Setting up a quarantine tank

B

bluelt1ss

[How exactly do i do this. I have a regal that looks like he has a few white spots on him and something discolored in front of his eye that hes been rubbing on a rock. I want to put him in this 10G tank I have for a week and treat him so the spot will clear up. Am I approaching this right? I am going tomorrow to buy a sponge filter and a heater. I was planning on tanking water out of my already established tank and a little bit of sand. I got some treatment for parasites from DNA. IS there anything else I should know or be aware of?]
 
[Are there any other fish in the tank that you are worried about getting infected? How long have you had the regal and how large is he? Also what is the treatment you bought?
Thanks!]
 
[the 10 gal is fine , however I would advise against any sand or rocks. If he does have ICH then the eggs will go to the substrate to hatch. If theres no substrate theres no incubation and the eggs will not develop.I use a 10 gal also for my QT. I do as you and use 5 gal established water and 5 gal fresh mixed water. Provide the lil' guy with a 2" pvc union to hide in at night.Also one can raise the temp up to 82-84 and increase the life cycle of ICH- or try hyposalinity.Ive heard great results with hypo and It seems to be the safest way since your not dosing any meds.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.htm


http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.htm

You could also try feeding him garlic soaked flake food and see If that sends it packing!, thats with the combination of cleaner shrimp seem to do the trick at times.If it is truely ICH then your going have to let your display sit fallow to allow the life/death cycle of the parasite to complete itself.Did you add anything new to the tank?Did this just come out of the blue from an established tank?Is he new ?Geesh Im pulling for you!

Good luck!]



Edited By Maldivan on 1089162481
 
@Amanda wrote:
[Are there any other fish in the tank that you are worried about getting infected? How long have you had the regal and how large is he? Also what is the treatment you bought? Thanks!] said:
[all my other fish are looking great. and the regal still eats a lot just had him 2 weeks and hes maybe 1.5-2 inches long. i dont remember the name of the treatment but if you named a few i could pick it out.

so i should not put sand, just water filter and a pvc pipe and the medication. sound right?]
Click to expand...
 
[Have you added anything to your tank in the last two weeks since you first posted? At that time there was no LR or sand, it was strictly fish if I recall correctly??
If this is still the case I would simply start hypo in your main tank and move any inverts to the QT. The biggest reason this will benefit you is that the other 5 fish in that tank will need QT too. The yellow is likely carrying parasites whether they have showed up yet or not. Two tangs, clowns and damnsels all in a 10g QT just isnt the best idea.
If you have added rock and other stuff then go out and buy a rubbermaid tub large enough for all the fish, for about 6 bucks and use that instead of the 10g tank.

I truley dont like pulling out tangs for QT/hosp especially hippos and some other difficult species. It stresses them out more than necessary and Regal's dont like being lonely. Both of my hippos were the first fish in their tanks and fought the ich battle with elevated temps, garlic, anti-parastic food, and biological cleaners.
I can name off a dozen meds and DNA carries quite a few that I wouldnt even flush in my commode let alone expose fish to. Regal's dont tend to tolerate copper well, malachite green and formalin are also way to strong for this little guy. Please be sure you know what it is before dosing your fishies with it!]
 
[the medication i got is called formalin.
since ive had him i added a cleaning crew - several snails and hermit crabs.
so you dont think i should treat hime alone in the 10G?]



Edited By bluelt1ss on 1089179781
 
[i have 40lbs of live sand and rocks in there so i should probably move him to the quarantine. tell me what you think about this:
move him to the 10g bump the temp up to80-82 and do half the dosage of formalin than it suggests? maybe even move the cleaner shrimp in there with him so hes not completely alone and it server as a biological cleaner.]
 
[I recommend you listen to Amanda. She's our fish expert.]
 
[You can treat him alone in the 10g QT but the Ich will remain in your main tank as long as the other fish are in there. I am suggesting treatment for all the fish in a larger rubbermaid tub. This is certainly your choice. Do not add the cleaner shrimp to a tank with formalin in it, it will kill it quickly!
The tough thing about treatment with formalin is that it robs the water of oxygen and most tangs require the oxygen content in water to be very high to thrive. You will need to add an airstone and I would only use half the dosage. I would also lower the salinity slowly to 1.020 and only up the temp to 80. Formalin will also kill the biological filtration in the QT so daily water changes may be necessary to keep ammonia and nitrite at bay. You will need to test daily for both of these. If the fish does become stressed with this treatment (ie heavy breathing, not swimming as much, laying on bottom of tank, not feeding as well) then start running some carbon and do a small water change.

FWIW, if you are only going to treat the one fish, then trying to erradicate in the main tank may be your best bet. Start adding garlic and elevate the temp in the main tank a bit. You can also add another cleaner shrimp to help out. With the high load of fish you have in the tank it may not work but it is worth a shot if you are not prepared to treat all of them.
Please read the articles that Andy linked above for you, they will give you a better understanding of this parasite.]
 
[OK I will buy a rubbermaid tub today. how long should i leave him and/or them in there for? should i do a 50% water change daily or how much should i take out?
is there anything else i will need? tub, water, heater, filter, treatment, air stone, pvs pipe(s). is that it?
anything else i should know? i read both articles, very informative, but i always learn best hands on. wish me luck. i am going to buy everything today.]
 
[I would only medicate as long as you can see spots and then stop the medication. After you do not see spots you need to wait 4 weeks before moving them back to the main tank. Ich has a proven lifecycle of at least 30 days and sometimes it can take a bit longer to complete so better safe than sorry!
How much water you should change will depend on the levels. If the amm and trite are at 0 then no water change is needed, once they spike up though you will need to change as much as necessary to keep them down. When you are done with the formalin treatment you can add a bit of prime(seachem) or amquel plus to help lock up the ammonia.
Assuming you have test kits then your list is good! Good luck and keep us updated!]
 
[well bad news. i went and bought everything today but couldnt get it all to work in the 35G tub i bought. i guess i dont have enought water in it but I cant figure it out b/c the filter downpipe is submerged. so after many hours of working i gave up and set up the 10g tank and for now will do my regal only until i can get this 35g tub to work.]
 
[Mark, maybe you needed to prime the pump in the filter by pouring some water in the compartment area.]
 
[I also had some trouble getting my hot filter to work on the tub. If any of the joints on the uptake tube are above water they may be pulling air into them. I actually used electrical tape once to cover them LOL!]
 
[i did fill the compartment first (i thought you had to). amanda, you mihgt be right. the bottom which i thought was the only part needed to be underwater and about an inch above was underwater but maybe i need to try taping it, too?
today the blue regal doesnt have any parasites which i assume means they all fell off to go multiply. thats just wonderful.]
 
[Those regal tang are pretty cool. I have a regal blue tang that is about 1 inch and it had ick. My brother help me out and did a hyposalanity treatment which work very well. If you need some help doing a hyposalanity treatment, bring your fish over and we can start the process. :cool grin:

Come meet Andy (maldivian), he is my next door neighbor. He and I have learned a lot from ick and what to do and not :uhoh:

I have a 20 gallon qt tank and a bak pak skimmer and some filtrations to keep the flow of the water moving. The process takes a month if you willing to wait. Of course you are probably thinking what does he want. :beerchug:

It wouldn't cost you anything but your time and gas to come over.

I had my shares of losing my fish and it is a sad feeling :uhoh:]
 
[Yeah they probably did fall off to multiply, you will see more spots on your fish in the morning than any other time. So be sure to check the rest of your fishies each morning when the lights come on for spots. Hopefully you wont see any!]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top