Should I try to Move?

[stacy]

I'm sure the replies will be yes, but I'm going to ask anyways. My powder brown tang has ich. I decided it seemed to be alot of stress on tangs when you move them so I bypassed my q-tank and put him straight into the main tank. My last tang was doing good in q-tank and died over night when I put him in the main tank. He's been in there for about 2 weeks. A couple of days ago I noticed that he had ich. I tried to catch him, but he has some pretty good hiding places. The other fish seem to be fine. Of course I have 2 fish in my q-tank right now waiting out there 3 weeks. So do I try to somehow treat the problem in the main tank which has 110lbs LR, 200lbs LS, inverts, and no coral? Do I tear the whole tank down catch all fish and put in q-tank? Will this stress the tang to much? He's already stresses will this make it worse? My water checks out good. All levels are at 0. Temp is 78. Salinity at .023 Also when I added the fish to my q-tank I treated with copper. This was last weekend. Do I do a partial water change before adding the fish? Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

 

[beth]

What ever fish have been exposed to ick need to be treated as ick is extremely contagious. If you place fish in your current QT, where you have already begun trating other fish, then your treatment schedule for all fish [including the ones that you were already treating] will go back to start.
Since you were using copper, I assume you were also testing copper levels daily, right? Treating with copper is not just a matter of dosing a hospital tank with whatever the instruction label on the medication pkg says. You must maintain threaputic copper levels in the treatment tank at all times, elsewise, treatment is not effective. To accomplish this, you must use copper test kits to measure copper levels in the tank daily.
We normally prefer to use hyposalinity as a treatment for ick. Regardless, it looks like you are in it for the long haul to get all your fish treated.
As for the tang[strike]. You are right, tangs are extremely skiddish and can go into meltdown just by moving them. That is why it is best to use most if not all of your original tank water for the QT/hospital [as long as the water quality is good]. Provide them with plenty of hiding spaces and don't crowd them in a QT. Leave the lights off for the first day or so. Sometimes it is best, if they are going to be sharing a QT with other fish, to get the tangs in the QT first. Let them have a bit of time to settle down. However, doing this, you could risk the tang "taking over the tank" and not allowing others to be added. They are real tricky and delicate creatures, but beaufiful.[/strike]

 

[stacy]

I could move the fish that are currently in the q-tank to another tank. They have been in a week and the only reason that I put them there is that they are new additions. Or I could move the inverts out of the tank and do hypo in my main tank if it will not harm my LS or LR. Would this be the best method? I have been monitoring the copper levels in my q-tank every day. The water in all tanks are good. All levels are at 0, water temp is 78, and salinty at .023 The q-tank would be to small for all of my fish unless I move the current occupants. I have in q-tank a coral beauty, and maroon clown. I have in the main tank 1 tang, 1 cardinal, and 1 sailfin blenny.