Ok so every thing has been great with the tank so far but this is the first serious problem we had.

Over the weekend I lost my first fish of the aquarium this weekend, it was a sad day but a definite learning experience. After finding the fish and extracting it from the tank I started trying to figure out what in the tarnation caused my fish to die. I started checking the water and making sure that the pH levels were good and so on. I even had a second opinion of the professionals at PETCO retest the water and make sure I wasn't plum crazy. We came to the conclusion after testing the water that my tank had the "ICH".

Flickr-jelene
Flickr-jelene
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What is "ICH" a common name for Ichthyophthirius multifilis which translates to fish louse with many children", a title that fits well, as each parasite may produce over a thousand offspring according to about.com. This parasite makes its home on your fish and is noticeable by the small white spots that can be seen all over the entire fish. Even though this is comporable to a skin infection on a human it can be deadly to fish.

Luckily we only lost one fish which was one of our red tail sharks, but hey a lesson learned. We made a $12.00 purchase for some "Ich" treatment which is available at your local pet store, rushed home and commenced to treat the tank. So we are now on our second round of treatment and the new filters will go in 48 hrs from now but all is well and the "Ich" has begun to disappear and is in its minimal stage. Will have pictures up of the new fish we add after our case of the "Ich" has disappeared.

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