OK, i think i know what is going on..need professional help

S

slb11106

Member
well i have had multiple problems with the couple of tangs i got, i had the first pbt and it died, now i got a new pbt and a purple tang and the pbt died and the purple looks sick this morning, i believe that my tank has a bad case of ich...they all (tangs)seem to loose color, then there underside gets a dirty, kind of rough look and then the white spots or bumps are very apperant. i did not catch on to this problem as all of my other 8 fish are fine, but after watching them for a while last night i noticed that most of them were bouncing off the rocks and sometimes doing some irratic movements. :waa: :waa:

now that i know (or think) what the problem is, how do i fix it. i tried garlic and it kept them ok but not cure it. i think i need to get rid of the problem...

should i try "kick-ich" first and see what that does ?

or should i just suck it up and treat with copper ?

if i treat with copper, would it be easier to pull all of the fish out and put them in a quarintine tank or just get the corals, shrimp and crabs into a quaritine tank ?

i do not have a quarintine tank so i will have to go get one, how do i set one up, and what do i need for the setup:bouncebox
 
Warnberg

Warnberg

Well-Known Member
There are a couple of methods to treat ich. The first and probably the best is hypo salinity treatment. Here is a link.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

Read thru this a choose your treatment. My suggestion if all your fish are showing signs of ich is to remove them all from the main display, raise the temp in the main display to about 80 to 82 degrees and leave it fish-less for about 8 to 10 weeks. Treat all your fish in a QT tank, one you have successfully treated all your fish and the main display has been fish-less for 8 to 10 weeks you can put them back in, from then on soak all feed in Solcon and Garlic Extreme. Also any new fish must go into QT first before they are place in the main display.
 
Warnberg

Warnberg

Well-Known Member
I would use at least a 20 gallon tank and a sponge filter, if you use water from the main display it will cycle faster if at all. Put a small piece of live rock in it from the main display as well, a powerhead for flow and be ready to change water if the your ammonia starts to go up.

Here is some good reading on QT tanks.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

How many fish do you have?
 
S

slb11106

Member
i have 8 fish

i have a couple people local that are selling 55 gal and 90 gal setups for 300-300 dollars, should i just buy that, or is that just way too big to work with ?

also there are some fresh water setups for sale with hang on filters, would that be a good idea for a qt tank?

or should i just go buy a small 20 gal and use that
 
Warnberg

Warnberg

Well-Known Member
55 and 90 gallon tanks would be a little much to handle for just QT. A used freashwater tank would work fine 20 to 30 gallons max. I have a 20 long I use and it works perfect.
Something like one of these at petco will do, SeaClear Rectangular Aquarium Combo. All you really need is a tank, hood, lighting, heater and a large hob filter will work fine. Nothing fancy really.
 
S

slb11106

Member
they sell those 24gal nanocube system for 199.00 that would be everything, or else just a 25 gal is 169.00 at petco, does that sound right ?
 
Warnberg

Warnberg

Well-Known Member
That would work perfectly.... but I think you can go a little cheaper then that. A 20 gallon long with hood and light, hob filter, heater, and a small powerhead. Should be able to pick up the whole thing for 100.00 bucks or less I would think. Just make sure you use a refractometer to measure salinity.

I see you are in Tampa.... check out the Tampa Bay Reef Club, lots of nice people and they just might have a tank that they will give or loan you.... They have a forum over on that other site.. you know that RC site?
 
mps9506

mps9506

Well-Known Member
You are headed the right direction with the Q tank. I always treat new fish esp. tangs in hyposaline water with copper.
Regarding your main tank, I haighly recomend leaving it alone for at least 30 days, just don't add any fish to it. Preferabbyl leave it fishless for 30 days, but I know that is highly unlikely to get done :)
FWIW the two tangs you are trying to add are very poor shippers and IME at least half of them come in loaded with parasites or so stressed out that they are not going to make it past a few weeks. Be VERY picky in choosing these fish, I highly recomend purchasing local when getting tangs, look for ones that have been in for at least a week, (any fish store should be willing to hold them for you), make sure they are eating clipped seaweed, and hopefully mysis/brine, make sure color and wieght look good.
Then quarantene for a few weeks after you purchase in a barebottom tank in hyposaline conditons. If I leave in Q for a month I don't even bother with the cooper.
 
C

cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
A 20 gallon QT is ideal if your treating each addition individually but not 8 fish for 4-8 weeks IMO that would not work. I would suggest a 55 gal with a powerfilter make sure you keep an eye on the ammonia levels doing frequent W/C's and use Ammonia Detox or something similar.Your LFS should have a regular 55 gal for around $100.00.

Check here for a proper QT setup: http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/quarantinetanks.html
 
S

slb11106

Member
well, i appreciate all the input, i have good news, when i got home tonight the tang had alot of color and most of the white spots were gone and was eating good. i know this is the cycle of ich, but i started kick-ich as a preventive measure and started feeding them medicated food that i got at the LFS. this hopefully will buy me some time as i get a qt tank and get a biological filter going. i did find a 20 gal tank with everything for 100.00 so i am going to see if anyone local has a cheaper system for sale otherwise i will purchase one next week, but i am going today to get a hang on filter (maybe a emperor 280) and put the filter in my sump to start the process.

anyway, if anyone has any input please let me know

thanks:columbo:
 
Woodstock

Woodstock

The Wand Geek was here. ;)
RS STAFF
What type of medicated food? What is the active ingredient? I may need to add it to my medicine chest :)
 
S

slb11106

Member
i dont know, they told me, but i bought it in bulk and it needs to be kept in the freezer(flake food) but i will find out for you.

i got it from "fish and other ichthy stuff" in tampa www.ichthythings.com (name and address only

but it works wonders...so far. i used it before and it cleared it all up within 2 weeks
 
J

JeffJ

New Member
What about the bouncing off of rocks bit? Why are the fish doing that? I am curious about that because a blue tang I bought a few weeks ago is doing something similar.
 
S

slb11106

Member
WOW....kick-ich is awsome stuff...my tank is clear (i only did the first application and have to continue for 14 days) but after the first application and the medicated food there are no signs of flashing, no signs of white spots and the purple tang has 90% of its color back
:whstlr: :whstlr: :whstlr: :whstlr: :whstlr: :whstlr: :whstlr: :whstlr:

i did not think that the purple tang was going to survive and i was ready to do desperite measures and pull all the fish out and put them in a new QT tank (that i still dont have yet) when i decided to try kick-ich as a last resort ( i am a big fan of it now):)
 
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