quarantine help.

[edwardclaxton]

My tank ended up getting ich. My tang died. So I decided to quarantine my fish. This was my first attempt at hypo treatment. I read about it went by a quide to decrease salinity down over a 6 to 7 day period and hold it steady for 6 weeks. I bought a refractometer from amazon calibrated it and was ready to do. I did a 40 gal water change on my 125. I used the water from the water change for the water in my quarantine tank. Had my hob filter, air pump heater ready and running. Everything was good until I got my salinty to 1.009. Then my fish started dieing. Now that I think about it my fish in the quaratine tank had now ich visually. They were clowns and chromis. Should I have hypo them? Also when buying new fish and quaratine them, should I do treatment even if DONT see any signs of ich? Just asking because in my research of this I happen to never see a comment about this. Its usually quaratine your fish for 6 weeks if they show now signs put them in your tank. These fish were not treated so they could possibly be a carrier of ich but just not a noticeable amout, right? Please help me on this one guys because its somwthing I need an answer to. Thanks everyone.

 

[jeffaquarius]

First let me say that I'm sorry that you loose your tang and other fish. If you use the water from DT to your QT, a copper treatment should be the right option after a fresh water bath. Some parasites can survive the hypo salinity. If it's just the regular ich they should be slowly erradicated in your QT.
To answer your question about new fish, they have to be observed first in QT and treat them only when a sign of parasites appears.

 

[edwardclaxton]

Ok thanks. But over the 6 weeks on quarantine and the new fish show no sign of ich, what are the chances that they could have it? Would it be pretty slim?

 

[jeffaquarius]

The 6 weeks is just the length of the ich cycle. Some extend it for another week just to be more safe.

 

[edwardclaxton]

Ok. Thanks agains. If I end up getting ich on a fish while in the quarantine what treatment should I use? I heard copper can be really bad on a fish, but taking the salinity down isnt probably healthy either.

 

[jeffaquarius]

If I remember correctly the hypo salinity is 1.0056. What is yours? Marine Velvet can survive it. I used copper and I did not find any problem. You can not do both at the same time since the stress would add up.

 

[melosu58]

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro

 

[jeffaquarius]

Just so you know ich will only get out of hand if any of your fish gets stressed out. As long as you keep your fish healthy and comfortable, even there is ich in DT you won't notice it because they get immune to it.

 

[edwardclaxton]

Oh I thought you only went down to 1.009. Thats where I am now and I had a couple fish die. It took me a week to get there, and my clownfish died and chromis. I have only one chromis left. I didnt use copper during hypo. I guess I did it to quick.

 

[edwardclaxton]

Thanks for the link as well.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Oh I thought you only went down to 1.009. Thats where I am now and I had a couple fish die. It took me a week to get there, and my clownfish died and chromis. I have only one chromis left. I didnt use copper during hypo. I guess I did it to quick.

im not 100 PC sure
Edit: Yes the hypo salinity is 1.009. Were your fish in QT while dropping the salinity for a week? The ich could have multiplied by then before you reached the final salinity.