Ok Need Help Asap

[aanthony]

ok, so im confused, what do i do, i came home and found my powder blue dead!!!, so i took all my fish out of my tank, meaning i had to take out all the lr. so right now i have a hippo tang, yellow tang, clownfish, bicolor anthias, and a cleaner wrasee in a small bowl, im on my way setting up a 35 gallon qt, but it is not yet cycled. WHAT DO I DO???

 

[cj7eagle]

i am not an expert by any means, but i would just take 30 gallons or so from your tank and put it in the 35 gallon.
do you know why your fish died?

 

[earlybird]

Any sponge media that's been in your DT that you can put in your QT will help with keeping spikes down. Have a lot of make up water ready so you can do large water changes in the event of a spike. Also pick up some amquel which will neutralize the effects of algae but not eliminate it, which means it will still show up on tests.

 

[geridoc]

I think you may have over-reacted by removing all of your fish to a small bowl. That was probably more stressful to them than whatever was going on in the dt. Did you ever get a diagnosis on what killed the tang? Sometimes ---- happens, and a fish dies from a stroke, kidney failure, etc., and you don't need to take drastic measures. But, what is done is done, so be prepared to control the ammonia levels in the qt by water changes and the correct use of Amquel Plus and you have a good chance of coming through this OK. Since you don't seem to know what killed your fish, how will you determine when it is safe to remove the fish from qt?

 

[aanthony]

alright sorry, my tank had ich, and instead of me just fixing the probelm i just figured it would go away. So when i came home my powder blue was dead due to ick, so i figured that was the last straw, so i had to take all my fish out and put them in my 30 gallon, at a salinity at 1.09, so i am starting the hypo process, i am just worried about a spike.

 

[al mc]

Best way to take care of a spike is supplying bacteria (old filter sponge from DT), neutralizing the ammonia (maintain propher pH and use Amquel plus) and
dilution (massive water changes if needed).

 

[nigerbang]

Originally Posted by AAnthony
alright sorry, my tank had ich, and instead of me just fixing the probelm i just figured it would go away. So when i came home my powder blue was dead due to ick, so i figured that was the last straw, so i had to take all my fish out and put them in my 30 gallon, at a salinity at 1.09, so i am starting the hypo process, i am just worried about a spike.

Tell me that you didnt take fish out of 1.022-1.025 water and put them right into water at 1.009...
There was a slow dropping of the Sal. right?

 

[aanthony]

Originally Posted by NigerBang
Tell me that you didnt take fish out of 1.022-1.025 water and put them right into water at 1.009...
There was a slow dropping of the Sal. right?
well it was a kind-of slow dropping of salt, it was over the span of about 5-6 hours, this also happened at about 10 at night, so i wanted to get the fish out of that bowl and into a tank as soon as i could.
As far as an update goes, my fish seem to be doing fine, eating, etc. Except for my bicolour anthias, for the past day it's just lying at the bottom of the tank. I did a 50 percent water change last night, and this morning the fish was still the same, lying on the bottom, breathing heavily.

 

[aanthony]

ok so my bicolor anthias died, i cant really decide why, because the 4 other fish are still fine. so basically im going to raise the salt back up to an acceptable level (1.20) and then let them calm down a bit, and then im going to use cupramine to treat the fish (copper) while doing this my dt is fishless, meaning ick will be no more

 

[itom37]

I'm going through a similar process right now. All my fish are in a 29 gallon that was not cycled. I am using Copper Power. The fish are fine but I am doing frequent water changes (30% every day at first, then every two days, now every 3). All I've got is a small piece of LR to maintain some bio filtration and I'm adding Stability (which is supposed to add bacteria), but I don't think it has helped. Anyway, keep up the water changes and get rid of that ich!

 

[janastasio]

If you use copper in your QT keep in mind it will always be present in there. In addition, copper is very hard on tangs. They do not do well with it. I think at this point your fish have been through alot in a short period of time. They have been pulled from the DT, put into a small bowl, then placed into a new environment, and their salinity levels dropped way too fast. First of all, I will claim to be no expert because I am currently going through this process as well and started in a similar situation. You need to SLOW DOWN! You will lose your fish if you dont do this. The beginning of this forum gives very detailed instructions on how to start hyposalinity. Hyposalinity is the best treatment for ich. Copper and other suppliments are all very iffy and people all have different oppionions. Anyone on this board who has treated with hyposalinity will tell you, IT WORKS, if done correctly. If you fish are doing ok at the 1.009 now, keep them there. You want to keep them at 1.009 for the next 3 weeks. Then slowly over the coarse of a week you will raise their salinity. It is said that having your DT empty of fish for 4-6 weeks will interupt the ich cycle. Ich has to have a fish source in order to live. Do you have a refractometer? This is a necessary tool for hyposalinity. It cannot be done any other way. Also, be ready with pre-mixed and aerated water at 1.009 for water changes because of the new setup with your QT. Being new it will cycle and you will have an ammonia spike. Watch you Ph carefully, this changes with the change in salinity. You will need some Ph buffer. Also keep in mind that you will have evaporation, and this will also raise your salinity. It has to maintain at 1.009 for this to work. Good luck.

 

[nigerbang]

Originally Posted by AAnthony
well it was a kind-of slow dropping of salt, it was over the span of about 5-6 hours, this also happened at about 10 at night, so i wanted to get the fish out of that bowl and into a tank as soon as i could.
As far as an update goes, my fish seem to be doing fine, eating, etc. Except for my bicolour anthias, for the past day it's just lying at the bottom of the tank. I did a 50 percent water change last night, and this morning the fish was still the same, lying on the bottom, breathing heavily.

Lowering the sal. should take days...not 5 hours...The bicolor might have died from the shock...As goes with raising the salinity

 

[aanthony]

Originally Posted by NigerBang
Lowering the sal. should take days...not 5 hours...The bicolor might have died from the shock...As goes with raising the salinity
yeah i know, i guess when its really late and your 60 dollar fish dies, and you spend 3 hours getting the fish out of the tank, you just want to get them into the qt. I acted too quickly. And since i dont have a refractometre i figure hypo is useless, so over the next few days im getting the salt to a good level, and doing copper (i know, i already said that) I dont worry too much about the tangs and copper though, this is the same stuff my lfs uses, and if it was fatal to tangs im pretty sure they wouldnt have used it on their shipment of black tangs $$$$$

 

[aanthony]

ok, one more problem, my pengiun filter just broke, so my filtration in my qt is now gone, is this that horrible of a problem? what do i do?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by AAnthony
ok, one more problem, my pengiun filter just broke, so my filtration in my qt is now gone, is this that horrible of a problem? what do i do?
Do you have a powerhead in there now? You will need to replace the filter. Use the media from the existing one.

 

[aanthony]

how long of a time frame do i have, right now its 8:45 at night, meaning all lfs are closed. and i dont have a powerhead in the tank, if needed i can take my koralia 3 out of my 90 gallon, however 850 gph in 20 or so gallons of water seems like alot. and also in my 90 i have an old canister filter, and itll take me a few hours to get that thing opened, so i dont really want to do that either. The filter was only running a few days, so im guessing it hasnt accumulated THAT much bacteria in it

 

[rudedog40]

Originally Posted by AAnthony
ok, one more problem, my pengiun filter just broke, so my filtration in my qt is now gone, is this that horrible of a problem? what do i do?

Guess you can use your filter from your DT until you can go get a new one at your LFS tomorrow. Walmart also sells HOB filters for that size of tank (open 24 hours).
I've read this entire thread, and really don't understand your concepts in protecting your remaining fish. I take it you think the Blue Hippo died of ich. Did all the other fish show signs of ich (massive white spots on them)? How long did know you had ich in the tank? Did the other fish look like they were stressing or having problems? Did you try using medicinal treatments to rid the ich that was on the fish until you could get the QT setup properly?

 

[sepulatian]

If the other fish died from ich then I would be in a hurry to treat before any more fish succumbed to the parasite.

 

[aanthony]

well i COULD probably sit there and wait for the ick to disappear, but thats what i did in the beginning, and my powder blue is dead because of it. now the next one to show signs was my hippo tang, so i figured i would have to treat the tank, my bicolour anthias was kindof a sacrifice, so that one day i could keep an expensive fish in the future, without worry that they couldnt pull through

 

[rudedog40]

There are alternatives to treating ich besides hypo and copper. I know the seasoned members here believe that the only way to cure ich is to hypo all existing fish, then leave the DT fishless for six weeks. However, instead of stressing your remaining fish by putting them in an uncycled QT tank, you could have used ich medicine treatments to at least kill the ich that was on your remaining fish. Yes, I'ver read all the threads stating you can't kill the ich in a tank with these medicines. However, they do work to kill the ich thats attached to fish. By feeding them using garlic, Stress Coat, and Metronidazole, you could increase the fish's immune system, slime coat, and keep the ich off of them until you got your QT up and running properly.
I've already had this argument with sepulatian and many others regarding hypo treatment. Yes, I believe hypo is proven to be the 'defacto' way to kill ich in a DT. But at what cost? You now have your hippo tang, yellow tang, clownfish, bicolor anthias, and a cleaner wrasse in a barren tank, with little or no natural cover, living in an environment 1/3 the size they're used to. You don't think they won't get stressed out living in those conditions for six weeks? Stress is one of the major causes of ich in tangs. So you hypo these fish for 3 weeks, but the stress may just bring the ich right back. The big question is, how did the ich get into the DT in the first place? I've also been told that ich doesn't naturally exist in tanks. Did you recently add one of these other fish into your tank without QTing it first?