Fick

[jgoal55]

Hey All,

Thanks for all the posts and yes I will do a hospital tank as my first choice of treatment.....

As for the mandarin, here is the thing: He was free, given to me by a friend and while I knew that my tank was not ready for one, I knew that if I didnt take him my buddy was probably going to flush it down the toilet....(long story).

Anyway, I am getting a skimmer and a sump this weekend. That will help the bio-load I am sure.....As for the mandarin eating, since I know my tank is not ready for him, I have been feeding him live brine almost everyday that I have had him except for the last two (b/c i ran out)....but today he ate flakes!!!!!

He was also doing the wierdest thing I have ever seen a fish do although I see mamal dolphins do it all the time......he was literally swimmming to the top of the tank and spitting out water while sticking his head out of the water....not sure if this is a good thing or not but it was so cool I took video....

I understand that he may not make it, but I am doing everything I can to keep him alive by feeding him the live brine.....once my sump is going I am going to buy a few bottles of live pods and dump them in there.....hoepfully this will help....

Also, in the meantime, I want to set up a live brine shrimp tank.....from what I understand they are super easy to maintain.....

As for the ick, I did buy some kick ick today over at Cap Bay.....the girl there said she recommended it along w/ metronidazole and garlic (???).

It seems though that most of you dont recomemend the kick ich so by majority rules I wont use it.....

Thanks again for all the advice.....what I still havent figured out is why my water went from really good to suddenly bad in just two weeks?

Is ammonia the cause of the ick? and where the heck did the ammonia come from? I really don't think I overfeed my fish.....I feeed them just once a day and they eat all the food I put in in about 30-45 seconds.....

As for my corals, about twice a week I have fed them mysis and/or brine....

I'll keep you guys updated on the situation.....and yes, btw....I agree that I should get rid of the ick completely, not just let it heal but still have it in the tank.....so no, I will not let my kids broken are heal by itself....lol....

thanks again,
Jorge

 

[showtime305]

Jgoal55;30435 wrote: Is ammonia the cause of the ick? and where the heck did the ammonia come from?

Chances are the ammonia was the cause of this ick infection. Ick was present in your tank and infected your fish while the immune system was weak from the stress caused by the ammonia.

The ammonia could have came from feeding, maybe some new live rock, or even a bacterial colony crash.

 

[jgoal55]

hmmm.....so should ammonia be regularly tested for? at least when you add live rock?

 

[showtime305]

Most hobbyist slip the ammonia test because they know there tank is stable. You should check for ammonia if you ever see a problem like what you are having now, add live rock or add new fish.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Jorge, I will call you this evening...

 

[jgoal55]

thanks brandon....loooking forward to it....


As for the ammonia test, given my siatution, I'll be testing for ammonia pretty regularly I guess......at least until things are back to stable.

 

[ms_ k]

The ammonia spike may have been caused by the addition of your fish. You may have added them so quickly that the tank could not adjust and the excess waste created by the fish was too much for the current bacteria to handle. They weren't able to multiply fast enough to keep up...just a possibility.

Good luck with your fishes, especially your mandarin. BTW, if you see him getting thin, I'm sure someone would be willing to take him off your hands or at least foster him for a while for you. That may be an alternative to just letting him starve to death...IF it comes to that. Hopefully, it will not.

 

[jgoal55]

Thanks Ms. K....

actually, I very much thought about giving my mandarin up for adoption when I ran out of live brine but then he got ick.....

I am sure no one wants to care for an ick fish.....

anyway, the good news is that he is eating flakes....so hopefully he keeps it up...I still want to find some live food for him soon....

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Great meeting ya Jorge... Hope everything with you Fick issue works out.