Need some help

[kiana]

I have a fairly new tank-about 3 months old and I'm having trouble with keeping them healthy. I don't know what to do next. I have a 75 gallon Oceanic tank with the wet dry system. I have already lost several fish and each time I get a new one they get sick. I have been watching and the advise that I see is a hospital tank, but right now I have the entire tank medicated. Sooooo-where do I go from here. I added a red snapper and a mimic tang and they got ick, I treated the tank and 10 days later my perfectly healthy keyhole angel got a cloudy eye. I now treated for that, but he doesn't look real good. HELP

 

[eelfreakrobi]

the main cause of ich, from what I know are the temperature changes, and had something happen similar when I was starting, what are the temperature changes, and do you have it in an a/c room?

 

[alti]

treating the tank with mideications is not the answer. if you provide a fish with the right size tank, compatible tankmates and good water conditions they will not get sick in the first place. what fish do you have in your 75 and how big are they? whatare your nitrate levels?

 

[alti]

ich can be caused by a number of different reasons. temp is one, but stress is normally the culprit.

 

[kiana]

I currently have 2 small maroon clowns, a wrasse, the red snapper, the angel, and the mimic tang. It is in a heated/air conditioned room and I keep the temp of the tank at 79-80.

 

[alti]

what are your nitrate levels and do you see any of the fish fighting with each other? ich does not go away when the fish recovers. sometimes it looks like the ich is going away, but in reality it is reproducing. do some searches on ich and you'll see what i mean. ich lives for a couple of weeks while attatchedxc to the fish and the falls off and goes into the substrate. it reproduces there and then finds its way back onto your fish. you really need to see no signs of ick for about 6-8 weeks to be sure it is gone. what r u medicating with. if you are adding copper, you may have a high enough level that may be stressing your fish and actually giving them ich. i had the same problem with a qqueen angel when i medicated with copper. they seem to be pretty sensative to it.

 

[kiana]

I treated for the ick with cupramine. The mimic tang and the snapper got it really bad. It looks gone but I added more cupramine yesterday and the level of copper is at .15. For the cloudy eye they told me to use Life Bearer. All of the levels were perfect until yesterday and the nitrate level had raised to 120. I was wondering if I should do a water change, but then what about the medication? I'm not good at this saltwater thing, so don't know all the things to look for. I try to count on the aquarium shoppe but they aren't real helpful.

 

[alti]

like i said before, stress is the key factor in causing ich and other illnesses. having a new, well stocked tank with fish that may not be the most compatible and high levels of copper and nitrate is a disaster waiting to happen. providing them with better water conditions will help much more than any meds IMO. i would start doing water changes until you get your nitrates under control. in my old FO tank i was able to keep my nitrates under 20 most of the time and the highest i ever let saw go was about 40. if you do water changes every 2 or 3 weeks you should be able to keep them under control. you dont want to change too much too soon. it will stress your fish out even more. do 2 or 3 water changes maximum every week and try to reduce your feeding a little. the water changes should help the ich a little too since you may be able to vacuum a decent ammount of it out of your substrate.

 

[alti]

dont listen to what they tell you at your lfs. it is much easier for them to point to some product on the shelf than to explain how you should take care of your fish. some of the meds they sell do help with illnesses, but properly maintainting your tank will prevent them in the first place.

 

[kiana]

Thanks for all your help. Any thing special I should do about the cloudy eye on the angel or just ride out the meds? Also, should I add more meds after a water change?

 

[alti]

i would stay away from the meds after you get the tank params back under control. if it doesn't help you might want to try them again, but remember what i said about stress. if you see anything fighting, take it out. tell me the approximate size of each fish you have in your tank if you dont mind. you may be overstocked and overstocking is one of the leading causes of ick. not to mention the increased temper of fully grown fish.

 

[reefsoe]

I second his opinon

 

[kiana]

I have a 1" maroon clown, a 1 1/2" maroon clown, a wrasse, about 4", a 2 1/2" mimic tang, a 1 1/2" red snapper and the angel is about 3" or 3 1/2". They all get along great and there is no fighting or picking on each other. In fact there are not any spots or frayed fins on anyone. It is a 75 gallon tank. I did have (2) 1 1/2 " cardinals, but they would not eat and I lost them both, not sign of anything wrong, but I never saw them eat

 

[alti]

sounds ok kiana. make the fish nice and comfy and they should be fine.
hey reefsoe, im me, i need to tell you something.

 

[kiana]

I will try and answer all your questions.
First, I set up a hospital tank today and took the angel and put him in it. I used warer from the large tank tho and one rock which I hoped would have some bacteria. I think that it is too late for him. I can bring myself to terminate him. He is laying on the bottom and gets up and swims and then goes back and lays down (literally lays down).
The original ick- I'm assuming looks like salt spots all over the fish. It was very bad on the two (mimic and snapper). The white spots are gone, they are eating wonderfully. I have three large live rock (or they were when I began) and skeleton coral for decoration. I do not have any invertabrates tho.
All of the other test, ammonia, nitrites, ph are 0. I did a 20% water change this morning and then tested it again. The nitrates are still high. I got some denitrate today and am going to put that in the filter.
What is hyposalinity?

 

[michelle13]

Go to the disease forum and it will give you all the information you need to do the hyposalinity treatment. I had problems with ich and used the hypo method, it worked wonders and now no more ich!! Oh by the way, I had a clown that had ich so bad I thought he was going to die (laying on bottom, not eating, etc.) did the hypo and he recovered!
Good luck!