sick neon tetras?

hi ppl, so im kinda new to keeping fish, i have a 10 gallon tank, with 5 neon tetras in it and 2 ghost shrimp. so a few days ago i noticed that one of my neon tetras was looking really pale, kind of like how they look at night when they are resting, all the other ones were nice and bright. so on closer inspection i saw that on one side of its body, like around the gill area, it looked like either the gill and scales were kind of lifted up or it has like a whitish slimy bulge on that side, there was no redness to the area of gill, just a bump or lifted scales. hard to tell which one cause they are small and move a lot. so now im looking at all my neons and i notice that one other has a little white speck behind it top fin, its color is fine but you can clearly see the white speck. all of the other neons are fine.

i dont know what it is with these two, i was thinking the white speck,( just one) is ick... and the other one has either ick under its gill and scales or protozoan parasite which is suppose to look like a whitish mucus film, im assuming this could be why the area look whitish and kinda bulged out. now, i have Aquari-Sol which treats for ick, protozoan parasites and also velvet, so i took the two ghost shrimp out of the tank and put then in a spare 5.5 gallon that i have cause the medication cant be used with shrimp. its been 3 days of treatment but it doesn't seem to be doing anything... if it is ick i dont want the other neons to get sick, i thought of taking out the 3 that are fine and putting them into the 5.5 for now but the problem is that tank isn't cycled, its kinda going through a cycling right now with the shrimp, also they all school together so i dont want to split them up and cause them stress.

i figured that if the ten gallon has ick in it that treating the whole tank would be best to rid it of the ick completely and incase the 3 that look fine right now have it, it will treat them too or at least prevent them from getting it. but how long do i do this for, the only thing it says on the bottle is to raise temp to 85, and use 12 drops per ten gallons, add 12 drops per ten gallons every 24 hours until fish are cured, so i do this everyday, and when i do my water change at the end of the week will this dilute the meds, should i add the meds before or after my water change or should i skip the water change? because there is only 1 speck on one neon is this even ick? could it be something else? and the raise gill on the other neon, could this be something else too? is there a med that treats everything that one of you may recommend?

thanks in advance, and sorry if a rambled on... :)

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Permalink Reply by Rizal on January 3, 2012 at 10:59am

do u have any photos of them or your tank setup? what kind of 10g tank (meant planted/with dirt etc) or a simple setup?

you said,ur new right?how long u had the neons?

As far as i know neons r best kept in schools.....more than a dozen....it does not like bright lights......all the time......i used to have 50neons in my 10g tank....for sure i lost some in 2 years period......due to many factors......fish keeping,,,,, its natural....

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Permalink Reply by Cama on January 3, 2012 at 2:16pm

well the first tank i set up was a year ago, a 5.5 gallon with a oranda goldfish, i didn't know anything about fish , and bought a "starter kit" and told by the pet store i could have a gold fish, really bad advice, so as you know the goldfish didn't make it, i then got a few guppies, but they died too, i couldn't understand why so i dismantled the tank and started to do a lot of research on keeping fish, i found out about cycling, which no one ever told me about.. and of course was more intrigued. so i got a brand new ten gallon from a friend who bought it on a whim and didn't end up using it, and i cycled it for about 8 week, then got my first 2 neons, all went well and i got 3 more a few weeks later. then i added 2 ghost shrimp, also an anubias and water wisteria, the wisteria only grew up and it wasn't working for me so i took it out, had only the anubias in it, its been up and running perfectly for about 4 months, i didn't add any new fish or anything so i was a bit puzzled as to how i could have ick...

right now its just a 10 gallon without plants i took the anubias out to put in the 5 gallon with the shrimp for now until the fish are cured... simple gravel, a heater and a marineland penguin 100 filter, which is rated for 20 gallons, also i dont use the disposable pad in the filter instead i use a piece of aquaclear media foam cut to fit, and a bag aquaclear bio max, also a bag of activated carbon, which is out ow cause of the medication.

here are some pictures...

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on January 3, 2012 at 4:15pm

it looks like bacterial infection instead of ick

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Permalink Reply by Brian on January 3, 2012 at 2:47pm

My Opinion: Ick is a night marish parasite. 1 ick can produce in to many more if left untreated. I never used the Aquari-sol before but based on directions you should treat them for at least 7 to 10 days. Do a 20 to 30 percent gravel cleaning water change. Don't stir the gravel, just siphon it. Increasing temperature helps speed up the life cycle of the ick to a point where it is most fragile to the medication. VERY IMPORTANT IS INCREASE AREATION for example lowering water level so the filter can create a waterfall splash. Of course remove any filter pads that contains Carbon. Then use the medication. Water change can come after the 7 to 10 day treatment. Repeats maybe nessary but risky, depending on the fish health. As for the other neon tetra, it sounds like it has some kind of internal bateria infection that causes that lifting of the scales and bump. Usually I would use antibiotics products like MARDEL MARACYN -TWO, or my favorite and a bit pricey MARDEL MARACYN PLUS. The problem is u cant use both meds for ick and bacteria infection at the same time. I am very sorry to hear your story but do your best to treat one illness seperately from another. Meds can stress your fish but this is one of those things a fish keeper will need to learn to diagnose. I been through this many times. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Cama on January 3, 2012 at 3:10pm

thank for the info, i will continue with the ick treatment and then see about treating the other one with something else if it makes it trought the ick