[JERM0007]

I have a fifty five gallon reef/fish mix tank and I have five fish in it. I recently added a blue hippo tang to my tank and for the first three days it was healthy and beautiful. but last night i noticed that it was starting to get ick. i have a large amount of choral in my tank as well as two bubble annenomies. Also none of my other fish (dragon wrass, clown, watchman goby, firefish, noger trigger) have ever shown signs of ick. Is there a way to treat my new tang without hurting my choral? please help!

[rlcline76]

I'm guessing you have not used a quarantine tank.
I'd suggest getting a cheap 10 gallon from Walmart and buy the essential equipment, like a heater and a powerhead...most 10 gallons you can get the cheap filtration system. You can use the water from you current main tank (might be a good time for a water change in the main display anyway). The wrasse, the tang and the trigger may be able to handle a copper treatment (I would still look into it first before dosing, I only have small fish so I tend to do things differently). The firefish and the watchman cannot handle copper or really anything too strong. They are pretty much limited to melafix and maracyn. You may give them a freshwater bath and try these products. If you want your tank to go fallow, you might want to look into a clean bucket, an extra heater maybe an extra powerhead or airstones. I have put melafix in my maintank AT MY OWN RISK, but it is always recommended to do the doping in a QT. See what kind of mess this is without the QT???? I had to get a UV streilizer for my main tanks just to reduce ich occurence.

QT QT QT QT!

Becky

[JERM0007]

thank you,,, if at the moment a QT is not available, how about cleaner shrimp and cleaner fish? have you had any success using them to take care of ick?

[rlcline76]

None. I have a cleaner shrimp, but he largely ignores ich. Some people have luck with that, but it is not a guarantee. If you have money to get cleaner fish and shrimp, you should be good to go on a QT.

[rlcline76]

Plus, cleaning fish and shrimp won't cure the ich in your tank. You will still be dealing with it as it cycles and cycles.

[JERM0007]

Thank you again. so my best bet really is to try to find the room to set up quaranteen tank.
But you raiseda good question, if i set up QT that still will not get the ick out of my regular tank, any advise on that?

[rlcline76]

That is the tough part if you cannot go fallow for 6 weeks (meaning all fish out of tank) to allow the cycle to complete hostless. This is why I had to get a UV sterilizer. Ich is a real pain. People might chime in and say hyposalinity and temperature raise. If you choose to leave those gobies in the main tank while you are treating, that is a "no go" and I would be cautious about a good temp raise with assorted corals and anemones. It is a frustrating mess.

[JERM0007]

So basically I really need to also get one of those filters. Thank you very much for your help.

[blind1993]

yep and they are not fairly expensive just get an aqua.

[JERM0007]

Thanks again. just a post script, anyone ever heard of anyone having a "leafy sea dragon" outside of shedds aquarium?

[fisheyes]

Check this site out its got a reef safe cure. All-Reef, Your Source for Premium Quality Marine Livestock

[blind1993]

nice advice fisheyes it sounds like itll work.

[blind1993]

they are usually just called seaweed seadragons.

[phillkg]

similar occurence when i added blue hippo, ran uv sterlizer and soaked food with garlic and within a week it was gone, still use garlic and ran uv for a month. it,s been seven months and hasn't returned