Is this ICK?

[chval]

I think I've got a problem. I purchased some of these fish yesterday and now a couple seem to have spots. I don't want to go thru an outbreak of ICK again. Did that back in January and lost the majority of my fish. The worst part is that I had ordered some Angels and cories from LiveAquaria and thought they were to be delivered tomorrow even thought the Fed-ex shipping says the 24th. If this is ICK, what do I do? The last time I started with some blue fizzy tablets then I switched to the raised temperature and salt treatment. I did buy some Ich Attach.

Please help and tell me what to do. I only have the on 55 gallon tank but if it would help I could go and pick up a tank at Walmart - problem would be that it would have to be freshly set up. I had thought about that earlier - before I saw spots - and to speed the cycling I would have used rocks and water from my 55 - impossible now.

Waiting to hear from you experts.

Connie

 

[black hills tj]

if one fish has ich, most likely the tank itself has ich. Begin heating the tank up tonight just in case.

 

[jsoong]

Hard to say for sure from the pic; if those spots are small salt grain like, it is likely ich. Even if it is not, this is likely somthing bad that you don't want to spread to other fish.

I would always QT new fish to prevent introducing something bad into the tank. Now that those fish are in the 55, you have no choice but to treat the whole tank. For ich, I would always go the heat & salt route. It is far more effective than chemicals, and less likely to cause trouble if you got your diagnosis wrong.

For the new arrivals, I would not put them in with the other fish. You are even better off holding them in a clean plastic tub (like a 20 gal rubbermaid - what I use for major QT). You cannot use your existing 55's media, etc to kick start your cycle in the QT. If you can get a hold of biospira or some media from a clean tank, that would be ideal. Otherwise it is daily testing & water changes to keep your levels in check. Although Angels & cories are not ideal fish for a fishie cycle, it can be done safely if you are diligent in your monitoring & water changes. If you plan to go that route, I would suggest getting as large a container as practical (even a 40-50 gal tub) .... that will give more room for errors & longer time before anything gets out of hand.

You other alternative is to put your new fish in with the others and treat the whole lot. You risk losing the new fish. I would only suggest that if you don't think you have the time & inclination to keep pristine water conditions in your QT. In the future, alway QT new fish .... saves you a ton of grief down the road.

 

[chval]

Question about quarantine tank. Do you leave them up all the time with nothing in them or do you set them up prior to new arrivals. If you set them up just prior to new arrivals, how?

Connie

 

[theotheragentm]

What a lot of people do is run a spare filter on their main tank. That way in case the QT is needed, you don't have to cycle anything. You just add the already cycled filter. Generally it's one or two fish at a time, so you don't need to handle too much bioload.

 

[DepotFish]

Black skirts and other tetras are prone to velvet as well, but the spots that I can see are a little big for that. I'd say its ich again. Harsh medications can work, but a little salt, a little heat, and a good cycle will do much better in keeping the fish healthy enough to ward off ich on their own.

 

[Jason the Lost]

Watch the heat with the angels too if you end up putting them in the tank...I've had problems with them and heat. A whole healthy batch with no Ich had grew fungus from the heat when I had to treat my tank because of an ichy clown loach.

 

[jsoong]

Question about quarantine tank. Do you leave them up all the time with nothing in them or do you set them up prior to new arrivals. If you set them up just prior to new arrivals, how?

Connie

As others had said, you can run your QT's filter in your main tank all the time, so you can have an instantly cycled QT or hospital tanks whenever you need it.

Another option is to take 1/2 of your main tank's filter media & use that in your QT. This works best if you have a HOB that can use 2 filter pads at the same time. Then you just pull one of the pad out & put that in the QT's filter. (You'll need to make sure that it will fit .... so your QT's filter will likely need to be identical to the main filter.) Alternatively, if your main filter has room, you can put a small QT's filter pad in it as an additional filter.

Some people run their QT with a few hardy fish to maintain the filter media. You would move the fish into the main tank if the QT is needed. You need to make sure the fish is compatable in the main tank .... and you risk contracting MTS!!!

 

[7Enigma]

I keep my QT tank as a snail/plant grow-out tank. It is always running and gets a 50% PWC once every week or 2 (its a 10 gallon). I now have ghost shrimp in it, and will be shortly moving it to work to house a dwarf puffer so listen to jsoong! MTS!