Cleaner shrimp stuck in lionfishes mouth

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Ben_Gropp

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 27, 2017
Messages
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So I have ich in my saltwater predator tank so I told the fish store what I had in the tank and store owner recommended a cleaner shrimp even though he knew I had a lionfish in the tank. Needless to say within an hour of being introduced the lionfishes ate the cleaner shrimp and it's stuck in the fishes mouth with the antennae sticking out of his mouth. Please see pic attached.

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What should I do?
 
Nothing about the shrimp. Nature will do its thing there.
As for the ich, you will need to set up a hospital tank if you are going to treat it with medication. This will result in a 6 week long process, where the display is fallow, to ensure that there is no longer any ich in the display tank. This will ensure that all of the life stages of ich have gone through and there isn't anything else surviving in the display. During this time you can treat with the fish with copper based medications.
 
I put some kind of natural medication in the tank, but I don't have a hospital tank and I've been unable to catch the foxface, but have done a freshwater dip for the puffer 4 times now and he's looking better. Those are the only two fish that have it. Can I rely on the natural medication to kill the ich in both fish? They've had it for 5 days now
 
There is no 'natural' medication that is proven to be a solution for ich. Currently the only ways to kill the cysts are with copper based medications and hyposalinity. Both of these are not safe to do in the display tank.
As for the freshwater dips, they will do well at removing the cysts. This is the third of 3 life stages for ich. This does not address what is in the sandbed or free swimming looking for a host like a fallow tank will.
 
I see.... I'm using this herbal formula called ich attack made by kordon
 
A $30. feeder shrimp :facepalm:, herbal or not the words display and chemicals don't belong in the same sentence . yet alone your tank .





 
Ich has worked for me in fw a couple times. Not sure I'd put it in my sw display?? It doesn't kill fw bb so..
Think 54 meant it's a shame your cleaner shrimp made a fast meal and meds herbal or not really have no business going in a Dt.. Your tank your choice though.

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I'm relatively new to this hobby, my tank has been running for 4 months and I just took the advice from the tropical fish store. I watched countless YouTube videos and there's so much conflicting information. I'm pretty frustrated at this point and can't keep dumping much more money into this hobby....
 
Well best advice I can offer... don't listen to anything the lfs says, they're in it for profit, your continued loss is their continued gain.. Not saying they're all bad but... You should always research every move you make.. a lot, Google and hit up your trusted forum for advice. Don't rush into anything. I'm impulsive at times and I may have rushes my first fish purchase and ended up learning a little lesson. There's an answer for your question out there, just have to be patient and find it.

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So you guys are awesome, this is the first time I've used a forum like this....So ideally you're saying that I should start a QT and take everything living out of DT and put copper in tank? I understand maybe I made the wrong move before, but moving forward what should I do. Ilmy DT includes......2 Haitian Anemones, 1 clarkii, 1 lionfish, 1 foxface, 1 Burr puffer, 2 damsels, a cleaner crew and live rock and sand
 
So you guys are awesome, this is the first time I've used a forum like this....So ideally you're saying that I should start a QT and take everything living out of DT and put copper in tank? I understand maybe I made the wrong move before, but moving forward what should I do. Ilmy DT includes......2 Haitian Anemones, 1 clarkii, 1 lionfish, 1 foxface, 1 Burr puffer, 2 damsels, a cleaner crew and live rock and sand

it's actually amazing you didn't already loose your inverts since you treated display once , I suggest a large water change ASAP .
yes put all livestock out of display put in QT
excluding snails ,hermits,nem these can remain in the display since ick wont host them .
now you need to let your display sit fallow 6/8 weeks to allow the parasite to die off
having your live stock in Qt you can safely treat with copper to remove the ick from your fish , do not treat display with anything just leave it fallow this will allow time for the parasite to starve and die off.
remember you will be doing a lot of water changes to keep parameters in QT safe .
while your fish are in QT you need to keep a very close eye on them as your hospital tank cant hold it's own stable parameters
 
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I have a 20 gallon tank in my garage, but I don't think that's going to be big enough for all livestock.....
 
A 20 gallon might have to do. I don't think I'd pull the lion, just the other fish and treat them in the QT with a copper based medication. I haven't personally heard of lions with ich, but simply due to the space limitations I don't want to see your livestock die in QT due to getting stung by it.
And Brookster, saltwater ich is different from freshwater ick. Two totally different parasites from my understanding.
When it comes to these 'herbal' medications, they are based on one thing - building a healthy immune system. The reason that this isn't always successful is because this has already been compromised due to stress and other things. The want is to have a thick and healthy slime coat on your fish to 'prevent' the parasite from infecting the fish during the second life stage.
 
And Brookster, saltwater ich is different from freshwater ick. Two totally different parasites from my understanding.
When it comes to these 'herbal' medications, they are based on one thing - building a healthy immune system. The reason that this isn't always successful is because this has already been compromised due to stress and other things. The want is to have a thick and healthy slime coat on your fish to 'prevent' the parasite from infecting the fish during the second life stage.[/QUOTE]

I get it.. really do.. I was stating the simple fact it has worked for fw and jury out on sw.

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it's actually amazing you didn't already loose your inverts since you treated display once , I suggest a large water change ASAP .

Which inverts are you referring to? Everything is still alive and I haven't done a water change. Shrimp is still stuck in lions mouth with antenna .

Anyways, the entire value of fish and nems is around 140 in my tank right now. Does it make financial sense to put all this extra money into a hospital tank? Nothing has died and the medications haven't hurt the nems or cured the fish. Anybody want to hazard a guess as to what would happen if I continue to add medication, keep skimmer off, and leave everything in tank? I could foresee a major stress to fish, mess of my place, lots of extra money setting up another tank and potential hazard in handling two venomous fish, time spent going to store to get Water etc...

What do ya all think?.
 
Worst case is your entire tank crashes and you have to start over?? You a gambling man?? If you're not to attached at this point, damage is done. See how it goes??

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Well.....I guess I'm trying to keep it simple and hope for the best. The long list above of measures and risks to get a QT setup and everything else I listed compared to having everything die.....Both are terrible. If I had corals and super expensive fish it would be a different story. All of my fish and nems cost me at most 150. I'm not as much a gambling man as I am weighing different options, I guess you could say that's the libra in me. I've had the tank for months and have invested a lot of time, money and stress/patience into it.

Lemme ask you....When you say crashing and completely starting over, why exactly do u mean? If the worst case scenario happened what would be involved?
Sorry for all the questions and thanks for the help.
 
Ok so getting back to the lion eating the cleaner shrimp. It's been 36 hours and he still has the antenna sticking out of his mouth and he looks like he's choking and doesn't move around tank at all
 
The circle of life or he's going to have the cleanest gills in the United States..

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