Will my fish live?

[Swiftler]

Here's the story. I picked up a Red Sea Sailfin on friday from my LFS. He looked good and healthy and my wife loved it. I brought it home and aclimated it to my 10 gallon QT. On Sunday morning it looked very stressed. I did a test on the tank and found that the ammonia was at .5!! I quickly changed out about 8 gallons and got the ammonia back down. He started swimming around more and then I noticed the dreaded white spots. By the late afternoon he was heavy breathing on the bottom, hiding, loss of color, and loss of appetite. I treated the tank with copper, and been checking per instructions, to keep the concentration at .3. He looked about the same this morning. Do you think I'm going to lose the fish?

 

[Holygral]

Here's the story. I picked up a Red Sea Sailfin on friday from my LFS. He looked good and healthy and my wife loved it. I brought it home and aclimated it to my 10 gallon QT. On Sunday morning it looked very stressed. I did a test on the tank and found that the ammonia was at .5!! I quickly changed out about 8 gallons and got the ammonia back down. He started swimming around more and then I noticed the dreaded white spots. By the late afternoon he was heavy breathing on the bottom, hiding, loss of color, and loss of appetite. I treated the tank with copper, and been checking per instructions, to keep the concentration at .3. He looked about the same this morning. Do you think I'm going to lose the fish?

you are fighting a losing battle trying to keep ammonia levels down in a 10 gal with a sail-fin in it.

 

[TheTodd]

If your QT is not cycled and you do not have anything added with BB, then you are going to have to keep a close eye on the ammonia and plan on frequent water changes. How is your QT set up? Is the Tang eating?

 

[Swiftler]

QT has been setup for quite some time. Bare bottom with a heater and a mechanical media in a hang on back filter. This tank has been used for many quarantines without any issues. The tang is only about 2" and so far has not eaten. It picked at little at the nori I put in on Saturday and very little at the pellets I dropped in.

Whenever I do a wc on the display I exchange water in the QT.