After birthing~stress?

[traco1]

After my female hifin sword gave birth, the next day she had some ich spots on her. I am medicating the tank, today is Day 3.

I am thinking they would be rundown from pregnancy and labour, and are more susceptible to illness? I was hoping to put her in a tank by herself but she beat me to the delivery day. It is best to let them rest by themselves, if possible, afterwards?

Or is this a combo of birthing and too much bioload on the tank? I've got 8 swords, a couple of cories and a pleco in the 55. It looks like this may be the limit for swordtails in this setup?

Also, can lights be run while dosing with Rid Ich+? Live plants are in there. I haven't had the lights on yet other than to check how things are in there. And are UV sterilizers something to look into? I haven't had ich for years but that is because I've only had discus and they need a higher temperature than livebearers. I was pretty confident getting back into swordstails and platies but feeling a little discouraged right now. All these tanks are kept separate, their water change hoses, etc... are also separate from each other so no cross contamination that I can see I'm doing?

[CACAdmin]

More susceptible to illness after giving birh? Most definitely. The birthing process takes its toll on the female. Even occasionally a female livebearer will not survive the birthing process.Your swordtail mama would be more prone to infection and parasites at this time.

As for Ich... somehow it seems to be the season. Sorry to hear you're having to deal with an outbreak. With regards to having the lights on while using RidIch+, I have never found it a problem. All my tanks are planted (except for the ones containing my marisa snails (plant eaters) and I have always have kept the lights on.

UV Sterilizers are great but you do need to get one powerful enough to kill parasites... if not, then all they do is kill algae. I know when I was looking at them Melody gave me a link to determining what size is needed for the size of the tank. I'll see if I can find it for you. I have a UV Sterilizer but don't use it all the time. I will however, set it up and run it at the first sign of a problem in my tank. It does work.

[CACAdmin]

Here is the the link I mentioned regarding UV Sterilizers: UV Sterilizer Selection Guide (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=435)

[traco1]

Thank you, Jay, for the info about birth and stress and link for the UV. I'm off to read now. Didn't know about making sure to get a powerful one, I thought they were all the same except for light.

[CACAdmin]

It's a combination of thw wattage of the bulb and the flow rate.