses/discussion section. And whenever you feel your fishie is getting worse again, don't hesistate to let us know...

I was posting previously about my sick (ick/fin rot) fish and just as I thought he was getting better and the post was moved he got so much worse so I reposted here on the emergency list again. I came home today to find gilly just laying in the corner of the tank floating on the floor. I moved all the decorations, did a 50% water change, checked my levels and feed some peas. He only ate a tiny bit of them and he is swimming like not at all, just a little bit every now and then. His side is really really orange now, he looks as if he were a gold goldfish that somone sprayed black and the black is wearing off now. What could this be? is it related to our earlier problems or something new? What can I do? I'll try to upload some pics soon so you can see how he looks. Help!

Sarah, I have put the thread back into the emegency section for you...
Even if the orange is just a color change, Gilly shouldn't be hanging around like this. Does he still have any ich spots, or are they all gone now? Can you give us the readings of your tank again from today - ammonia and such?

Ammonia is not quite zero but pretty close, the prime brought it down alot.
Nitrates and Nitrites are both zero and ph is 7-7.2ish. Still using the salt at .3% and feeding peas and medicated food if and when he will eat it.
Havent seen any more ich either just the raggedness of the fins, the color change and now this sitting around on the bottom

oh and thank you for moving it back for me sorry to be so much trouble

Poor Gilly is still just sitting there! He will get up and swim a bit every now and again but his fins dont seem to move right, just kind of flops and floats around he will only use his two front fins to swim, none of the others.... but mainly he just sits there. His mouth is constantly moving like hes looking for food or gasping for air. His eyes look a little different too, I dont know how to explain it, theyre not glassy but sort of darker than usual, very shiny and black looking. I fed him a pea last night and he ate a few bites but not even half, he wont touch the anitbacterial food anymore either. I dont understand, he was ok Saturday about about three and by Sunday at 6 he wasnt moving. My water params are the same (Ammonia: 0-.25, nitrites and nitrates:0 ph 7.2ish) did a fifty percent water change just so I could feel like I was doing something. Does anyone have any suggestions about what might be going on. Is there anything else I can do for him or just hope for the best for a few days and start considering other options? I dont want to loose him but its starting to make me very sad to see him this way. I just dont understand, I've tried so hard to do everything right, bought all the right stuff, changed the water, tested it, feed all kinds of stuff, spent hours and hours here trying to learn everything and I still managed to end up at this point in less than three weeks......

sick fish pictures....here are some pics of gilly so you can see exactly how he looks...he's just sitting there and you can see how orange his side is getting

I really hope the bug spray didn't go within 2 rooms of him because if so, then this could be why he's declined so quickly. It's transferred from the air to the tank via the air pump How far away did they spray? Was it in the same room?

Is there any news on your fish?

I thought I'd wait a day to post and see what happened as I really have no changes in my fish. He is still the same, just laying at the bottom like that. He'll eat a little sometimes and other times nothing, some days he will try to get up and swim about a little but very very rarely and when he does try its not very well. His fins and all actually seem to have improved some now so I am starting to think this must be something totally different. I am continuing to test and change the water but I dont know what else to do....He just makes me so sad just laying there.
as for the bug spray it was in the same room, I only have one room..I suppose that could be it but I would have thought by now it would be better, thats been almost a week now...if it did get sucked out of the air somehow into the tank would it still be in the filter or something or would it not have dissipated by now?

Unfortunately the mortality rate of fish exposed to pesticide is high - it's so very lethal to them. A few years ago, my friend's neighbour sprayed their backyard with pesticide which was several metres away from her pond but within the space of 2 weeks, she lost all her fish

Just try to keep the water as perfect as possible (with some large waterchanges) and try increasing the air to the tank if you can....

Are you still feeding the medicated food?

Oddly enough, today Gilly seems to be doing much better. I spent the night at my parents last night and came back today to find him swimming around like nothing was wrong! I fed him a pea and he gobbled it up like he was starving to death and has been swimming around most all night, I've only caught him laying on the bottom a couple times and it has only been for a few minutes or so. I really have no idea what is up with him, I had almost resigned myself to loosing him and now he looks so much better! I hope this isnt just a temporary thing, maybe it was side effects from the pesticides and it took this long to get it out of the tank/filter/water/air I dont know or maybe he was just worn down from the ich/fin rot and he needed a few days to recover. I'm just so amazed to come home and see him playing in his bubbles and swimming right and all, just yesterday he was barely swimming at all and when he did it was so awkward it made you want to cry. Who knows but I'm very happy and I hope I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll keep you all posted and let you know if he continues to look up, Thanks
Sarah

Gilly still improving, Sarah?

he still is much better than before. Yesterday and today he has layed around a bit more than sunday but he has been eating and will get up and swim about when he sees me come into the room. When he swims it looks completely normal, fins moving right and all, seems to have no trouble. Often when I first come home I still find him laying in the corner but he seems alright otherwise. When hes laying there hes not gasping or wriggling anymore, just looks kind of like hes sleepy or tired or sad even. I think he's still improving though. Ill keep you posted

That is good news!! Lets watch him closely for at least a few more days before we move that out of the emergency section...

Great news for the little guy!

Gilly died last night. I have no idea why. He had continued to seem so much better. I was gone for about three hours and when I left he was swimming around like normal and when I got back he was dead. I changed the water right before I left and all I can think is that somehow that had something to do with it. I did like I always do but living in a dorm there are so many things that I dont really have control over. Maybe when the cleaning ladies cleaned the bathroom they left some cleaner on the pipes and it got into the water somehow, I really have no idea but thats all I can come up with.

Oh darn, Sarah, I am so sorry! After all the effort, and him getting better, that is quite a shock. It could have been something related to the water change, it could have been something else - we'll never know.

All I know is that you gave him the best chance he could have gotten, and you did more for him than most people would do.

I'm so sorry about Gilly.

RIP little guy.

I'm so sorry to hear Gilly didn't make it you tried everything you could...