ich or velvet?

[psumba]

I guess this is the old common question -
I added my first fish - a Yellow Tang on Saturday
normal acclimation, no fresh dip, and I did not dump the water into my tank.
All day Sat and Sun thru Mon he seemed fine, swam alot near the edges like he was looking at himself. Started to swim in powerhead flow back and forth the length of the tank.
I only saw him eat once - he bit one piece of algae of a LR. He never ate anything I fed him.
I thought he was just on a eating strike.
On Monday night I noticed that I had white little bugs everywhere (copepods - this site helped me with that one)
Then I get home last night and I look at him, he is not swimming that much, and when I looked at him closely he has lots of little white dots all over him.
I opened my books last night and I think its velvet, so I fresh water dipped him - though it didnt last long - he started laying on the bottom.
So I put him back.
I didnt think he would live thru the night - but he was in his sleeping cave this morning still doing alive.
I do also have to admit - I thru in a medication that contained 1.25% copper. I think I s@#$wed myself didnt I? My lr and snails/crabs/starfish are toast?! Not to mention all those copepods?
This sucks I started off so well.
Can anyone help me?

 

[psumba]

Thanks Anthem
More questions:
How long does the display stay fishless to rid "ich"?
how do I remove the copper from the display (you mentioned doing that)?

 

[psumba]

So here is the follow-up to my story:
(With more follow-up ?s of course
So when I got home that night (Wed) I went out and bought a 10gal tank, a heater, etc for a hospital/quarantine tank (oh BTW - I really am not a beginer I have been keeping fish for 10 years - I just never did this - 8 of my years are in Cichlids and I never had the need).
So I was already to take my Yellow Tang out but I noticed he was improving, much less ich spots. I decided not to upset the apple cart. After 48 hours he was fine, eating swimming, normal breathing. There was much rejoicing!!
Over the next days - there was never a death in my crabs, snails, starfish, copepods, etc All was stable. Only difference, some Coralline has depleted and I have seen what I believe is microalgae but I have never seen it look like this. Its lime green and really small on some of the live rock.
In the meantime I order Cupramine and a copper test kit for future need with the hospital tank.
I tested my display for copper. None registered.
10 days later. The Tang has ick again! <img src="graemlins//bah.gif" border="0" alt="[bah]" />
I prepare the hospital with display water, a power filter with a filter media from the dislplay, extra rocks (for cover) that are not in use, and one non-live rock from the display (hoping to get more bacteria in the tank.
I figure now is a great time to place him in for 30 days and rid my display of this scourge.
So now I take him out (he now knows many caves!!)
Added the same Organi-Cure as last time.
I get home last night (2 days later) and he is laying on the ground breathing very heavy. Plus the water has never raised above 71 F (damn heater - I thought 50W is enough for a 10gal!)
I do all the water checks - Nitrate (0), pH 7.8 (argh!), Ammonia off the chart
Now my hospital tank is recycling!
I took him and placed him back in the display thinking he will be better off in there.
I notice he looks like he might still have some visible ich. He went straight to the bottom and lied there breathing very heavy. Occasionally he might move to another part of the floor (probably when the hermits came around and nudged him).
This morning - i find him in a cave he doesnt normally sleep in - but he is up off the ground, it was too dark to notice breathing rates. But it seems like he is better.
So now I am looking for advice: What do I do? <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />
Second - how do I maintain a quaratine - hospital tank that is not going to cycle and stress the heck out of my fish? What is the best known method for this? What does everyone else do?
TIA

 

[beth]

If the water in your main tank is good quality, then use it to setup your hospital tank. Get the filter of your choice. Setup with the heater if you need one. You can throw in a cup full of your substrate to aid with getting the hospital established [the water from your tank will also do this]. Be sure that there are &#8220;caves&#8221; for this fish to hide in too. Tangs especially are skittish and need to have hiding spaces or they will become very stressed. You can use fake rocks or PVC pipes. Don’t put LR in the hospital tank. Additionally, be sure that, since the tank will not have substrate, that the bottom is not reflective. This is usually accomplished by painting the bottom of the tank on the outside BLACK. If the tank is on a black tabletop, then that will work as well. The reflective quality of substrate-less tanks can be extremely stressful for fish, so don’t underestimate it as a problem.
Place the fish in the hospital with lights out and then leave the fish alone. Better to do this in the morning rather than at night, because sick fish tend to die at night [more often] when it is completely dark. In the AM the fish will have a chance to settle down before night time. Don’t add any more copper to the tank. Simply begin the hyposalinity procedure once the fish has settled down a bit in the hospital tank.
Tangs are very skittish, and, yes, it could die. The fact that it made it so far with all the stuff going on, means that the fish must have a pretty strong constitution. Just stop handling the fish so much. He needs to get treatment and moving him back and forth is compromising his health and his chances for survival.
Good luck!