worried fish!

[shutterbugg69]

H i all first time here,...hope i do this thing right....lol we have had a 55 gal salt water tank for a yr now,.....and havnt had any thing wrong with our fishes till now. this is what we have in the tank 1 yellow tang,2 blue damsels,1 domino,1 clown,1 bi colored angel,1 blenny,and a fish that was supose to been a honey damsel but isnt and not sure what it is...looks like the victorian scally fish.....hes as big as the tang,...and we recently added a striped damsel in the last 2 weeks. L ast night we noticed that the tank was getting a white color and the scally mystrey fish has spots like the domino.were pretty sure its ick maybe brought in with the new fish. We bought a fish from a store we normally dont buy from. we were wondering if anyone can tell us how long it takes to clear it up after starting treatment and is it normal for the fish to be breathing so hard with this....today we noticed the tank is got more color back.....thanks
jenny

 

[beth]

You got too many fish in that size tank. Also, in order to avoid introducing disease in your tank, you should quarentine your fish first.
It is not normal for fish to be breathing hard. What type of tank do you have and have you positively identified the ich?

 

[shutterbugg69]

yes i was kinda afraid we had to many fish,...and when you mean what kind of tank,..can you be more spacific? we have a few LR and fish, crush coral,....canister filter......and 3 powerheads.......he said yes its ick.........weve never had a problem in the whole yr weve had this set up and havnt had a fish die as of yet..(knock on wood)

 

[shutterbugg69]

thanks for the info........i did a 20% water change,...should i do more????My husband said all the water reading wwere ok,....could it been from not doing a water change in couple weeks??????well i jumped on the garlic band wagon too.....and put a few pieces of minced garlic in their food this morning,...they gobbled it up.......and yes the white looks like tiny grains of salt on them. would it be wise to take out the striped damsel see if the store would want it back ,..or should i call it a 5 buck lose and do away with it.......trying to weigh opptions here.I think i just screwd up adding another fish to this tank i shoulda knew better.........and im wondering if he hasnt stressed the whole tank out he has freaked the clown out to no end.....the clown has never bothered another fish before him now he sits clear cross the tank over where the striped damsel is and just waits for him so he can chase him....is there some striped conflict here???????what dio i need to do about this,....????????BTW......we will definatly qurentine now!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[beth]

Well, if you have ich, then it is in your tank now, infecting your other fish.
What to do with the troublesome fish is up to you, but I don't advocate killing fish just because you don't want to bother with it anymore.
To treat the fish, you should use hyposalinity. Find a temporary holding for your LR [since you only have a few pieces, this should be easier then setting up a hospital tank for your sick fish]. LR will not survive any ich treatments, thus it needs to be removed.
Please do a search here on the BB for hyposalinity. There are many disscussions on the subject as well as details about how to use it effectively on treating ich.
If you have any questions following your serach, let us know. Also, its good that the fish eat the garlic, but you should really allow the garlic to soak in to the food, for 30-60mins.

 

[shutterbugg69]

ok need help deciding what to do here...........i have researched the hyposalinity,........have taken out the LR,..........did 20% water change this morning..........need more salt in the tank so went to buy more,........didnt put it in wondering if i need to or leave it as is............checked ph level,....sky rocketed 9 on our chart.
so i took it to the fishstore he gave me some stuff called sodium biphosphate and how much to use.......did that ,now reading is 7.7............but i thought you didnt adjust ph to fast????????anyways,....what now??they look to not have as much salt looking grain spots now as before,................have been using the quick cure and mela fix since last night,..........they do look better.........i also have the filter off as not to filter out what med is there.......is this right??????? As far as the soaking the food i did for 45 min this morning in the garlic. and to reply to your thought about killing the fish believe me i would rather not,.....but like i said im looking at the whole picture here,......if he is what is stressing out the community id rather lose him than my more exspinsive fishes! Thats why i asked if there was any other way around it.........but he and the clown are tearing each other apart,...and stressing out the others........why did i have to put him in there!!!!!!ughhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!all this time never one problem,,,then this!!!!HELPPPPP!

 

[shutterbugg69]

ok...i didnt say it went from 9 to 7.7 over nite i said i checked the level it was 9 and i took it to the store and he gave me the stuff to use....i used it and it went then to 7.7,..........an i asked if it was good to change ph fast like that,..........none the less,.... i did a 50% water change today because the fish all of a sudden lost color was layin on bottom.......after i did the water change they got color back and are up moving more ph is almost 8 now...............the ich thing is alot better....still keeping the salt level low to treat it.....i hope im doing this right,......im getting as stressed as the fish i just feel soooo bad lookin at them and not knowing what to do to make it better!!!!!!!grrr