I guess you know not to cycle tanks with fish by now...as for the ich problem. Whenever I see a speck of ich, I have decreased salinity in the main tank to 1.021 and decreased temperature to 75. I also go ahead and feed my fish garlic soaked food and add vitamin c to both food and water. then I wait a day to see if the fish will improve. If not- then into the hospital tank and hyposaline....What I have found in my tank is that sometimes with evaporation, or with water changes, and my own carelessness trying to predict how to add things, the salinity rises just enough to "shock" the fish. once "shocked" they either become more susceptible to ich, or their skin just appears to be breaking down because of a sudden change. Once corrected they can sometimes resume their strength and fight off infections. It is always better to end up with a lower saline than you started with than a higher saline. fish are more susceptible to rises in saline than decreases in saline. Higher saline 1.024 1.025 and higher temps 78 - 80 allow ich to thrive in the tank. But if the fish is already twitching around, not eating, and swimming weirdly or hiding all the time. Then it is best to put it in a hospital tank. Beth has millions of threads explaining this procedure and how to use hyposalinity to treat ich. If you have sea stars and inverts and reef stuff, you obviously can not drop the salinity of the main tank much below 1.023 or these things may begin to die off. ( If I do this, I move my sea stars to the hosp tank)
My yellow Tang is doing GREAT! There are no visable spots on him. It has almost been a week now treating him. We have about 3-4 days left. I am using a product called Ick Attack. I HIGHLY recommend it. It is not expensive. Thanks to all who helped out!
