Please help

[davez79]

To all those that know and to those that don't I am knew to salt water. I Just got a pair of Pajama Cardinal they looked great at the store. I brought them home and one was very shy hiding behind my live rock. Today he is covered with white spots and from what I have been reading it is ick. I don't know what to do. I have an unused 10 gal tank with nothing in it. I have two clowns two pajama cardinals and 1 scooter blenny, two star fish and snails and crabs. Please if you can give me step by step instructions or point me to a place where I can get them thanks.

 

[crister13]

Ok. Youre going to need to move all of your fish into the 10gal for approx. 6-8 weeks. Leave the display tank as is. Move your fish into the 10g. Drop the salinity to 1.008 over about a week. Use some pads from your filter in the 10g filter so some biological bacteria will be there. Keep the salinity at 1.008 for three weeks AFTER the last white spots are gone. The reason you have to leave the display tank for 6-8 weeks is because the ick floating in there needs to die. Your inverts will be fine. Ick cant host inverts or rock or sand. I did this and no more ick. Really hope this helps and GL.

 

[davez79]

Do I drop the salinity in the 10 gal with the fish right? I just leave the dt alone do I act like nothing is wrong and do parcel water changes like normal?

 

[crister13]

Exactly.

 

[davez79]

Do I put sand in the ten gal. Is my blenny going to live I have a bag of sand unopen from when I set my tank up I could put in.

 

[davez79]

Also when transferring should I just fill the tank with the water from my main tank then lower the salinity or put all new water in and do the drip method?

 

[cosmo]

If you're going to QT, leave the tank bare bottom and put some PVC pipe coffee mugs etc for the fish to use. Get some perigean or other ammonia detoxifier, get a lot of WC's ready. And yes, I'd use tank water and slowly drop the salinity over a few days.

But if you're not going to QT EVERYHTING in the future, algae, inverts, fish before adding to the DT etc, I wouldn't move the fish. Moving sick fish into a small cramped space is only going to add stress and maybe kill the fish.

IMO, I've read TONs more threads of people beating Ich keeping the fish in the tank, lowering stress levels, feeding a quality varied diet soaked in selcon and garlic, than I have from people moving their fish.

Granted a proper QT method and sticking to it in the future, is the best option, however, managing Ich once in the tank is easily doable. Just keep the stress low and food quality high!

Good luck

 

[davez79]

Ok hear is the update I have the qt tank ready. The fish that had the spots has died. All the other fish look good they are eating and have no spots on them. Should I still move them to the qt tank?