QT questions

robn

robn

Member
If you have 8 fish in the display tank and only one of them shows ich spots, do you QT the one fish or do you QT all of them? Practically speaking, how can you take 8 fish (some of them needing a big swimming area) out and QT them, wouldn't the stress of downsizing kill the apparently healthy fish?
 
elfdoctors

elfdoctors

Active Member
If you have one fish which you are sure is infected with ich, you have to assume that all of your other fish are infected and need to be treated.
When large numbers of fish need to be treated, perhaps the best idea would be to do hyposalinity in your display tank. Be sure to remove the live rock, and any corals and invertebrates and perhaps some of the substrate to reseed after you are finished your treatment. These can be maintained in primitive conditions (such as a rubbermaid container with a heater and rudimentary filtration).
 
robn

robn

Member
It's a 125 with 150 lbs of LR, 6 Peppermint Shrimp, 2 Cleaner Shrimp, 15 Jumbo turbo snails, 100 Nassarius Snails, 50 Blue Leg Hermits, and 2 Burgundy Linkia Starfish in addition to the corals.... ouch!
 
btieu

btieu

New Member
man robn...i feel your pain. i had 8 fishes in my tank too. with live rocks, coral, and bunch of cleaning crew. i had to remove everything from my tank just to catch those fishes. then place them all back. i put all my fishes in a 18g fishtank. i wanted so bad to put my fishes back into the display tank, but dont want to go thru that procedure again. but like what elfdoctors say, why not remove all your fishes into the rubbermaid container instead of the live rocks, corals, and your invertebrates. the only down fall is that you wont be able to see if your fishes are getting better or not. whatever the case is, i wish you luck.:happyfish
 
eagle1

eagle1

Member
I went through the same issue. I'm treating for ich and doing hypo. I had to take all my LR out to catch the fish. I placed coral beauty angel, yellow tang, 2 perc clowns, and 2 damsels in a 20 gal setup with biowheel. Whole thing cost $100, which considering the investment in my main tank, was cheap. I'm doing water changes almost daily to keep up with the ammonia buildup because I didn't have a cycled QT environment. I originally filled the QT with water from my main tank.
Yeah, it's a pain. That or watch the rest of my fish croak. Good luck!
 
btieu

btieu

New Member
gosh...and why do we like this kind of hobby?? you would think that fish relief stress. but heck..its causing us stress. LOL
 
robn

robn

Member
If you take out all your fish, won't your display tank recycle when you put all your fish back in it and therefore kill them from the new cycle?
 
robn

robn

Member
I pulled my purple tang out and did an 8 minute freshwater dip....he did fine thru it and ate a little after going back into the display tank, but the spots are still there. The lights have been out for the night for about 30 minutes and I just went in with a flashlight and took a look at him....he looks horrible....he is just completely covered.....I feel so bad for him....he is still eating and swimming around though.....
I am going to start hypo tomorrow when I come home.....I am going to take all fish out and hypo them for 30 days (is that right?). Anyway, it's gonna be a PITA but I don't have any other choice.... seems like almost everyone with some years of experience recommend it....I just hope it works, especially for the purple tang. Is there anything I can do for him that would relieve him immediately until I can get the hypo underway? I don't know that he will make it, it's that bad, but at least he is still swimming well and is still eating.....tough fish.
I assume there is a hypo procedure posted somewhere on this board? If not, I'll do a Google search.
I'll say this, I WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER PUT ANOTHER FISH IN A TANK WITHOUT A QT PERIOD. It's just not worth it. Shouldn't be too hard to keep this promise, especially as I'm fully stocked in this tank anyway....
:D :yes:
 
elfdoctors

elfdoctors

Active Member

Originally posted by robn
I assume there is a hypo procedure posted somewhere on this board?

There is a good writeup in the Basic FAQ sticky at the top of this forum.
Hyposalinity is probably the best bet for your fish. If the fish is in as much distress as you describe it should be started immediately and get the specific gravity down to 1014-1016 within the next 24 hours and then get it down to 1009 over the next 24 hours. Hyposalinity will lower the amount of stress the fish is on.
Hyposalinity (and freshwater dips) are ineffective for killing the ich which is attached to the fish. It kills the freeswimming stages. The spots (trophonts) should fall off within 5-7 days after the salinity drops.
 
robn

robn

Member
Thanks....
Sure hope I don't lose the purple tang....also noticed my Potters Angel has a light case of it.....he is going to be the tough one to catch out of the display tank......the purple tang is still eating well.... put in their morning seaweed strip about 30 minutes ago and he's viciously attacking it like the other ones.....so at least I have that going for me.
Since I will be using a big Tupperware container with no substrate, what should I do with the sand-sifting Watchman Goby?
 
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