NEW sos quarantine tank

[dannyboy]

OK, fish is quarantined in a 20 gallon sense Saturday with copper, now I'm worrying about the ammonia spike going on in the quarantine tank. I'm doing many water changes but is this stressing out the box fish making him even worse off? The white spots on his fins and tail don't seem any better but he does seem more active. Could it be something other then ick or does it take a while to start clearing up. I am also treating the main tank with Maracyn because the lfs thinks the "dry" looking spot on my trigger's eye is popeye? It almost seemed like it flaked off a few days into treatment, sound normal? I was then told to treat the tank with "formalin 3" after the maracyn treatment so the main is parasite free when box fish makes it's way back in. Is this lfs just sellin me crap or does this all sound legit? I've spent 5 times more on meds then this fish cost me, wanna be sure I'm doing the right things. Thanks again.

 

[cthegame]

Did you use some water from your DT in your QT? I wouldnt use new water since it wont make much sense, you'll have to wait for it to go thru the cycle if you do that. Just put DT water in the QT. It takes more than a few days sometimes to treat ich. I would leave the fish in QT for at least 2-3 weeks.

Check temp, salinity every day. Check other parameters every other day. Keep water fresh by doing a 10% water change every 2-3 days since you dont have a skimmer or live rock.

 

[Bifferwine]

If your fish had popeye, you'd know. Their eye bulges out to ten times it's normal size, like it has a pea or a marble for an eye. That's why it's called popeye. And there aren't any really effective medications for popeye anyways, most fish just recover on their own. Besides, popeye is caused by trauma to the eye, like running into a rock or getting their eye abraded on a net, so time is usually the only thing needed for the fish to recover and the swelling in the eye to go down. Your LFS sold you a load of crap on the popeye thing. No way does popeye look anything like white spots -- google it.

Treating the tank with formalin won't make it parasite free either. Copper is the only medication that can be 100% effective against ich. Formalin rarely is effective against ich, and is not completely reef safe either. Some brands of medications containing formalin state that it's reef safe, but I've used it in my own tank before and heard enough stories from other people, and have found it not to be invert safe all the time.

 

[dannyboy]

The original water in quarantine tank was DT water. After the first day the ammonia started rising and after about 2.5 days it was very high so I started changing with non-DT water because the main was being treated with the maracyn and I wasn't sure if that and the copper mixed was safe. The maracyn treatment will be over tomorrow so I'm thinking I should just finish it. Temp in QT is always good and salinity is good, (changes slightly due to many water changes). What else could cause a "cataract" looking spot on an eye that gets "shed" after a few days, looked like dry skin almost. Thats why I treated the main tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

It could be a bump, it could be anything. Since it went away quickly, it probably wasn't much to be worried about.

 

[fatman]

Are your water changes being made with newly mixed water or display tank water? If new water is it RO water? A single small fish should not cause a rapid rise in ammonia in a 20 gallon tank, nor should it be continously high even with water changes being performed. Are you feeding the fish, and if so what are you feeding it, and how much? A fishes eyes, just like humns are very uick at healing from scrapes. sounds like your fish just had a scrape, or scratch abrasion or even just bad inflamation. All of which will heal on there own with a healthy fish. a person generally wears an eye patch for a day or two, but can not quite ee anyway a fish can do that so apparently they have a way of using a self generated patch. It is usually best to avoid using mediactions in a tank with a bacteriological system. Formalin is a preservative at heart.

 

[dannyboy]

In the QT the water is newly mixed RO/DI water and we are feeding it freeze dried krill and trying to remove what doesn't get eaten right after. Feeding him 1 good sized krill in morning and 1 later in evening dipped in "vitality, by sea-chem" I could start using DT water if that is gonna work. Also, I have a power head in the 20 QT tank, it's pretty strong for that size tank, could this also be stressing out the box fish or helping him stay active? He only seems to wanna eat the freeze dried krill, I have tried many other types of frozen food but don't want it to starve to death either.

Thanks again

 

[fatman]

Formalin is a preservative at heart, meaning it is 37 percent formaldehyde mixed with alcohol. Remember all those old horror flicks with the glass jars full of body parts. Yep, formalin (formaldehyde and alcohol) in those preservative jars. It kills algae, to include coraline algae, it kills biological filtration bacteria and causes oxygen depletion. It will kill parasites, at least those in the water and those attached to fish. I am not aware if they kill the stage of ich that grows in the substrate layer during that stage of the ichs development. I would need to research that. It has been several years since I have treated any ones fish with ich. It is hard to recommend something that powerful for an aquarium but some people do recomend it. I do not recomend it anywhere but in a quarantine tank. The eyes on a fish heal very quickly just like on a human. Where we put eye patches on a scratched or scraped eye the fish seems capable of producing its own patch of sorts in that new tissue grows under the old and after its formation the old skin is sloughed off. Much like a human grows a new layer of skin under the blister of a burn when it is left intact. I would cut the food down to 1/4 or 1/2 at most of what your now feeding. I have never used "Vitality," I use a lot of Selcon for its fatty acids. I never use mixed vitamin preparations specifically anymore, as I had to many water quality problems when using them. That and I have a hard time dealing with a broad discription such as naturally occuring extracts. Did you realize the chemists definition of organic is any substance with long chain carbon/hydrogens compounds. Pretty broad description.

 

[dannyboy]

OK, so I'm not gonna put the formalin in the DT. From what I think I understand, the 2 fish in the DT are capable of fighting off the ick, (if thats what is really going on) and the copper treatment should cure the puffer, I'll cut down the feeding of the puffer in QT to keep ammonia down, guess I have a few more questions...

1) How long do I treat QT tank with copper, and how long do I keep the fish in there?

B) If it is ick in the DT, is the box fish just gonna catch it again after I re-introduce him into it?

 

[cthegame]

OK, so I'm not gonna put the formalin in the DT. From what I think I understand, the 2 fish in the DT are capable of fighting off the ick, (if thats what is really going on) and the copper treatment should cure the puffer, I'll cut down the feeding of the puffer in QT to keep ammonia down, guess I have a few more questions...

1) How long do I treat QT tank with copper, and how long do I keep the fish in there?

B) If it is ick in the DT, is the box fish just gonna catch it again after I re-introduce him into it?

1 - Follow the instuctions on the medication for dosage & time frame for re-medicating. I would treat the fish for at least 2-3 weeks.

2 or B - There is always the chance. Supposedly the life cycle of ich is about 6 weeks. So if you want to have the best results, you need to remove all fish from your tank for 6 weeks. however, i dont think you need to do that...some fish can fight it off on their own and only the really weak ones should be medicated. So after the fish is ich free, and you put it back in the DT and it still gets ich, you need to find out what's stressing the fish.

 

[fatman]

Box fish are a lot like Yellow Tangs in that they both seem to be Ich magnets. It is not uncommon to see them with massive Ich problems with just a few a few parasites on the other tank inhabitants. Seldom Have I heard of the other fish not getting affected at all if the initial infested fish has parasites for any length of time when all fish were together. If the fish in your display tank do not show any signs of Ich after 3 to 4 weeks then the tank itself did not get infected. If the fish in quarantine is treated over this full period of time then its reintroduction should not bring Ich back to display tank and the cured fish should not contract Ich without an outside source reintroducing it to display tank.