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gtdarock
Guest
Good reading's Hef, I'm hoping to match yours soon
Hefner's 180 Thread
- Thread starter hefner413
- Start date
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regina13
Guest
Can we get a full tank shot?
hefner413
Active Member
Well, I think I've screwed up. No point in trying to ignore it or avoid it, as I'll probably be suffering the consequences inevitably... but I went against most everything that I've preached about being careful... OK - Here's what I did:
I went to my LFS again. I found an amazing specimen - a striped dogface that was twice as impressive than my last one. I was hesitant to get it b/c there were a couple spots on it's fins. I thought they might be ich, but the store owner said that it definitely wasn't. He said he actually had had the fish for about 6 wks, and no signs of sickness/demise. I agreed that the fish looked great and that it probably wasn't ich if it was doing so well. And I personally had a valentini puffer that had about 5 spots on it's fins for the entire 9 months or so that I owned it without any change. SO I was hoping that this was probably the same thing.
Anyway, I acted without caution.. bought the fish and didn't read up anymore before adding it. Now it's swimming in the tank and the spots are much more apparent in my lighting. The fish still looks well, but now I've read up... And I keep reading OVER and OVER that puffers are very prone to ich on their fins.
SO, I don't know what to do. The fish has been in there for almost 48 hrs now. So there definitely isn't any way that ich hasn't been introduced. What should I do??? Should I just watch and pray or should I just go ahead and start hypo? AND ohhh how I hate hypo. And just how do you do it with a 2 ft eel?
Please help friends... and yeah, I know.. I knew better. But what would you do now?
Here's a couple pics:
This first pic shows the spots the best.
I went to my LFS again. I found an amazing specimen - a striped dogface that was twice as impressive than my last one. I was hesitant to get it b/c there were a couple spots on it's fins. I thought they might be ich, but the store owner said that it definitely wasn't. He said he actually had had the fish for about 6 wks, and no signs of sickness/demise. I agreed that the fish looked great and that it probably wasn't ich if it was doing so well. And I personally had a valentini puffer that had about 5 spots on it's fins for the entire 9 months or so that I owned it without any change. SO I was hoping that this was probably the same thing.
Anyway, I acted without caution.. bought the fish and didn't read up anymore before adding it. Now it's swimming in the tank and the spots are much more apparent in my lighting. The fish still looks well, but now I've read up... And I keep reading OVER and OVER that puffers are very prone to ich on their fins.
SO, I don't know what to do. The fish has been in there for almost 48 hrs now. So there definitely isn't any way that ich hasn't been introduced. What should I do??? Should I just watch and pray or should I just go ahead and start hypo? AND ohhh how I hate hypo. And just how do you do it with a 2 ft eel?
Please help friends... and yeah, I know.. I knew better. But what would you do now?
Here's a couple pics:
This first pic shows the spots the best.
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rcreations
Guest
I know I'm going against popular belief here but this is what has worked for me. If the fish is eating, soak its food in FRESH garlic juice. That means taking a clove of garlic, crushing it and soak whatever food in the juice for 5-10 minutes. Not longer because then it looses its properties. Back when I had the reef tank, I bought a few fish that had white spots on their fins, like yours. This garlic treatment worked every time and I never had a fish die. Except the one that jumped out of the tank at night and that had nothing to do with ich, it was a flame wrasse and they like to jump. Anyway, this is what I would do if the fish is eating.
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rcreations
Guest
You should see all the white dots disappear within 5 days. That's about how long it took for me.
kjr_trig
Active Member
I know how it is Hef....Impulse buy, thats how I ended up with a Sunset Wrasse as the first fish in my tank, it was nowhere near being on my stocklist...I agree though, don't start hypo until you see spots on a Tang. I am no expert, but you might consider doing a freshwater dip on him
aquaknight
Active Member
Hey Hef, sorry I have been on your thread sooner. Just scroll through all of it.
Sorry to here about the current issues. Definitely been dumb ideas we've all done. Welcome to the club
For the problems now, I think there's some basis for a 'hold-for-now' plan of attack. As much as I'm a QT everything, treat everything, type of person, there are success stories like --'s and Harleys. Were you planning to just hypo the entire DT or do/did you have QT's? For now, I would just feed well, cross your fingers, and observe VERY closely. Use plenty of Vitamin and Fat supplements (Zoe/Zoecon, Selcon, vitachem) in the food (soak for 1 hour) and indeed try some fresh minced garlic. I would buy cloves and just do it myself.
The moment the Ich spreads to another fish is the time to take action. (My money would be on the Hippo) If the QT's aren't up now, get them running. If you're just going to hypo the DT, have pre-made water standing by. A FW dip would help in the short term, should kill the exposed cysts and clear his gills. Be sure to temp. and pH match the FW.
Sorry to here about the current issues. Definitely been dumb ideas we've all done. Welcome to the club
For the problems now, I think there's some basis for a 'hold-for-now' plan of attack. As much as I'm a QT everything, treat everything, type of person, there are success stories like --'s and Harleys. Were you planning to just hypo the entire DT or do/did you have QT's? For now, I would just feed well, cross your fingers, and observe VERY closely. Use plenty of Vitamin and Fat supplements (Zoe/Zoecon, Selcon, vitachem) in the food (soak for 1 hour) and indeed try some fresh minced garlic. I would buy cloves and just do it myself.
The moment the Ich spreads to another fish is the time to take action. (My money would be on the Hippo) If the QT's aren't up now, get them running. If you're just going to hypo the DT, have pre-made water standing by. A FW dip would help in the short term, should kill the exposed cysts and clear his gills. Be sure to temp. and pH match the FW.
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rcreations
Guest
Can he just hypo the DT? Wouldn't he have to take out all the LR, LS and any inverts?
aquaknight
Active Member
That is certainly one option. Yes, he would have to take out any inverts. For the LR/LS, there's mixed opinions, some say the hypo will kill the good bacteria, some say the bacteria will go into sort of an hibernation. That said, taking out most of the LR into a rubbermiad with powerhead and heater, isn't too bad of an idea. I would just leave the LS. Either way to going to produce a nutritent sink. Removing that much sand so quickly isn't a good idea, but all the little critters will die.
With those 4 fish (Naso, Hippo, Dogface, Zebra?), heavy water changes are going to be required either way..
With those 4 fish (Naso, Hippo, Dogface, Zebra?), heavy water changes are going to be required either way..
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gtdarock
Guest
Hey Hef, nice puffer. i think that the garlic should work for the puffer. I remember, that I had the same problem with a black puffer that I bought last year, and he had the same symptoms, and with the garlic, it went away. Good luck man !
hefner413
Active Member
Hey guys. Thanks so much for the support. As an update, puffer is doing fine. No changes. Still eating fine and still has spots. No spots on anybody else..
Regarding some of the questions asked...
I have not QT'ed any of the fish in the aggressive tank. I had always used a QT on my reef - I used a 10 gal QT. I was worried about using this with the aggressive fish, being that I was scared that such a small tank would stress them out and make them more prone to infection anyway. What do you all think? Either way, I am now planning on quickly setting up a 30+ gal QT. Think that is large enough? I'm not going to make this mistake again.. and I knew better anyway.
And if I do need to hypo this crew... I'm deciding b/w hypo in the dislplay with removal of all rock to a rubbermaid VS removal of fish to a smaller QT and then leaving the DT fallow for 6-8 wks. I'm thinking that the first option would be less stressful on the fish overall, but would be more work... What would you all do?
Thanks again for your support. It's definitely making this easier..
Regarding some of the questions asked...
I have not QT'ed any of the fish in the aggressive tank. I had always used a QT on my reef - I used a 10 gal QT. I was worried about using this with the aggressive fish, being that I was scared that such a small tank would stress them out and make them more prone to infection anyway. What do you all think? Either way, I am now planning on quickly setting up a 30+ gal QT. Think that is large enough? I'm not going to make this mistake again.. and I knew better anyway.
And if I do need to hypo this crew... I'm deciding b/w hypo in the dislplay with removal of all rock to a rubbermaid VS removal of fish to a smaller QT and then leaving the DT fallow for 6-8 wks. I'm thinking that the first option would be less stressful on the fish overall, but would be more work... What would you all do?
Thanks again for your support. It's definitely making this easier..
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rcreations
Guest
I think that's pretty much it. If you hypo the display, it's easier on the fish. But for you it'd probably be easier to hypo a smaller QT. I have a 38g QT, which is actually an old sump that I made and never used. So I just removed the acrylic baffles and turned it into a QT.
iyachtuxivm
Member
Looks good
Good luck!
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gtdarock
Guest
Hey Hef ! Great pictures, glad the puffer is doing well !
95harley
Active Member
Just found and read this post as well. Congrats on the big tank, nice job.
Note of caution:
Keep an eye on the puffer and Hippo. The white spots disappearing my be them dropping off the "Hatch" and unleash a mess of Ich.
Keep a CLOSE EYE on everyone. The minute any other fish starts showing white spots go stock up on some Kick Ich. I had to do it once in my 240 and on big tanks it takes alot.
I have always wanted a Hippo but EVERYONE I talk to says they are Ich producing machines and it's not a matter of if it's when. So they scare the heck out of me. Nothing worse than battling an outbreak on these BIG tanks.
Joe
Note of caution:
Keep an eye on the puffer and Hippo. The white spots disappearing my be them dropping off the "Hatch" and unleash a mess of Ich.
Keep a CLOSE EYE on everyone. The minute any other fish starts showing white spots go stock up on some Kick Ich. I had to do it once in my 240 and on big tanks it takes alot.
I have always wanted a Hippo but EVERYONE I talk to says they are Ich producing machines and it's not a matter of if it's when. So they scare the heck out of me. Nothing worse than battling an outbreak on these BIG tanks.
Joe