[Reefer769]

i have a few questions about hospital tanks.

Ich has just showed up in my tank on a Heniochus butterfly, and a Small yellow tang.

I will go out and buy a 10gal aquarium, a filter, and a heater. but do i just take 10 gallons of water out of the main tank and put it in the hospital? or do i need to make new water? also, will the hospital tank need light?

i am also worried that a 10gal hospital tank is a little small for a tang and a butterfly, even if it is 5 weeks. should i be worried about this?

*Sorry i didnt mention the tang in the other posts ninong
(now i am worried that i went to fast and stocked my tank to quick, and this is probably what cause the ICh, or the wiser idea would be that either the tang or the butterfly had it. keep in mind that i bought both of these fish a little more than a week ago.)

i feel ashamed...

[Samper]

I would put new saltwater in it. This is what I did.

As for the tank being small, yes it is small and your fish might develop some problems like the ones I mentioned in your other post. I don't know anyting about tangs or butterflys but they might be aggressive in something that small.

take what I say with a grain of salt.
I'm interested to see what the guys post in response to my reply in your other thread. Worked for me but your situation is different.

[Reefland]

Reefer,

Originally Posted by Reefer769

Ich has just showed up in my tank on a Heniochus butterfly, and a Small yellow tang.

A yellow tang and a butterfly?

I think you would be much better off trying to find a new home for these fish; someone who has a q-tank that can treat them for 6 weeks and then add them to a tank that is suitable. You might even be able to talk the LFS to give you a few dollars of store credit for these fish and let them treat them; either way, take the loss of the dollars and get them someplace they have a chance to live.

I will go out and buy a 10gal aquarium, a filter, and a heater. but do i just take 10 gallons of water out of the main tank and put it in the hospital? or do i need to make new water? also, will the hospital tank need light?

You should only worry about the q-tank for a new addition, treating the fish above and them introducing them back into your tank isn't going to fix the underlying problem of the stressed fish; sure it will get rid of the ich but....

[Samper]

If you get the 60 gallon that you had mentioned in your previous post I should think that might be ok. I'd start it off with new water though.

[Poseidon]

Tang??? In your tank? You should have know better!!!

Your tank is the right size for clowns and other small fish, the Tang and the butterfly were both poor choices. I know you are new to the hobby, but this is a perfect exampke of yor LFS out to make money and not really care about what they are selling to who.

I assume you bought these fish from the same place that sold you your tank right? Knowing you had a 30 gallon Cube they should have steered you away from those and towards a nice goby, or Cardinal or maybe even a Royal Gramma... The fish they sold you instead are way to active and require way to much space to be kept in your cube.

I would do as Scott says and take them back.!!!

[Reefer769]

yea i know i made a mistake. i bought the tank at a different store, but i think these guys who worked in this LFS new i had a 30gal becuase ive been there plenty of times and told them i had a 30gal. we met this one kid who was working there and he was literally saying that i could throw 1 tang in there, and a couple fo these in there and 3 of those and even put up to 4 or 5 more fish in my 30 gal cube, i just walked away and my dad was buying everything this guy was saying. so we ended up buying a tang and a butterfly, i was very uneasy about buying them, but my dad pressured me or more demanded me to get them, his axact words later were, this is a fish tank, this is how its sopposed to be. and i have trouble standing up to him and telling him whats right becuase he just wont listen... he even wanted to buy a clown trigger... wow. i am hopefully gunna get my godfathers 60 gal aquarium, becuase hes taking it down, so i will just cycle new water, and put the live rock in there, and CURE my fish in the 30 gal with chemicals, and just sell it afterwords. so once they cure the 60 gal will cycled and ready for them. im just worried about putting the LR in the 60, will it transfer the ICH into it? or will i be ok?

[patsfan1130]

Originally Posted by Reefer769

yea i know i made a mistake. i bought the tank at a different store, but i think these guys who worked in this LFS new i had a 30gal becuase ive been there plenty of times and told them i had a 30gal. we met this one kid who was working there and he was literally saying that i could throw 1 tang in there, and a couple fo these in there and 3 of those and even put up to 4 or 5 more fish in my 30 gal cube, i just walked away and my dad was buying everything this guy was saying. so we ended up buying a tang and a butterfly, i was very uneasy about buying them, but my dad pressured me or more demanded me to get them, his axact words later were, this is a fish tank, this is how its sopposed to be. and i have trouble standing up to him and telling him whats right becuase he just wont listen... he even wanted to buy a clown trigger... wow. i am hopefully gunna get my godfathers 60 gal aquarium, becuase hes taking it down, so i will just cycle new water, and put the live rock in there, and CURE my fish in the 30 gal with chemicals, and just sell it afterwords. so once they cure the 60 gal will cycled and ready for them. im just worried about putting the LR in the 60, will it transfer the ICH into it? or will i be ok?

Once your display tank has gone at least 30 days without fish..the cycle is broken and it is safe to reintroduce fish back into the display. Keeping in mind though that a 6 week treatment in quarantine for parasitic infection is highly recommended.

Mark

[Reefer769]

i think im going to give my LFS a call, and complain that they sold me 2 fish that had ICH, and i wont give up without a fight, and i am almost positive that they will give me store credit or an exchange for different fish. so i will take back the tang and the butterfly that have ich and trade them for a couple chromis and a pygmy angel. and i will quarentine my 2 clowns and the new fish for 30 days, and then i will reintroduce them and hopefully everything will be okay.

[Reefer769]

and once all that is taken care of i will upgrade to an 82gallon aquarium, and then i will be able to have more fish, and i will know to quarentine the new fish before i add them to the main tank.

[Samper]

As for your problems now if you take the advice given you will be ok. I've read quite a few of your past posts and I don't know if you have any idea what the cost of keeping a large tank is. I know you had some struggles just getting the stuff for your 30 and that's ok, all part of learning. I'm sure you will go to college one day or atleast move out of your parents house then you will have to think about moving the tank. Very stressful for your ecosystem. Just something to think about before you go jumping into something like that. I live on my own now at 22 and must admit I'm struggling to provide a nice environment for my fish. At any rate keep your head up and one day you might be teaching some of the guys who know their stuff here a lesson or two from your own experience.

[Leddy]

Reefer, this is just my opinion, but I think you should find a new home for the tang and butterfly, put the clowns in a QT, and leave your 30 gal fishless for at least 4 weeks. You can keep your inverts and LR in there, but no fish. If there are no fish, Ich parrasites wont have a host to reproduce on, eventually killing them. Ich doesnt host on inverts, only fish. I went through an ich outbreak myself in my 80, I tried soaking food in garlic with minimal success, so I took my fish to a LFS, and kept my tank fishless for 8 weeks, and it was 8 long weeks, but I learned how to be patient. Before I had a humahuma tigger, domino damsel, tomato clown, bicolor psuedochromis (royal dottyback), lunare wrasse, and a fiji devil damsel. Thats a heavy bioload, I got rid of em all, kept it fishless for 2 months with just inverts. I now have 5 green chromis, 1 royal gramma, and a coral beauty angel, and now with out the invert-killing crew , snails and shrimp aswell. The tank is much more enjoyable, a lot more stable, and less stressful for me and the inhabitants. I've also added a hang-on-refugium, and upgraded my seaclone skimmer to 2 CPR bak-paks, my tank is doing great.

If you decide to keep the clowns if/when you get the 60gal, I would use your sand, LR, and some water from the 30, but dont put the clowns in the new tank until you are absolutley sure they are OK. To be extra safe, be patient, and wait AT LEAST 4 weeks with the clowns out of the main tank, and sure that they have been medicated and cleared of the disease.

Hang in there, it shouldn't be stressful. Everyone makes mistakes, wether its you, your dad, or the guy at the LFS. You should learn from these mistakes, and be more cautious. Hey, this will just give you more experience in the hobby. Good luck hommie

[Reefer769]

i have a little update for you guys.

i am going to call the LFS today and ask for a full refund becuase they sold me 2 fish that had ICH. I will have to take out all of the LR from the tank. then i will catch the butterfly and tang, and take them back to the store. and while the rock is out of the tank, i will catch the 2 clowns and put them in the QT that i set up yesterday. I want to treat them in the tank with something, but i dont want to use copper, becuase it seems to risky, does anyone have any other suggestions on what to use to cure the fish while there in the qt other than copper?.

so while the fish are in the QT, i will set up my sump, becuase all the parts have finally come in. i bought a nice overflow and a mag drive 5 pump off line, all i need to do now is cut some PVC and glue it all together. once it has been a full 30 days, or a month and the parasite has lost its life cycle, i will put the cured clownfish back into the tank, and i will go out and buy a green chromis, and a pygmy angel, and that would be it. so at this time i will not have ICH anymore, i will have 2 clowns, a chromis, and an angel, and i will finally have my sump up and running. oh and i also forgot, i will most likely build a canopy for my MH i bought so long ago that i havent even used yet.

[Reefer769]

what can i use to cure my fish other than copper? i dont want to risk using it, because if i put to much it will kill my fish. so are there any good alternatives that work?

[Reefland]

Hyposalinity. Do a search on this forum for that term, there are some good step-by-step instructions for doing this. Basically it is a very gradual reduction of the water salinity (hospital tank of course) to a level that the parasites cannot survive and then increasing it again gradually to desired levels.

[Reefer769]

alright thanks scott

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Reefer769

alright thanks scott

Here are the links that we gave you back on 7/12/04. The ones that would answer ALL of your questions about ich, remember?

White Spot feedback

In Terry B's ich article, Part III, Hyposalinity is discussed in detail just after the detailed discussion of copper therapy.