sick racoon butterfly *please help*

[pacino]

hey all,
need help from some proven experts. i have an 80 gallon fish only. 2 1/2 inches of live sand, about 65-70 pounds of live rock, urchin skimmer, coral life turbo twist UV ster., wet/dry filter with bio balls. i have the following occupants: porc. puffer, tomato clown, soldier fish, sailfin tang. i had a small vol. lion fish that was not eating and passed on about two weeks ago, i checked my readings and everything was coming out good (ph 8.0-8.2, amm. 0, nitra. 0, nitri. 0, salin. 1.020) so i got a racoon butterfly i had been eyeballing, he is about 4 inches, and in great condition. anyway i put him in my tank, i didnt use the drip cause i got him from my normal fish spot, i gave him the 25-30 min. temp. adjustment in the bag, then like i always do i pooked a hole in the bag so my water will enter the bag slowly ( i only do this cause i have had great success with my fish dude and trust his water quality ) then put him in the tank, now my UV was out of comish that day cause i had a replacment bulb on order which i got the following day and got back and running. so the day after i put him in he had a couple of spots, i checked the rest of my fish and they were all cool, everyone was eating including the butterfly. anyway then next day after i hooked the UV back, the spots were gone, then the 3rd day i noticed my puffer had a couple spots, and my sailfin had one, so i turned the temp up slowly over the next 2 days from 77 to about 82 degrees, and turned the lights off and blocked out the glass so they can just relax and chill out. i did that for two days ( as far as having the lights off , except for about 3 hours at night so i could feed them ). now i am noticing spots on the racoon again.
they are all eating fine, but i am wondering what i can do, i dont have a hospital tank and i hate the medicine crap, are there any other tricks????? i mean i do a 10% water change every 7-10 days and have continued to do so, i m thinking that he is stressed out still, and the puffer and sailfin are as well cause they are not used to the butterfly. he swims around alot compared to the rest, and maybe that is freaking the puffer and sailfin out??? i have kept the temp up, and am trying to feed alittle less so that the filter can catch up to the new waste from the new fish. am i doing the right thing???? or is there any other tips you all have?????

 

[oozy]

hi, you should have a QT set up, and have your new commers in ot for 3-4 weeks. this is to prevent problems like the one your are having right now.
also, you should NEVER add any water from any LFS no matter how much you may or may not "trust" them, LFS can run copper in some display tanks, adding this can hurt your inverts, and more sensitive fish, also your bacteria, also any undesirable parasites ect...blah blah blah, you get the point, its bad practice.
as for your spots, please describe them, im assuming they are small white spots= ICH
-inwhich case, you can feed with a "garlic elxior" to the food.
-set up a hospital tank, sense you against meds, you may try a hypo treatment, you can look it up in the diease&treatment forum.
at any rate never treat your display tank with anything, but the garlic additive to the food.
goodluck to you,
-oozy-

 

[pacino]

yeah they are ich apots for sure.
unfortunatly due to the holidays and two kids there is no money for a small qt or medicine tank at this time. but where do i get the "garlic elxior" from?? and the butterfly will only eat flakes right now, i havent had him long enough to get him to eat like formula II or anything yet..

 

[oozy]

hey,
actually, ive got a butterfly aswell with ich at the moment...
honestly, its really not as bad as most make it out to be, as long as you take care of it.
ok, so no QT tank is possible. (post holiday must!)
1-dont add any more fish till you have a QT.
2-deal with ich.
"garlic elixor" comes in many forms, some prefer one over the other. personaly i would use one that has vitamans+garlic extract. you should try adding it to brine, or any meaty food, (adding garlic increases fish intrest with food also)
I made my own food and add garlic, but that is a process in itsself most wont do, which is fine.
you may want to concider a cleaner shrimp, mine cleans my BF just about all day. It set up a station and the BF swimms up and allows the shrimp to climb all over its body.
I belive you have a puffer which may make this a "temporary fix" as most puffers will eat inverts including cleaners, but it really depends on how hungery your puffer gets between feedings.
you may want to post in Diease&treatment forum to get better/more responses
-oozy-

 

[evilmantis]

If you haven't already posted in D&T and gotten the gospel, here it is -- cheap, simple, and highly effective:
HYPO!!
Now, I know you said you can't afford a hospital tank right now. But here's the thing: those spots coming and going represent the life cycle of ich. It is growing, reproducing, and getting ready to start taking out your fish one by one. Not using QT was *the* most expensive mistakes I ever made. Since I treated with hypo and instituted mandatory QT, I have not had ich in a long time. Now everything, from snails to my new dwarf lion, must spend at least 3 weeks in a hospital tank to ensure cleanliness (and in the case of inverts, allow any ich to die off) before transfer. So, here's what you need, and a cost analysis:
Rubbermaid bin: 5-10.00 (alternative: $10 10 gallon tank -- Walmart), or free if you have a spare rubbermaid bin
Air stone/small filter: cheap -- you may already have an air stone
Water, with salinity around 1.009: free since you obviously already have salt
Total cost: approx $20
Cost of losing all your fish: lots!!!
You should be able to get hypo instructions from disease and treatments. Long and short: all fish go to QT, drop salinity to 1.009 over 24 hours, leave for 3-4 weeks AFTER you see last ich spot disappear (water changes every few day), allow display tank to sit fishless over this time to allow ich to die off (ich can't live without a fish host). End of 3-4 weeks, raise salinity back over course of several days, move fishies back!
Good luck, and post if you have more questions!
Goldie
EDIT: don't put inverts in hypo!! They will die!!