Qt Tank help!!!!

[Travis8896]

Ok I know this is a lot to ask but I'm in a bad situation and need a lot of help! My tank just got an out break of ick and I do not have a qt tank or a tank big time enough to make it a qt for all my fish. I am wondering if someone would be willing to let me use their qt tank or if someone would qt the fish for me. The fish I have in my tank that need to be quarantined are 2 gold banded maroon clowns, 2 blue/green chromis, 2 fire fish gobies, 2 mollies, 1sailfin tang, 1blue hippo tang, 1 bangii cardinal, 1yellow coral goby, 1 tri color wrasse, 1sixline wrasse, 1 yellow mandarin,

[Travis8896]

Or does anyone have a qt tank and would be willing to hold some of the fish the one showing signs is the blue tang

[Boonjob]

How many fish have signs of ICH? How long? Any of them New?


The tang would be your biggest concern, most those other fish have a high resistance/tolerance and are pretty hardy.

[Travis8896]

So far only blue tang is showing signs and he is 2 weeks old and the 1 fire fish and 1 chromis and the sixline wrasse are only a week old

[Travis8896]

I need to qt the entire tank to get rid of the parasite but I only have a 40 gallon hex tank that I can setup for qt and that's not big enough for all the fish

[Sonnyred]

To be total honest if its just your tang showing ich I wouldn't even worry about it. Just leave them be and don't add anything new for like 3 months. If you don't already add a uv sterilizer. Feed the fish good. Set up a qt for future purchases. I think you should be fine.

[Viggen]

I went out and purchased a Rubbermaid tub (two actually) for qt duties.  Possibly go out and snag one, the bigger the better..... I have a Astra 150g tub however being south of dayton it would be a bit of a drive to come down and snag. 

With a light load in a large tub possibly simply a air stone is all the filtration or water movement you would need, then just do a partial water change every week. 

I would be on the safe side and yank the fish and leave your tank fishless for a while......

[Boonjob]

To be total honest if its just your tang showing ich I wouldn't even worry about it. Just leave them be and don't add anything new for like 3 months. If you don't already add a uv sterilizer. Feed the fish good. Set up a qt for future purchases. I think you should be fine.

^^^ +1 That is what I was getting at... The only fish of concern would be the Hippo, and they are notorious for ich... Moving him may only cause more stress, which may lead to his demise. Supplement garlic, feed well and often, and try to reduce the stress in the tank.. If he is wigging out all the time, you can turn the lights off sooner for longer or just off for a day or two to see if it helps calm him down, provided you dont have sensitive corals.

[Travis8896]

He is completely calm and eating fine especially the food with garlic
and wouldn't leaving him in the tank be worse? And shouldn't I remove all fish to clear main tank?

[Boonjob]

Yes and No...

If you want to do it "correctly"... You will need to allow the tank to go through fallow.. So you would need to pull all your fish, and quarentine them for 6-8wks on average... Depending on the stage of life, ich can live for around 40-60 days without host(on average, though some reports show as much as 100+ days)...  Since there is no cost effective practical way of testing if ich is still present in your tank we use the 6-8wk rule as a general basis under the assumption that ich most likely died after this time away from host(though it is possible for the ich to die much sooner, or even still be present after the 8wk mark)... Now while your tank is in fallow, you will need to tend to your quarentine of fish... Which you could now treat with Copper and or hypo... So their recovery should be much speedier than the 6-8wk mark... However you cant put them back in the tank until after follow, so you must continue with the routine waterchanges and such to keep them alive, not to mention running the quarentine tanks plus your normal tank....

In a nut shell that is the "correct" way... HOWEVER... there are no garuntees that you dont go through all this and your fish still end up with ich after fallow(though its a low possibility)... 



On the other end of the spectrum

99% of the fish that you have in that tank are quite hardy and or resistant to ich. My suggestion would be to just monitor the tang, keep him low in stress, and feed well and often... Supplement garlic for all inhabitants... You wont get rid of the ich, but with time and the right conditions the fish's immune system should be able to do the "heavy" lifting for you....




Now you could pull the tang and only the tang and quarentine him(more like hospitalize)... BUT... My concern here is... Stress from a move like that could worsen his condition... and a move back into the tank could just cause stress and bring back the already present ich.... But a freshwater dip and or hypo quarentine may just be what he needs.


You have to make the choice about how serious you want to take it... Ich is quite common, and most fish can supress it, however these tangs will always come up here and there with it.

[Viggen]

Taking the ich infested fish out soon/now can stress him however it might be at a time that his Immune system in strong enough that he can easily recover from the added stress. 

If keeping him in the tank and if the Ich gets worse he can easily die of the stuff and infect the other inhabitants or possibly he can pull through and kick the bug.

Kinda hard to say what's best...... For me garlic didn't work and I either yank the fish or yank coral/inverts and hypo the tank.

[Travis8896]

Ok I think I'm going to pull all the fish out and treat them I went to setup my qt tank only to find its leaking plus that tank alone is not big enough I was wondering does anyone have a qt system I could borrow to treat my fish or possibly if someone has the tank but doesn't want to move would u be willing to treat the fish for me for some kind of fee or trade for their time and supplies. I would greatly appreciate it.

[Boonjob]

If your really going to QT them all, look into stock tanks (rubbermaids) such as viggen suggested already.. They can be had for 50-100 bucks at a place like tractor supply... Or just use a durable rubbermaid tote.... Air stone, bio/mechanical filter and heater... I know some peep say you need rock more or less blah blah... But I have always used these 3 and never lost a fish.. It doesnt need to be anything special. The hang on bio/mechanical filters give better filtration than some lead on, they are only there to prolong the time between water changes, not eliminate them...

You are hospitalizing the fish... you should be monitoring them and the water multiple times a day any ways.

Set it on the floor and let it run, cover with a towel and/or Eggcrate to keep jumpers in and towel to block light to reduce stress, if they are stressing

[Travis8896]

Does anyone have a Rubbermaid I can use so I don't have to buy one I'm only 16 and just tapped my funds by buying leds

[METZCOOL]

Travis,
I have a 29 gallon fully set up and cycled if you want to plop them in there and treat them, I am in wapak.

[Travis8896]

That would be great thank you

[Travis8896]

Still in search of another qt system that's established I have the 2tangs in metzcools tank I am going to be setting up a qt tank here but it will have to cycle so I am still in need of another qt system

[Travis8896]

Well I've won the ich battle. I've started raising the salinity in my qt tank. The survivors are my 2clowns 2green chromis 2firefighter gobies 1 bangii cardinal 1sailfin tang 2 adult mollies and 1 older baby I found while tearing the tank down to catch the fish didn't even know the baby was in their. The 2 adult mollies mated in the qt tank and know I have 27 babies that are 3or4 weeks old. So if anyone wants mollies that have been converted to saltwater let me know.the fish that I lost in this battle are 1 blue hippo tang he was 4"  1 tricolor fairy wrasse 1 yellow clown goby 1 spotted mandarin. How do u guys think it turned it out, it could have been worse but it could have been better to. Atlest I learned my lesson about not qting all fish before they go into my tank.

[lazylivin]

Congratulations did good

[Travis8896]

Thanx I'm kinda upset about losing the blue tang and the tricolor wrasse even tho I only paid $50 for both

[Travis8896]

Scratch the sailfin tang I learned he died to but I still had a pretty good survival rate