First Purchase, First Scare

[nate_m]

With a little help from you guys I went out and made my first purchase this weekend.
I bought two small Oscellaris Clownfish, 3 snails, 1 starfish. Probably a little to much for the first purchase but the LFS guys assured me all would be well.
Got them home safely and acclimated them appropriately. Released them and was admiring how beautiful the clowns were when I noticed something strange. The larger of the two clows, Larry, had some white specs on him. My blood pressure shot through the roof. My heart racing and ran to the computer. First thing I read about was Ich. After reading for 3 minutes I was irritated I hadn't setup a hospital tank to house these guys in before releasing them to my tank. I didn't realize just how terrible an Ich outbreak can be with a LS and LR setup. Needless to say I'm looking into a hospital tank before my next purchase.
Lesson Learned: If you have a FOWLR tank get a hospital tank first.
To finish the story it turned out that Larry has Lymphocyctis. A pretty common virus that is treated with a little TLC.
Couple of questions:
1. Would like to purchase a used tank to setup my QT/HT. How much can I expect to spend on a decent setup? Is the HT functional when not taking care of other fish?
2. I have to small clownfish. I purchased some frozen 'chunks' of food. LFS guy suggested feeding them 1/2 per chunk per day. This sound reasonable? Yesterday I split it into fourths and feed two forths (1/2) at seperate times. Its it ok that the food gets blown to bits and thrown around the tank? Those 2 maxi-jet 900s move some water
Thanks again for all the help.
- Nate

 

[pfitz44]

IMO, you introduced the star too early in the tank. They need a well established tank inorder to survive... but on to your questions...
Feeding may sound reasonable. You want to feed them enough so that there is no food floating around in the tank about 2 min after u feed them.
Hospital tanks are not that hard to set up. You need the tank, a filter, a heater/chiller (Depending were u are) and thats about it. When u do your h2o change in tour MT, put that water in your HT/QT, that way the bacteria is already there, and you will not have to cycle!