Just QTed Fish...Finished Finally!

J

jbrownacu

Premium Member
i just QTed my 4 fish because of a possible ich breakout killing a few other fish. the symptoms are white spots, scratching on rocks, cloudy eyes, fins are torn (fin rot maybe?), bodies look cloudy as well, clowns are swimming near the top of the tank, heavy breathing on the small clown. they seem to be eating well still.

i have put the 4 fish in a 20g QT tank and started to treat them with Instant Ocean Lifeguard http://tinyurl.com/2xgr7e has anyone used this before? is it just some junk i shouldnt be messing with? i am going to hypo the tank once the 5 day treatment is done with. is there something else i should be doing instead of this?

one of the small clowns seems to be worse off than the others. is there something immediately i could do? a fresh water dip? should i dip all of the fish?

also when im needing to adjust the PH can i still use kalk to control it once the hypo has started?

sorry for all the questions. i just want to do everything right.
thanks
josh
 
@Matt wrote:
...I personally would start the Hypo ASAP if they appear to be badly infected. Lowering the SG will help lower the stress level of your fish and make it easier for them to breathe... said:
Agreed, and since they are in a smaller tank, the concentration of the parasite will be greater per cubic foot of water. The greater concentration only allows more of the parasites to find their hosts (your fish) when they are looking to attach. Start the hypo treatment if they are covered/acting as you stated. We use baking soda to help with the pH, but just watch it however you do it, I've had it get out of control a few times during the process myself.
Good luck.
Doug
Click to expand...
 
i started dropping the salinity slowly over the next 36 hours. it's at 1.018 for the night. ill drop it some more in the morning. i put one of those ammonia meters that suction to the side of the tank on it to monitor that. do those work pretty well at least to show first signs of ammonia? what are the main concerns during hypo that i need to keep an eye on? Salinity, PH and Ammonia? ill run my normal testing on the tank, but what do i really need to keep an eye on?
 
oh ok...i will drop it a little faster then. would dropping it all the way down to .009 by today early afternoon be too fast? im leaving for the night to go to visit my family until tomorrow afternoon. also what about one of those PH stick on monitors? any of those any good? i dont have a PH probe as of yet.

the little clown fish seems to be doing a bit better, which is great. i put an auto feeder on the tank for them to get fed while im away which means they wont miss a feeding. flakes in the morning and night and frozen for a lunch snack when ill be back! :)

thanks matt,
josh
 
salinity is at .009 since friday. now i keep getting ammonia registering on the test kits. when it pops up i do water changes, but after a day it starts coming back. will i be battling ammonia like this the whole 8 weeks of QT time? what else can i do besides water changes every other day?
josh
 
That is a pain in the backside. If you have a HOB filter with filter floss or some other media in it, bacteria will eventually colonize it and the ammonia will stop creeping up.
 
I have a hob filter with a sponge, carbon, and 2 biomax filters in it. the biomax filters are basically small stones for bacteria to grow on.

so I need to just fist fight with the ammonia and hope the bacteria eventually catches up? when I do a water change I'm adding topfin bateria supplement.

thanks
josh
 
I've never used a bacterial supplement in my qt tanks- just water changes. Then again, I usually qt fish in ones and twos, so I rarely see any trace of ammonia.
 
@jbrownacu wrote:
I have a hob filter with a sponge said:
Josh,
Depending on how much media you have (rock,sponge,filters,etc) will depend on whether you will ever see the ammonia subside during the treatment. Given sufficient media for the bacteria to colonize, it will stablilize and you will have a 'cycled' QT tank. That is one of the reasons I have extra rock media in our QT tank to help with that issue. It may make a little bit of rock unsuitable for my reef tank afterward, but it's great for frequent QT,etc. It sounds like you've gotten then fish in hypo and stabilized mostly. The pH may fuctuate a bit, but I've not seen that after you reach a stable hypo state. The real dangerous pH change is while converting normal salinity water to hypo water...it can change quickly during that process.
The ammonia alerts do work well, but watch them for the slightest color change. In our experience, it doesn't take *near* the amount of change shown on the alert guage to be dangerous/hurtful to the fish.
It sounds as if the fish may already be improving... that is great. Keep up the good work/monitoring. :D
We will be taking some out of hypo state ourselves now and introducing the next new guy to hypo shortly, so the fun starts over. :)

Doug
Click to expand...
 
thanks for the replies. the fish are doing so much better. I wasn't aware that once in hypo the ich falls off so fast or at least there are no signs of it on any of the fish. the small clown is back to acting normal and not swimming on the surface anymore. I'm very excited to know I will have an ich free tank!

just to check one last time, I don't need to take any of the snails, crabs, or shrimp out of the main tank...it's just the fish?

thanks as always :)
josh
 
Just the fish. Without a host, the ich in the main tank will starve within 6 weeks (preferably 8 if you can swing it).
 
if you can't keep a full time quarantine tank would there be any benefit to leaving a penguin powerfilter or something running on the sump all the time to keep a colony of bacteria going ?

Any adverse to sump inhabitants ?

BD
 
a lot of people do that. I had the hob filter setup on the main tank for about a week before I setup the qt tank. some people just throw the sponge or other media into the sump to let the bacteria grow on it. also putting the hob filter on the sump is good if you ever need to run carbon or some other type of media every once in a while.
 
Nice job your doing everything right. Water changes daily while a pain are sometimes neccesssary. USUALLY (Isay that because it's not always) with 2 weeks or so you will get enough bacteria on your filter to deal with the ammonia, but then of course you'll have to watch for nitrate. Basically your cycling the tank with fish in it. All we can do is change water like crazy! It will take a while for the bacteria to build.
 
things seem to be in pretty good shape. im still changing the water every couple of days because of the ammonia. other than that, what else do i need to look for to treat? im so lost when it comes to parasites and diseases.

i have noticed that the butterfly poops really runny and red, while the clowns seem to be long, stringy and white.

edit: WOW...i just noticed that my heater locked up and my temperature was near 90! i took the heater off and unplugged it and started doing water changes to get the temp back within range. none of the guys seemed phased, just breathing a little hard. is the heater broken or can i try plugging it back in? my wife isnt going to be happy about me going and buying a new heater because she said no more fish purchases for 2 weeks, haha!
 
i tried messing with the heater some, but it was just broken...only a month old too. i just went and got a new one. can someone talk about what else i need to treat for or things i need to look for? last post i mentioned about bowl movements.

thanks!
josh
 
Runny and red is probably a good thing. White and stringy COULD be intestinal parasites. Are these guys tank raised? Are they nice and plump or do they stay skinny no matter how much they eat?

Only things to watch for are changes in behavior, scratching, spots or splotchy patches, appeitite issues, etc. If any of these occur take pics and report back.

In the qt just monitor the salinity and pH on a daily basis and your good.
 
from what they told me the true percs were wild caught. they are pretty plump or they at least look healthy to me. when they poop it usually dangles about a 1/4" to 1/2" for a while like they just cant shove it on out, haha! ill take some pics when i get this new camera working.
josh
 
It's possible that they have internal parasites. Just in case you might want to get some of this food. Follow the instructions.


http://tinyurl.com/2sr55f


the antiparisite version. It has praziquentinel in it that will treat if indeed it's a problem. It's harless otherwise so it won't hurt even if they don't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top