Big Problems, Need help!

[bigd]

I've QT'd many times in a cheap 10gal with no light or filter. I use an air stone/air pump to aerate/circulate the water, a heater and pieces of PVC large enough to provide some structure for the fish. Ambient light will be fine and seeing as how you should be doing water changes every other day, a filter really isn't necessary either.

The whole setup can be bought for less than the price of a losing a good fish. It's imperative though that none of the QT equipment ever be used with your main tanks equipment. Anything the copper touches becomes QT equipment for good and should be labeled as such.


D

 

[bigd]

Years ago, this guy was brought back from a very bad place after 2 months in a QT. He was an awesome fish, one of the only Moorish Idols I've ever seen that ate pellets. That's one of the reasons he made it, he never stopped eating.

 

[bigd]

Sadly though, I lost him and the Copper Banded about 2 years later when I added 2 small Yellow Tangs to the tank that I got from someone I trusted. I assumed they were good so I didn't QT them... BIG mistake!! Lost one of the coolest fish I've ever owned.

 

[Adam]

I like to put a cheap $20-30 Amazon light over the tank. Makes it much easier to get a good look at the fish. I'm not worried about Ich, it's easy enough to treat and you have time. I want to see Velvet or Brook as soon as I can. The 1st week or two in QT I give the fish a good look over twice a day.

 

[Bernard.a.ford]

Thanks a lot everyone. I just picked up a tank, about to start the cycle for the Quarantine Tank.

Once again. Thank you all for all the help. This community is awesome.

 

[Adam]

Thanks a lot everyone. I just picked up a tank, about to start the cycle for the Quarantine Tank.

Once again. Thank you all for all the help. This community is awesome.

Get some Biospira. No need to cycle...

 

[ActiveAngel]

Also, if you have a display already running. You can do a small Water change on the display, and use the old display water for your QT. The advantage here is that you know the salinity, temp, and other parameters are on point immediately.

 

[Bernard.a.ford]

I have the QT set up and last three standing are not looking to good. I'm looking at doing a complete reset. When I got my tank it was from someone that I did not know. Sand, water, fish, and every problem that a rookie could of had. Now, I'm not as new to the hobby. I think that I should just start all over from the ground up. I have a lot of work to do. What do you all think? Is this to much over the top?

 

[bzb]

The fish dying isn’t a reason to restart the setup. If you have other things in the tank already, just stick with the QT and starve out the disease in the display tank. Hopefully your fish make it and they’ll just be even stronger come Feb.

 

[Bernard.a.ford]

Thanks for that push... I was just getting ready to just push the easy button. Now, I'm going to solve the problems that I have with my set up. If I quarantine my others and wait 30 to 45 days. The ick should be dead.

 

[bzb]

I’d guess that, like many of the rest of us, it’s not ich. It’s more likely velvet, brook, or something else that killed that quickly. 6 weeks should be good, either way.

Get some Metroplex and Focus, and feed with it soaked to get any internal issues taken care of. If you choose to run copper, make sure you test frequently to ensure it’s at therapeutic levels.

Try your best to make sure you’re diversifying the food you’re offering. Add Selcon or another vitamin supplement, and offer them pellets and a variety of frozen such as mysis, frozen algae mix, fish eggs, etc.

 

[Bernard.a.ford]

This is the little guy!

 

[Bernard.a.ford]

Well, one of them.

 

[bzb]

I'm no expert, but I really don't think that's ich. That's either early stages of Brook or Velvet.

What are you treating your QT with? I'd recommend:

- Rally bath for 60 minutes (if you have it. If you don't, do a 5 minute freshwater dip)
- food soaked in Metro and Focus, feed every day for a week.
- dose Metro directly into the tank (one scoop that it comes with per 10 gallons). Do this every 48 hours for a week.
- Start copper immediately. I went with Copper Power. Ramp it up to 1.5ppm over the next 3 days, slowly adding small doses 2-4 times a day. If you're using a 10G like I was, each 1mL of Copper Power = ~0.25ppm increase.
- Make sure you have a bottle of Prime to deal with ammonia spikes.
- Hold off on water changes until the end of the Metro dosing. You can combine any of the above with the copper.
- When you do water changes, make sure you dose the water with copper at the appropriate level BEFORE swapping out the water.

Once you get to 1.5ppm of copper, you're technically in therapuetic. Before you get there, I'd introduce whatever tank mates you want with this guy. I had three fish that survived my outbreak, and I added two fish (unfortunately one passed away in quarantine despite eating and looking healthy). The four survivors are in my display tank and look like they're doing great.

I raised my QT to ~2.25ppm and held it there for 30 days. However, this may have been what did my butterflyfish in - he got caught in the TINY powerhead I had in the QT. That being said, if I had to do it over again, I still would do everything exactly the same. Based on my experience and feedback from this site, unfortunately I don't trust any LFS's tanks to be disease-free.

 

[jbartell123]

I have had several fish die suddenly before. I had two tanks - 28 gal and 75 gal. The circuit breaker for the outlet on the 28 gal tank flipped overnight, and the pumps and the filter stopped for hours. Something like 3 of 4 fish died from lack of oxygen. Most tanks do not provide enough oxygen through the surface without some agitation, bubbling, or any active method of introducing oxygen. Now I keep a bubble stone on a UPS in my 75 gal tank, which has a large bio load, to prevent this from happening to me on a larger scale. A few minutes is no big deal. Hours without power is a problem. It could also happen if the one source of supplemental oxygen, like a protein skimmer, fails. I have had that happen as well. Anyway, it is a good idea to have a good bubble stone and air pump with battery backup that lasts at least 12 hours, even if this is not what caused your fish to die. The ICH does indicate stress. Fish always have ICH. Low stress, good food, constant water temp and salinity, keep their immune systems fighting it off. There are also internal parasites that kill fish from the inside. But having multiple fish die at the same time indicates a problem with the tank and not disease, which would kill fish one at a time usually.

 

[CJD18]

I'm no expert, but I really don't think that's ich. That's either early stages of Brook or Velvet.

What are you treating your QT with? I'd recommend:

- Rally bath for 60 minutes (if you have it. If you don't, do a 5 minute freshwater dip)
- food soaked in Metro and Focus, feed every day for a week.
- dose Metro directly into the tank (one scoop that it comes with per 10 gallons). Do this every 48 hours for a week.
- Start copper immediately. I went with Copper Power. Ramp it up to 1.5ppm over the next 3 days, slowly adding small doses 2-4 times a day. If you're using a 10G like I was, each 1mL of Copper Power = ~0.25ppm increase.
- Make sure you have a bottle of Prime to deal with ammonia spikes.
- Hold off on water changes until the end of the Metro dosing. You can combine any of the above with the copper.
- When you do water changes, make sure you dose the water with copper at the appropriate level BEFORE swapping out the water.

Once you get to 1.5ppm of copper, you're technically in therapuetic. Before you get there, I'd introduce whatever tank mates you want with this guy. I had three fish that survived my outbreak, and I added two fish (unfortunately one passed away in quarantine despite eating and looking healthy). The four survivors are in my display tank and look like they're doing great.

I raised my QT to ~2.25ppm and held it there for 30 days. However, this may have been what did my butterflyfish in - he got caught in the TINY powerhead I had in the QT. That being said, if I had to do it over again, I still would do everything exactly the same. Based on my experience and feedback from this site, unfortunately I don't trust any LFS's tanks to be disease-free.

Prime is ok with Copper Power, I know it cant be used with Cupramine!