question about ick and QT

[swamprat]

I am new to the saltwater arena. I started my tank about 10 months ago with some damsels. I have not had any problems at all untill recently when I added a Clown, Goby, Coral Beauty and Sailfin. They all got White spots except one damsel, the clown and the Goby(the only survivors). It seemed to come out of nowhere and then they died two days later. I tried putting Garlic in there food and in the tank. It was too late though. How did this happen? How do I prevent it in the future? How do I set up a Hospital or Quarantine tank?
40 gallon tank
11 pounds live rock
Crushed corral
104 fluval filter system
2 power heads
Fish left:
Goby
Maroon Clown
Damsel
5 snails

 

[carrie1429]

Probably one of the new fish already had the disease, which is probably ich. How big were the spots? Did they look like grains of sand or salt? If so then it was ich. Ich is very contagious. This is why you must quarantine all new fish and only get one at a time. If you go to the top if this forum Beth wrote out how to setup and QT/Hospital tank. You'll find that with a QT your fish won't get sick as often. And if the new fish does happen to be sick then he won't infect the whole tank. Once you have the QT setup then if you ever get ich again you can treat it with hyposalinity. Hypo is lowering the salinity level to where ich can't live. Its the safest and most effective treament for the fish.
To aviod future ich breakouts you can feed the fish garlic soaked foods, keep the temperature maintained because if the temperature fluctuates too much this can cause ich. And most importantly, quarantine all new fish.

 

[swamprat]

I will set up a QT tank then. Any suggestions on what to get? I do not want to overdue or under due it. When can I put the fish I have left in the new QT? thanks for all your help

 

[carrie1429]

You can get whatever tank size you want. But you want it to be large enough for all the fish you have or will have. I would suggest going with a 20-25 gallon. How long have the fish been in the main tank since the other fish died? Do they show any signs of disease? Anyway to quicken the cycle for the QT you can use water from your main tank and fill the QT half full or however much you want to add from your main tank. Are you going to treat with hypo then? Because chances are the fish that are left might have ich. Then you can add shrimp from the grocery store (dead) to cycle it faster, or you can use damsels or live rock. Whatever you want to do. I would add the fish to the QT after it cycles unless they are sick?

 

[beth]

Take a look at the FAQ thread at the top of the forum. Info on QT/hospital tank setup.