Diary of a sick fish

[essop3]

I have never had a sick fish. I have always used quarantine... until this fish. My office was too crowded with the new frag tank and an empty qt so I had to give up the empty tank. A few weeks later I decided to buy a very healthy looking sailfin tang from my always great LFS. Since the QT was in the garage and I had always been so lucky I went ahead and put it into the reef.
As you might guess I now know the value of quarantine. Everyday or so I am going to update this post with the latest info and tests. I hope it can serve as a refrence and a lesson that luck doesn't last forever.
8/10/05- purchased the 2" tang and acclimated via drip over 3 hrs into my 125 reef. He ate right off the bat and got along well with the other fish. My Royal Gramma bullied a little but not enough to count. Food includes various (3-4) live algaes from my fuge, frozen brine, chopped krill, blood worms, and small pellets.
Test results:
temp 79
SG 35
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

 

[essop3]

8/14/05
Noticed 4 or 5 white spots on his tail and a little "flicking" himself against the rocks. This was late in the evening with not much light time left. I have 300# of rock so I knew this was gonna be a challange. While I didn't catch him today I setup the QT.
10g walmart combo with a MJ 400 powerhead. I added 2 cups of small rubble from my sump to give some bio filtration (its going in the trash after I'm done) and 2 pieces of PVC for hiding spots. 100% of water for this entire tank will come from my display.

 

[essop3]

8/15/05
Finally caught him. I also went through alot of work to get the copper medication (Mardel-CopperSafe) and a copper test. Hyposalinity seemed to be alot more demanding since I don't have a refractometer and the qt is so small.
Medication instructions say the level will me at 1.5-2 mg/L I plan on testing daily every evening and with any water changes. Since there is little to no biofilter I will also test other values every evening.
Anyways the tang was temp. acclimated and set free into the QT. Initial copper test was about 1 mg/L. But they are hard to read and I'm learning about the better safe than sorry thing.

 

[essop3]

8/16/05
I left for work at 6am and all was good. Temp is steady at 80. Lights are on a timer for 9a-7p
Got home at about 730pm and checked all levels
temp 80.2
pH 8.2
SG 35
ammonia 0.5
nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
copper 1.0 (for sure this time)
I did a 2 gallon water change, using more display water, to combat the ammonia. I will do this again in the am. Fish is still fine swimming freely. I dropped in a pinch of calpeura for food, I haven't seen him eat it yet. Even in the big tank he liked picking off the rocks better.
I also added 3 ml more medication (5ml to treat 4 gallon) level now tests between 1.5 and 2. Its bedtime for the fishy and all is holding steady. I will update with any changes tommorrow.

 

[buzzword]

Good luck with him. When I got my Powder Blue I put him right in my display as well, he had been at the LFS for 8 weeks. I noticed what may have been 2 spots on him. I immediately started soaking food including algae sheets in garlic extreme. 2 days later and possibly a visit to the cleaner shrimps and he is clean. No other fish involved with spots. That was over a week ago and no signs of ich. I have kept soaking the food in garlic, except the algae sheets. HTH
P.S. the ammonia in the QT may be more detrimental to his health than leaving him in the display. I would watch the ammonia carefully.

 

[essop3]

Tested water about 9:30am. Ammonia still at 0.5 I did another 3g water change and plan on another this evening. I also added medication to make up for the clean water. Fred (he needs a name) is doing good. The white spots have faded but are still there.
I will go to my LFS and pickup some seaweed selects and some garlic extreme. I've been hearing alot of good about the garlic. I am still worried about the ammonia, but even if I loose Fred the rest of the reef will hopefully still be safe.

 

[jacknjill]

i dont know about you, but when i had to treat some of my fish with copper, it threw all of my tests off. i tested the water befoe i added the copper (all levels fine) and then i tested the water a couple hours after i added the copper and my ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were off the charts. i mean as DARK as they could go. but yet all my fish were perfectly fine. so i continued to do water changes every day in the hopes of bringing them down until i finally figured out that they must be fine. you probably arent having the same problem as me but i just wanted to tell you what happened to me.
by the way, all fish survived the ich and were successfully transferred back into my reef

 

[essop3]

8/18/05
Did a 5g water change and added ammonia lock last night. The ammonia lock is supposed to change ammonia into a non-harmful form but not remove it. Readings are lower with just a slight color change. All other tests remain the same.
I fed seaweed selects soaked in garlic. Fred has nipped a little but not ate too much. All signs of ich are gone, but the medication says to treat for 5 days minimum. I will continue for few days more than that.