Ich Questions on Foxfaced Rabbitfish - Urgent!

capnbob

Member
Hi,
I have a foxfaced rabbitfish who has ich. For the last 2 days or so I’ve noticed little white specks on him that looked like grains of salt. I thought it might be ich but I wasn’t sure if it was just bubbles stuck to his skin. Today I came home from work and it’s blown up all over his body and he’s no long a vibrant yellow like he normally is but a white-ish yellow.
I’ve been reading up on treating ich. There are a few contradictions that I’ve stumbled upon and so I have some questions that I’d like to ask before I buy anything to treat it tomorrow.
First off, I have a 46 gal. bow front reef tank with only three fish in it ATM. The fish are a percula clownfish, a blue damsel and my foxface rabbitfish.
My first question is do I need to now treat all 3 fish for ich even though only 1 fish is show signs? And if I do need to treat all of them do I only need to do a freshwater dip for the 2 that appear to be fine and then QT the rabbitfish, or QT all 3 fish?
Also, I can’t treat him with any additives until tomorrow because all of my LFS’s are closed right now. Should I do a freshwater dip right tonight to slow it down?
Lastly, I can’t figure out what the heck to treat it with. There are many options out there that I’m seeing and I don’t know which is most appropriate.
In case it’s asked here’s my equipment info:
46 gallon bowfront. Rena XP3 Canister Filter, Coralife Super Skimmer for up to 65 gallons. Two Maxi-Jet 1200's with Hydor Flo water deflectors. 200 Watt Marineland Stealth heater. About 50-70 lbs. of live rock. Current USA 36" Power Compacts w/ 1 - Dual Daylight Lamp (10,000K and 6,700K) and 1 - Dual Actinic Lamp (420nm and 460nm).
Nitrites, nitrates, pH, salinity, and ammonia are all at perfect levels.
…As a side note this is occurring about 4 days after my flame angel died from a cloudy eye infection of some sort that killed him and only 2 days after I ran through a generator nightmare because of a power outage that took place here. Frustrating indeed.
 

unleashed

Active Member
call your local meijers and ask if they carry coppersafe its used for fw fish also so most stores that carry fish or supplies should carry it.if you have a hang on tank filter for your qt take the carbons from your main tank if you use them put them in the small filter for the qt(cant use new carbons but you can run full filter with this product if they are used at least 6 days) other products are removed by carbons .one dose will treat the tank for 30 days.fill your qt with water from your main tank this will eliminate acclimation and undue stress to your fish.its also a good idea to run a small powerhead .because the foxface is a very shy fish naturally i do suggest adding something to the tank for him to hide behind or in, a clay pot or a clean rock if the tank is large enough i suggest making room for a couple items for the other fish.be carefull moving the foxface his fins are venomous and they like to get tangled in the netting.treat all fish at once.also with your foxface they seam to be less stressed during feeding be sure to feed it at least 3 times a day a good veggie diet .the coppersafe will kill the paresite but the food will help her heal the damage the paresite has done.
 

capnbob

Member
After looking into it a bit I've decided to set up a QT and treat it with Rid-Ich.
I have a 10 gallon tank with a 75 watt Stealth heater and an airstone that I've put my three fish in and have added the suggested amount of Rid-Ich.
My question is this... Do I need to run any filtration if I'm going to be doing small water changes daily? I have a Maxi-Jet 600 powerhead with an aquaclear filter but it seems to really be knocking my foxfaced around.
Also, do I want to change a small amount of the water out before adding more Rid-Ich and if so do I add freshwater (with salt of course) or water from my main tank?
Thanks in advanced!
 

unleashed

Active Member
Originally Posted by Capnbob
After looking into it a bit I've decided to set up a QT and treat it with Rid-Ich.
I have a 10 gallon tank with a 75 watt Stealth heater and an airstone that I've put my three fish in and have added the suggested amount of Rid-Ich.
My question is this... Do I need to run any filtration if I'm going to be doing small water changes daily? I have a Maxi-Jet 600 powerhead with an aquaclear filter but it seems to really be knocking my foxfaced around.
Also, do I want to change a small amount of the water out before adding more Rid-Ich and if so do I add freshwater (with salt of course) or water from my main tank?
Thanks in advanced!
i would run the filtration but withough carbons(that will remove this medication) just for water movement.as for water changes during treatment use fresh sw as if it were a normal water change adding tank water will just reintroduce the paresite to the qt making treatment useless. be sure to check water quality daily in a 10 gal tank and 3 fish will def be a heavy bioload making perfect water very hard to keep
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Cap, you made the right decision to set up a QT. Forget the copper medication. It is not the best choice for treating ich.
Please read the posts on ich and hyposalinity in the FAQ Thread stickied to the top of this forum. There is also info there on setting up a QT.
 
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