Ich

[leopard_babe]

Please spare me the lecture about qt for a new fish. I made a boo-boo. I bought a green mandarin today, and when I brought it home it looked fine. I acclimated for about 3 hours with the drip method. Now it looks like there is sand all over my fish. She is not distressed, and she now has ich. What can I do? I have a reef. My tank has been established for a year. I have starfish, ad an urchin. I am going to have to treat my display tank. i have dosed my tank with greenex tonight, and that has worked for me in the past. I called the LFS and told them about the fish, and they said that they would take it back. Should I keep it, and treat it? The ich is not bad. I don't want it to spread to other fish in the tank. What can I treat the tank with? I don't have room for a qt. My parents will not let me have another tank. For the time being, I have not qt. Please help me. Thank you !!!!!
Leopard

 

[flatzboy]

Green-X will hurt and kill a lot of corals I used it on my 20g. tank when my clown had ich and it killed a patch of shrooms, a bubble coral and the some zoos. It will also kill inverts sometimes I lost a cleaner shrimp but my coral banded shrimp survived. Luckily thats all I had in there. I would try a freshwater dip. Get a 5 gal. bucket and fill it with fresh water and bring the heat up to the same temp. as your tank, place the mandrin in there for about 45 seconds to a minute then place him back in your main tank. The fresh water should kill of the ich. If theres still some ich left try it again in like a week so he doesn't get to stressed out.
Hope this helps,
Rhett

 

[beth]

Originally posted by Leopard_babe
Please spare me the lecture about qt for a new fish.
Actually, I'm not the one that made those lectures!
You do have to make sure that the problem is not just sand sticking to the fish. Mandarins tend not to get ich, thus it seems more likely that the problem is sand.
If the fish does indeed have ich, then you can try biological clearners [like cleaner shirmp], or you can try one of the reef safe meds. None of these are totally reliable, but that's about all you can do in a reef.

 

[leopard_babe]

I have used green X in my reef before. I know that it is ok. All I have is mushrooms and a star polyp. I am not worried about that.
The mandarin looks like the mucous peeled off of it, and there are white spots on it. It looks very much like sand grains. However the grains will not come off. I acclimated it very slowly. She is swimming around, and eating the pods on the glass. She is so pretty, and I have to say that she was not like that when I brought her home. Her eyes were not cloudy, she is eating, she is swimming. I have not added anything new in a long time. My water levels are prestine, so I don't think it is that. I will monitor her, but what do you guys think I should do?? Should I fresh water dip her? Did she just get stressed in the move? She has adjusted very well.
Thanks for the help (and no lecture) I REALLY appreciate it!!!!!
Leopard

 

[flatzboy]

The greenex should take care of him, just watch him for a couple more days and i it doesn't go away then try the freshwater dip. Very pretty fish, I love mine to Inamed him hippie!! lol

 

[leopard_babe]

I think that it could have been sand, but I wasn't sure. However now that he is in my tank for a week or so he looks SO much healthier. He is getting nice and fat. He swims around all day. I have used greenex in my reef since I started it. I didn't know that it was bad. I have never had a problem with it hurting my reef. I guess I won't use it anymore. However it had no effect on my corals what so ever. I do have a question, when I get new corals I luglos dip them. When I add fish I used to use greenex. Occationally I would add some greenex when one of my fish was acting funny. My question is... What is reef safe that I could use instead of greenex??? thanks for the help. I am trying to work on the whole QT thing. If my fish go sick I don't know what I would do. It is an issue because I live at home. thanks for not lecturing me. I don't know if you have ever flipped out because you brought home a new fish, that you checked out at the store, and you get it in the tank and then it looks sick. I always check my fish before I brng them home. I also buy most of them captive breed, and from a good LFS. i appreciate the help, and the non-lecturing. I thought I researched enough about mandarins, but I didn't realize that they don't usually get ick.
thanks guys,
L Babe