Need advice

[cokepelli]

Ok....I am at a loss for words and it is only due to my extreme fustration. I went through an outbreak of ich which I thought I had successfully treated. My DT was fallow for 6 weeks during that time I was treating my two clowns and firefish with hypo in my QT. I then reintroduced all fish back into my DT. Everything looked great. I purchased a cleaner shrimp and put him into my DT not QT on the advice of a few members here. I also put lawnmower blenny, coral beauty, and PB Tang into QT. The PB Tang came down with ich and had a fungal infection so I started hypo again in my QT. I lost the tang a few days later (very sad to flush a fish that expensive

). All is going well now the coral beauty and blenny are doing great and looking great...however I see the tell tale spots on my firefish again! How is this possible??? Now what should I do? Retreat and leave the DT Fallow again? I have live rock in the DT so hypo is out for that. I need suggestions and/or advice. Thanks for helping me.

 

[nicetry]

Is your QT currently in hyposalinity? If you plan to re-quarantine your firefish/clowns, you'd need to acclimate them slowly to the lowered salinity. Be sure the firefish actually has ich. If you're certain, then I'd place it back in the QT and repeat the course of hypo. You'd do best to leave all of the fish in hyposalinity then until the second round is completed. What were you using to measure your salinity while doing hypo? There are some rare strains of ich that are resistant to hyposalinity. If the problem keeps recurring, you may want to try copper.

 

[cokepelli]

My QT is still in hypo this time with copper however it is too small to house all my fish. I am trying to get a hold of another tank to start hypo on the fish in my DT and this time combine it with copper. I just don't want to expose my coral beauty and blenny to fish that currently may have ich. they look great and have been in hypo nd copper for 3 weeks and counting. I know speed kills in this hobby and I thought I had been doing everything right.

 

[spanko]

PM Beth but I am fairly sure you do not do Hypo and Copper treatments at the same time.

 

[beth]

You can do both, but usually not necessary. What did you use to measure salinity during the hypo treatment?
Can you post pictures of the re-infected fish?
If you just have LR and no corals or inverts, you could move the rock temporarily to rubbermaid container, add a powerhead or two, heater as needed, and then use the display for hypo. You can't put copper in the hospital however.

 

[cokepelli]

Well, after more research, I realize I need to get a refractometer, I was using a swing arm Hydrometer to measure for Hypo,
I do have a cleaner shrimp and an emerald crab so, I think I'll just get a second larger QT tank and start the treatment and leave my DT fallow for 6 more weeks. The firefish with the small white spots I could get a pic of but the spots are so small I doubt they would show well with its coloring. Live and learn...I guess if this hobby were easy everyone would be doing it. Well, I am committed to it. My learning curve is progressing I guess.