Ohhh Nooo!

[xabxam]

Last night I got home from skiing,and found that my cowfish has ich! I saw lots of white dots on his forewhead,fins,tail,and body.Since cowfish release toxins when they die,should I take him out of his tank,and put him in a quarintine tank where I can treat him?The only problem,is that I don't have one set up!Does a quarentine tank have to be cycled?

 

[xabxam]

My dad and I put salt water in a 20 gal I had in my closet,and we're going to put a powerhead in there,but don't have filtration.For a tank that size.Does the tank need to cycle before I put the cowfish in and treat it?

 

[oceanic110]

No it does not need to be cycled. Just watch the ammonia levels.
Do a water change if ammonia levels get high. If you use hypo as a treatment you will be doing alot of water changes anyway.

 

[elfdoctors]

I agree it does not have to be cycled. However, hyposalinity is safer if it is. Be careful about putting in too many fish in the QT. I had several fish die from ammonia and nitrite poisoning when I did hyposalinity in an uncycled tank but once the number of fish dropped the others did great.
Is this your only fish? Your display tank needs to be fishless for a month to eradicate ich. Otherwise the fish will get reinfected when you put him back in.

 

[xabxam]

My dad picked up a filter for the quarentine,and we are going to put the cowfish in tonight.My dad won't let me take out the other fish though.

 

[beth]

xabxam, take a look at the FAQ Thread at the top of this Forum. There is a good deal of info there on setting up a QT and treating ich using hyposalinity.