To medicate or not?

[jaws789832]

OK so this was another unauthorized purchase but I couldn't help it. So I have a 20g tank set up with about 10 lbs of live rock, UG filter, HOB filter, that was fully cycled and ready to go. I was going to try my hand at same macro algae, and maybe place a few fish in as well. I went down to petco for some odds and ends and I saw these 2 beautiful baby pearl eye clowns. Unfortunately they were in a tank that was filled with fish that had white spots (ich). I knew leaving them in there was just a death sentence and they looked pretty healthy, and since I had my tank set up and fully cycled I decided to purchase them.

I brought them home, drip acclimated them over 3 hours in the dark. Put them in the 20g and all has been going well. They seem healthy and happy. They started eating the day I put them in (that was 6 days ago. Since they are just babies, I have been feeding them just a little bit 3 times a day. A few pellets, some brine shrimp and yesterday I gave them some live black worms which they eagerly gobbled up.

Right now they are not showing any signs of diseases or ich but my question is should I prophylactically medicate the tank since I don't have my CUC crew in there yet (which I have ordered and will get later this week) Or should I wait and see what happens? If I do medicate the tank, how long does it take to absorb the meds out with carbon, basically after I put it in how long should I wait to add the cuc.

I will try to get pics when I figure out how to do it with the new format because they are cute little buggers.

 

[Oxylebius]

If you medicate you should not do it in the main tank. Medication should only be added to a hospital (or quarantine tank). The medications cause all types of complications including being absorb by the live rock (to seep out at some point later), killing off invertebrates in the tank, and depending on the medication used can cause issues with your bacterial filtration.

If the fish came from a tank full of sick fish, the likely hood that they are also infected is high. Just b/c you don't see ich doesn't mean they fish aren't infected. Ich can live in the gills where you can't see it. And now there is a high chance you infected your entire main tank, and any other fish you get can catch it.

If you want to treat the fish do it in a QT. Then you will want the main tank to go fallow (w/o fish) for 3 months, which is the life cycle of ich. If no fish are around ich will die off w/o a host to feed on.

You can add cuc to the main tank while the tank goes w/o fish for three months.

 

[jaws789832]

OK with that being said I think I will just wait and see what happens then. If I need to qt them at a later date I will. Like I said the tank is designed as a macro algae tank so there wont be anymore fish going in and if I need to fallow it, it wont be a big deal, just plants and snails.

 

[PSU4ME]

I'm with Sue. Good luck though, hopefully they don't get severely sick. Overtime ich seems to lose its grip if it continues to reproduce with no new additions...... Burns itself out so to say.

 

[Oxylebius]

Pretty fish. I hope they will be fine. Reach back out to us if you do have issues with them.

 

[DaveK]

... they were in a tank that was filled with fish that had white spots (ich). I knew leaving them in there was just a death sentence and they looked pretty healthy, and since I had my tank set up and fully cycled I decided to purchase them. ...

I hope this does work out for you, but I've got to say that doing something like this is really "looking for a stomping" in a SW system. Hopefully you will not have an issue, and you did get a species of clown that is a bit less prone to diseases.

I know it's really hard to not purchase something when you know it will die in the hands of the LFS. One of the sad things I saw many years ago was when a large local LFS put 8 juvenile
angels together. They were all the same species and they beat up badly on each other. I suspect all of them died soon after. The store people just tried to treat SW fish like FW fish, and things don't work that way. The store has since gone out of business.

The bottom line is if the LFS isn't properly taking care of their livestock, don't buy and find a new LFS.