White spots.

[Force spike]

Hi everybody. iam 15 years old and i just got my first ever Reef tank. it's 270 liters. but last week i noticed a tiny white dot on my Hippos/bule tang ( what ever thier are called) At first being new and all, i thought it's just a little sand then a few days later those white dots are everywhere! i called the fish shop and thier said it;s white spot... well thigs got nasty. my bule tang turned into pale color!

i got some medicine for it. ANd the color went back to bule. but however. my bule tang have got bones poking out everywhere. It;s so damn skinny and iam concerned about it. I tried feeding it seaweed it eats some but not many. And iam afaird it will die soon. it's so skinny and all.
so pls give me some tips,

[the_blue_tuna]

Do a search for Ich on the board. You will find treatment option . Dont treat a reef tank with copper based medication as this will kill your inverts. You can treat Ich with cleaner shrimp , or hypo salinity. Make sure he has seaweed to graze on all day long. You should also feed small amounts of brine soaked in vitamins 2 times a day. How is your water quality? This could be a contributing factor . Ich is usually caused by stress , so try to figure out what may be causing it. A new addition maybe? I believe a 270 liter is about a 55 gallon, yes? If so , and its an adult fish , he will be cramped in a tank of that size . Give us a few more specifics and it will help to narrow things down . Hope all works out for you and the fish.

[Force spike]

Do a search for Ich on the board. You will find treatment option . Dont treat a reef tank with copper based medication as this will kill your inverts. You can treat Ich with cleaner shrimp , or hypo salinity. Make sure he has seaweed to graze on all day long. You can also feed small amounts of brine soaked in vitamins 2 times a day. How is your water quality? This could be a contributing factor . Ich is usually caused by stress , so try to figure out what may be causing it. A new addition maybe? I believe a 270 liter is about a 55 gallon, yes? If so , and its an adult fish , he will be cramped in a tank of that size . Give us a few more specifics and it will help to narrow things down . Hope all works out for you and the fish.

Isn't a gallon 4 liters? so a 200 L tank is about 50 gallon..then my tank would be about 67.5 gallon tank. well since it was a newly setted up tank and Nirite is 1ppm and the nitrate is 10ppm. the Ph is 8.3 and the salt level is 1.024. the phosphate is 10ppm also. I tried feeding it seaweed, but the damn clowns always eats it first. Then i tried breaking the seaweed into tiny peiced but the bule tang is still not eating it. Even if it floated past it's mouth it just wont eat!
once or twice it did eat a peice up it just spited it back out again. So u think i should buy some other kind of fish food?

[zhenya]

Isn't a gallon 4 liters? so a 200 L tank is about 50 gallon..then my tank would be about 67.5 gallon tank. well since it was a newly setted up tank and Nirite is 1ppm and the nitrate is 10ppm. the Ph is 8.3 and the salt level is 1.024. the phosphate is 10ppm also. I tried feeding it seaweed, but the damn clowns always eats it first. Then i tried breaking the seaweed into tiny peiced but the bule tang is still not eating it. Even if it floated past it's mouth it just wont eat!
once or twice it did eat a peice up it just spited it back out again. So u think i should buy some other kind of fish food?

Hi Force spike,

When you said newly set up tank how new is it? One ppm of NO2 is indicative of the tank that is not completed its cycle and I'm sure Ammonia is present as well.
Your best bet would be to isolate your fish into a quarantine tank and treat it in there. I'll get back to you with some links to read,especially good one is from the website of your countrymen ATJ(Andrew Trever Jones).

Found it ;) http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...marineich.html

Read it and you can always contact ATJ for some extra help. I'm just surprized that your fish store sold you your tang knowing that you had a brand new tank.

[Force spike]

Hi Force spike,

When you said newly set up tank how new is it? One ppm of NO2 is indicative of the tank that is not completed its cycle and I'm sure Ammonia is present as well.
Your best bet would be to isolate your fish into a quarantine tank and treat it in there. I'll get back to you with some links to read,especially good one is from the website of your countrymen ATJ(Andrew Trever Jones).

Found it ;) http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...marineich.html

Read it and you can always contact ATJ for some extra help. I'm just surprized that your fish store sold you your tang knowing that you had a brand new tank.

I have my tank for 3 weeks now, so i guess it is still new. I was told to quarantine my fishes but that would mean i need to get other smaller fish tank will will cost me like other $500 Australian dollar. and i am still in high school so my pocket money ain't enough. So can i like just put some water in a basket and put the fish in there? that is the best way i can think up of withlout spending much money.

[zhenya]

I have my tank for 3 weeks now, so i guess it is still new. I was told to quarantine my fishes but that would mean i need to get other smaller fish tank will will cost me like other $500 Australian dollar. and i am still in high school so my pocket money ain't enough. So can i like just put some water in a basket and put the fish in there? that is the best way i can think up of withlout spending much money.

I can certaily understand the money issue but like I said before, I don't understand why your fish store did not tell you to wait on the purchase of any fish untill the cycle is complete and you have a healthy environment for your fish. Placing it in a backet of water without any filtration going to be very stressfull to a sick fish that is fighting parasites. You could do this to medicate the fish for short time (dip) but then it has to be transfered into a tank that has no other parasites present. So,the only logical choice would be the quarantine tank. The tank can be quite small for this. A 10-15g tank should do the job and you can start feeding your tang there without any competition from other fish.
If your fish dies,I would avoid buying anymore untill you are sure that there is no more parasites are present and your water parameters are in check.
I don't know what else to tell you.

[Poseidon]

Hey Force Zhenya is right on the money with his advice. However if you can't come up with a quarentine tank then you'll be forced to medicate the whole tank you do have set up... There are a few medications out there that claim to be reef safe, Malachite green is the active ingredient in most of them. Just be sure to dose lightly at first usually it says something like 1 drop per gallon or per 10 gallons depending on brand. I would use 1/2 of that to start so 1 drop per 20 gallons type thing. the down side to this is that medication turns the water blue and STAINs the silicone in the corners blue as well. MAke sure you remove any carbon b4 treating the tank as it will quickly remove the medication. And as Zhenya has said, I question why you were sold a fish that you were not ready for... You may want to try another store and explain that your tank is new. MAke sure to take a water sample with you and they will test it for ammonia nitrite and prob pH.. Hopefully the fish comes thru if not chalk it up to lesson learned and move on... GOOD LUCK!!!

Mike

[Force spike]

OK guys this is what happened...i saw the movie Finding Nemo with my G/F and after the movie i though to myself it would be great to own a clown fish...so i talked to my dad and he agreed. When i went in to a fish shop thier have a tank full of corals and reefs and have a bul;e tang, yellow tang and 4 clown. so i bought the whole tank.

I told him can i just buy the whole tank? that is why i got all my fishes and corals + reefs at the same time.

[Poseidon]

well anything happened to the fish yet... Did you medicate the tank or put him in a bucket....

[Force spike]

well anything happened to the fish yet... Did you medicate the tank or put him in a bucket....

i have given the bule tangs lots of medication but the white spots just won't die! and it's spreading like fire. my yellow tang got it now, so does my dottyback and even teh clowns got some white spots! So i am thinking of just get rid of my bule tang. it;s looks terrible and i don't think it's able to survive...

[Poseidon]

Too late now it is in the tank and even if you take the tang out you'll still have to medicate the tank. I think Greenex is a name brand of a relatively safe Ich med. Remember dose lightly and remove CArbon from the filter if you have any!!!

[zhenya]

Too late now it is in the tank and even if you take the tang out you'll still have to medicate the tank. I think Greenex is a name brand of a relatively safe Ich med. Remember dose lightly and remove CArbon from the filter if you have any!!!

Force,
If you have to medicate the tank I would try to avoid Greenex. I think kick-ich is much safer and I don't believe it stains the heck out of your silicone joints
;)

In my fish only days I did use it and it was effective,although I still had losses.
The best way to fight ich is to dip fish in medicated water to relieve it of the parasites that are attached and then isolation in parasite free water.
ATJ describes it on his website very well and the cycles that this parasite is going through. Breaking this cycles is the key from my understanding.
Good luck with whatever you deside to do.

[Poseidon]

thanks Zhenya for the update... I hacen't used any meds in awhile I'm glad to hear there are better solutions....

Mike

[zhenya]

thanks Zhenya for the update... I hacen't used any meds in awhile I'm glad to hear there are better solutions....

Mike

Hi Mike,

I don't know if you have read this article by Steven Pro or not so I'll add a link to it.It has descriptions of many popular treatments against Cryptocaryon irritans.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-1...ture/index.htm

[Force spike]

Thx for all ur help guys. but it's no use. i tried 4 different meidcines already and none worked! i even bought a UV sterilzer that kills Whit spots floating in the water and it;s still not working... my yellow tang is almost dead. my bule tang IS died so is my dottyback. and my clowns are covered in white spots.!

iam gona take out my yellow tang and put in it tap water for 3 mints. it's the only way i havn't tried yet

[zhenya]

Thx for all ur help guys. but it's no use. i tried 4 different meidcines already and none worked! i even bought a UV sterilzer that kills Whit spots floating in the water and it;s still not working... my yellow tang is almost dead. my bule tang IS died so is my dottyback. and my clowns are covered in white spots.!

iam gona take out my yellow tang and put in it tap water for 3 mints. it's the only way i havn't tried yet

I'm very sorry that you had to endure this losses,Force
You gave it a hard try to save those fish but I'm afraid that without the aid of a quarantine tank to isolate your remaining fish the prognosis are grim...
My last suggestion would be,if all fish are gone and I hope it is not the case, wait it out and do not buy any replacement fish for a while. Without a host the parasites life cycle will be broken and your tank will be free of it.After that you can restart fresh and maybe by then you'll be able to get a small tank to set up as a quarantine tank. I am sorry if this advice seems harsh in any way but I'm afraid that this is the best way to beat this for the future of your tank and future fish.
Again, sorry for your loss.

[Ninong]

Isn't a gallon 4 liters? so a 200 L tank is about 50 gallon..then my tank would be about 67.5 gallon tank.

Your 270 liter tank = 71.84 U.S. gallons

well since it was a newly setted up tank and Nirite is 1ppm and the nitrate is 10ppm. the Ph is 8.3 and the salt level is 1.024. the phosphate is 10ppm also.

It's too late now, but you really added fish too soon. You should have waited for nitrite readings to get down to 0.2 ppm or less. I think you need a new phosphate test kit because I find it hard to believe you actually have 10 ppm phosphate. That would be incredibly high. That is about 40 times higher than corals can safely tolerate and I believe (guessing here) it's about 10 times higher than a safe level for a fish only aquarium.

I tried feeding it seaweed, but the damn clowns always eats it first. Then i tried breaking the seaweed into tiny peiced but the bule tang is still not eating it. Even if it floated past it's mouth it just wont eat!
once or twice it did eat a peice up it just spited it back out again. So u think i should buy some other kind of fish food?

Your problem now is that as long as you have live fish in your aquarium, you have a host for the parasite (Cryptocaryon irritans) to continue its life cycle. The best way to treat ich is to remove the fish to a separate small tank where they can be medicated (citrated copper treatment) or treated with hyposalinity (lowered salinity). If you choose the hyposalinity method you have to read up on it first to make sure you understand exactly how to do it. (You gradually lower the specific gravity to 1.009 and keep it there for two or three weeks before very gradually raising it back up to its previous level.) During this period you must allow your aquarium to remain fish-free (no fish at all) for 6 weeks in order to disrupt the life cycle of the parasite. If you have no live rock or invertebrates of any kind in your main aquarium, you can do the hyposalinity thing in the main aquarium. That is only recommended if the aquarium has nothing but fish and dead decorations -- no live rock, no live sand bed, no snails, no hermit crabs, etc.

[Force spike]

I'm very sorry that you had to endure this losses,Force
You gave it a hard try to save those fish but I'm afraid that without the aid of a quarantine tank to isolate your remaining fish the prognosis are grim...
My last suggestion would be,if all fish are gone and I hope it is not the case, wait it out and do not buy any replacement fish for a while. Without a host the parasites life cycle will be broken and your tank will be free of it.After that you can restart fresh and maybe by then you'll be able to get a small tank to set up as a quarantine tank. I am sorry if this advice seems harsh in any way but I'm afraid that this is the best way to beat this for the future of your tank and future fish.
Again, sorry for your loss.

I know it's so sad when ur first ever fish die so fast But iam planning to wait till all my clowns die..it's will take like 2 hrs now. thier are all just on the sand too weak to even swim Except for a single clown. the yellow tangs eyes are blind so it's got no chance. And to top it off my biggest Anmonei died as well... Iam gona empty out teh whole tank and start from scratch again.

Now that i got some expernice hopefully i can keep my fishes for a BIT LONGER..

[zhenya]

I know it's so sad when ur first ever fish die so fast But iam planning to wait till all my clowns die..it's will take like 2 hrs now. thier are all just on the sand too weak to even swim Except for a single clown. the yellow tangs eyes are blind so it's got no chance. And to top it off my biggest Anmonei died as well... Iam gona empty out teh whole tank and start from scratch again.

Now that i got some expernice hopefully i can keep my fishes for a BIT LONGER..

Sorry,Force!

When you empty out your tank,take my advice and read up all you can on how you can set up a healty tank for your fish and then,while it cycles,research all the live stock that you like to have and see if you can provide for them long term.Only then make a purchase,this way you'll prevent future disapointments and will help prevent needles deaths of animals. Plus,don't forget about all the money you'll be saving that way ;)

Good luck to you and most of all don't give up.Lots of us made newbie mistakes that we regreted later on as we learn more about this wonderful hobby,I'm one of those people and my biggest regret is that I did not research enough before buying stuff when I first started 5yrs ago.

[Poseidon]

Good Luck Force...

And you have the benefit of the boards like this one. When I started only thing I had was a LFS and he was stuck on undergravel filter with powerheads and NO SKIMMER. Also had no clue on Lighting the best he had was a tank with a Triton and an Actinic03 NO bulb. everything else was lit by shoplights!!!

Boy we've come along way in the last 10 years!!!

mike