Need some clarification

[Tinman]

Hi,

I have a small reef aquarium (34 gallons) with some corals, 3 shrimp, an urchin, a mithrax crab, 2 oscellaris clowns, 2 small clown gobies (1 green and 1 yellow), a neon goby and a 6-striped wrass.
Here is my problem, I recently lost my purple dottyback and I wasn't sure as to why. He was badly beaten up by the rest of the fish in my tank and I tried to get him out, but I was too late. I wanted to see if I could figure out what weakened him enough so that everything else could batter him like that. I then noticed white specs all over my green clown goby and I think I know what happened. I am pretty sure that I have a marine ich infestation.
My tank is relatively new as I am new to this and never thought about a QT. I am going out to buy one tomorrow and have looked at what I need to do here, but what I am curious about is the process. I need to get my display tank fish free for 8 weeks.
Can I put all my fish into a single QT and treat them for ich since I am sure they all have been infected? or are at least all carrying it? If so, what would be a good size tank to get?
I know, an ounce of prevention could have kept all of this from happening, I am learning things the hard way...I just wished I learned earlier to save my poor dottyback.

[leebca]

I'd also add that your tank might be overcrowded. You don't mention the sizes of each fish, but they do seem to be too much for the 34. The 34 would be just about right for a pair of Anemonefishes -- get the perspective? Pushing the space limits invites problems in addition to disease.

To answer your question. . .Put all fish into one Qt if you want. The QT should be about 5 gallons per inch of fish. I should think that your 34 would be a good QT!

All do need treatment, for sure. You can use multiple QTs if you want, and sell them later or give them away for Christmas presents.

Have you read this post? It contains the info you've asked: A Quarantine Process (step-by-step)

[Tinman]

Thanks Lee. I appreciate the help and all the advice you have on this site.

I read the post and setup a simple QT tank according to what you had written.

The largest fish is an inch in size. The average fish is about 1/4 inch, so very small.

The tank has 35 lbs of live rock and 25 lbs of live sand, according to the LFS that means I can put more fish in there. I check my water every evening and the worst I ever had was my nitrates 5 mg/L and that was fixed by starting to remove my biological filter, which is now in my QT. I try to make sure that I have no more than 2 fish at any level in the tank, but maybe that is too much?

I am working on setting up my QT to begin treatment. I should put all the fish in at the same time and run the treatment with the Cupramine, and watch the water in my QT to make sure that the ammonia and nitrite levels remain low and the copper is where it needs to be. That sound about right? Is there anything else I should watch for or look for?

Thanks again!

Mike

[leebca]

Mike,

I see where there may be some difference between what I'm writing about and what you're being told.

You see, when I speak of over crowding it includes the size of the fish now, and the full size of the fish when in captivity. Stocking in an aquarium is such that room is left for the fish and any marine life form to grow to its full potential. For instance, the Anemonefish you have -- they will try to pair. The female can and does get up to 4" in size, the male will usually not get above 2.5". They will want about 9 cubic feet of tank space to call their own. Sort of see how this goes? If you would, I'd like you to read this other post, too: Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR

When hearing advice, make sure you check it out from those who have nothing to sell or gain from their advice.

Anyway, to your questions.

I think you've got what to do down very well. After the copper treatment, you'll want to remove the copper from the water. Do a very large (over 80%) water change. Since you'll be doing such a large change, be sure to follow these guidelines: How to Make a Successful Water Change

After that water change run activated carbon on the tank for a couple of days. If the copper isn't below the limit detectable by your copper test kit two days later, do another 80% water change and put in fresh carbon. When the copper does go below detectable limits, put in fresh carbon again. Now keep the fish in quarantine at least another 4 weeks after no copper is detectable, to verify they are cured. ;)

You are very welcome. I'm glad to have helped.

[Tinman]

Sigh, thanks Lee! I wish I knew about this site before I started my little reef. Looks like it just became a grow tank and I will just have to build a bigger tank. My wife will be so happy...
I see what you mean about the crowding though, it makes perfect sense. I have one less goby now, my little green one was too weak to survive the treatment. He was badly covered with ich and the stress of moving to the QT just did him in.
Just a side note as to what the other folks say about fish crowding and this is being told to me from all the LFS experts in the area (4 of them, we have such a huge population here...). The population depends on where the fish are in the water column, so the ones that swim at the top, you can have 2. The ones who swim in the rocks, like the wrass, you can have 2. The bottom feeders, the same thing...
They also mention the bio-load and how the little gobies add nothing to the load etc...After reading your post it does make some sense, the bio-load with the filtration is taken into account with the live rock, the protein skimmer and the live sand. The fish behaviour would be consistant with the water column explanations that I have been hearing. The part that seems to get lost is the fish size and that is where I tend to get lost since I don't know their growth rates or full adult sizes. I am learning and doing allot more research before I do anything else now. I think I understand better now and my next tank will be more aligned to what I will be able to stock it with.

Thanks again! Very much appreciated!

Mike

[Tinman]

Just a quick update, the copper treatment was a success. I have 5 happy ich free fish swimming in a QT now waiting to go back home. 3 more weeks for the main tank to be clear enough to return them to it.
Thanks again for all the help.
Mike