Quarantining all Fish

[solidsnakejv]

Okay so i'm going to quarantine all my fish because my yellow tang has black ich. I am going to use Hyposolinity to treat them, and i am going to have the Main Tank fishless for at least four weeks.

What's going to happen to my tank cycle wise. It's finally completly cycled and i keep on getting good ammonia and nitrite readings.
Will the tank be fine without fish, and will i be able to add all the fish at once once i finish the treatment? Or do i have to slowly reintroduce the fish to the main tank?

I do have about 12 hermints, 6 snails, and two clearner shrimp in the main that will be staying there. No corals yet.

90 gallon with 100 pounds of live rock.

Thanks

[AdamHorton]

You may be able to add ammonia yourself which would simulate the fish waste -- throw a couple of raw shrimps in there, or maybe use some pure ammonia...

[thincat]

Here is a good site to read up on Hypo...
hyposalinity
You should get yourself a QT setup in the future. saves lots of time and money in the long run
Good luck,

[austinsdad]

Make sure you get a refractometer to accurately measure salinity levels.

BTW, how many fish and how large is the quarantine tank?

[solidsnakejv]

I did a lot of research on Hypo and i do have refractometer.
I will be picking up my old tank from my grandmother's house on Thursday. 30 gallons and i will fill it up with the same water i have in the display now.
I have:
2 ocellaris clowns fairly small.
1 yellow tang about 4" long
1 pink/blue spotted watchman goby 4" long
1 purple firefish 2" long

and there's supposed to be a sixline wrasse that i added on 8/31/09, but haven't seen it since the following day. I think it's a goner

My concern right now is my main tank. Since i will taking out all the fish, what will happen to the cycle, and would i be able to put all my fish right back into the tank all at once four weeks later without shocking the cycled tank.

[CaptainAhab]

You realize your QT will be not be cycled.. right?

For your main tank, just keep adding fish food as normal (or somewhat less) and your bacteria will be good to go. I'd recommend not using the tank water for your QT. Probably not a big deal but why go out of your way to put the free swimming version (if there are an) in the QT from your display.

Hypo is brutal from a maintenance point of view. Take a read on FW dips too. Might be worth considering that along with some meds before the hypo route. Hypo's gonna take a lot of your time.

But its not going to get you past the fact that your QT isn't cycled though. With that many fish, that water is gonna get fouled quickly and often. And matching that moving hypo salinity over time with multiple water changes is gonna be tough.

[solidsnakejv]

Well i have been treating the tank with this new medication by Herbtana it's called Microbe-lift and i have been giving the tang freshwater dips about four so far in the past two weeks. The LFS said they have succesfully treated black it with this new medication. But i don't think it's gonna work for me. All the other fish have not had any spots whatsoever and i first noticed the tang with the stops almost four weeks ago. She's the only one that has been getting it.

A guy at the LFS also told me to just treat the fish with copper instead of hyposalinity. I know Hyposalinity is going to be a pain in the but, but that's what most people have told me to do. But i guess there's always time for me to change my mind. I konw that the main has to been fishless for at least four weeks.

As far as adding the food to keep the bacteria at the same level that it is now, isn't that going to make the parasite live in the tank longer?

[CaptainAhab]

Again, I'm not sure of this but it sounds like you think FW dips and then back in the main display will work. It won't. The parasite is everywhere during various stages. The tank needs to go fallow unless you are willing to give up the inverts, LR and LS.

If you do FW dip , then the fish(s) need to go to QT for the duration of the fallow and be further treated if the parasite continues.

The parasite doesn't feed off of the food. It feeds off the live fish.

Copper is fine, in the QT.. NOT in the main. Either way.... tank fallow, fish (all of them) in QT and treated/observered.... FW dips or not

[solidsnakejv]

yeah i am aware of that. I was just trying this new medication. but after almost two weeks it has not been working. So i will QT all the fish. And i am leaning towards hypo because i konw that the QT tank won't be cycled and i will need plenty of water changes, so hypo will allow me to use less salt.

[Innovator]

First off you said it was black ich (turbellarian), which requires formalin and not hypo.

[CaptainAhab]

yea, you're right...black spot...

That and/or FW dips

[solidsnakejv]

I thought i read somewhere that hyposalinity will curse black ich. But i guess not.
I just read some about formalin treatment and it said to continue treatment in a qt. do i need to lower the salinity in the QT tank? should i not use main tank water to start off?

[CaptainAhab]

The lifecycle of the flatworm is about 10 days, I think. After 5/6 days the worm drops off the host and falls to the substrate where it matures for another few days them busts open and a whole new batch is released that swim and look for new hosts/rehosts. Taking water from your main means you may be moving some of these free swimmers into your QT in addition to what's already on the fish.

However, it would be fine to use the tank water for the 'bath' mixture. When I do dips I have the 'bath' water, the 'rinse' water, then back in the QT for observation until treatment is done. Then back in the main.

Been awhile since I've done it but without looking it up, I think that's the pattern.

as best I can remember

[solidsnakejv]

So basically i can just make new water for the QT and after the baths and treatment just put the fish in the QT. Do i not need to acclimate them first? i will try to match the salinity and PH as close as possible.

[CaptainAhab]

and temp. If you have an airstone put it in w/ the bath.

[solidsnakejv]

a regular Hagen AquaClear power filter (HOB) will be fine for the QT right. With plenty of water changes.

[CaptainAhab]

yup

[solidsnakejv]

cool, thanks.

[Innovator]

Please 'scuse my headache so I haven't read through everything, but this is what I normally do as bath routine (I'll include Formalin dosage as well);

The dosage for a bath is: .125 to .167 ml of formalin/l at 80F. If you use a 5g bucket you can add 2g of qt water, an airstone, and add 1.25ml (I rounded down) of formalin. Allow 1 minute for the formalin to mix. Add your fish and watch carefully for 30-60mins. DO NOT WALK AWAY!!! If the animal becomes too lethargic or normal breathing rates rapidly decline take it out immediately. Have another bucket with freshwater available and proceed with a fw dip up to 15mins. DO NOT WALK AWAY!!! If the animal becomes too lethargic or normal breathing rates rapidly decline take the animal out immediately. Once the dips are complete, place the animal back into qt and refill the qt with fresh saltwater. This will act as a small water change (50% daily or every other day should be conducted imo). Repeat procedure once every 3 days.

**If you require more gallons of water in the bucket for the bath simply do the math Hopefully I got mine right!!


Shouldn't this have been moved to the Sick Fish/Coral section?

[mgamer20o0]

Originally Posted by thincat

Here is a good site to read up on Hypo...
hyposalinity
You should get yourself a QT setup in the future. saves lots of time and money in the long run
Good luck,

first thing you should get is a QT be it fw or sw. they are invaluable.