Tomorrow I'd add some dark coffee cups and/or large PVC elbows to give him more places to hide...He's had a long bad day today and is likely kinda stressed out. I agree to leave him alone 2nite. but tomorrow morn before lights on, I'd try to add some more stuff for him to hide in....just NOT rock/sand....
Using liverock&sand in a Qtine tank is not the best thing, as the rock&sand will absorb any copper/formalin meds you may have to add to treat ich, making maintain a stable daily treatment level hard to do. Then, if any of this rock/sand is ever add back to the main tank, the copper or formalin will leach back out of the rock/sand and can kill any corals/inverts in the main. Remember all meds have a narrow window of treatment level between doing nothing, killing parasites, and too much meds - you kill fish. A stable daily level of treatment is best!
Also ALL worms/pods/scuds in & on your sand/rock NOW will also die right quick as soon as you start medicating with copper or formalin and likely cause a spike in bad water parameters.
Hippos sleep on their side wedged under/against somthing dark. This is also their "flight" response and they prefer to hide like this... This makes it very hard to rid them of ich, cause when a parasite is done feeding and leaves the fish - it goes to the bottom of the tank to cyst and multiply 200+ times.....then when it hatches - guess who may be sleeping on top of it? ?
this is a very sucessful qtine tank I am using right now to rid a longnose butterfly of ich.....just lots of inert&easy to clean coffee cups/pvc.....there is nothing in the tank that is porus or will absorb meds....This fish has just under 2 weeks to go and should be clear. I have used this setup with excellent results for 10 years now. Most fishes prefer the darker cups to white ones or 3" pvc..
Edit: Never use red clay type flower pots - most are not glazed and are porus and will leach bad things into qt water, and they also absorb meds, just like rock.
