QT Tank Questions

[Toby Flenderson]

Short answer, gave up. I used a fish trap and caught every fish in my tank except for my scooter blenny. They were all set up in the 40 gallon QT downstairs. Brought everything down to hypo and was set to go. I had a couple problems.

1. I couldnt catch my scooter blenny, I had just gone through the amonia spike scare and there was no way I was going to tear up my rock work to get it.

 

2. The blenny eats pods and would have died

3. The fish looked miserable in there. The tank would have cycled soon and taken out half of them because I was unprepared.

4. I Was mostly concerned about my clown fish because they were the first fish I ever bought. I think they had a better survival chance in the display than in the uncycled QT.

 

I put all fish back in the tank and continued to feed them heartily. The blue tang which was the only fish with symptoms cleared up in 2 days. They are all fatter and healthier then ever. Now I realize that ich drops off and hatches and re attaches in there life cycle so I'm not blind to the fact that it could come back at any time but my current approach is to see if this is somthing my fish can live with.

If not I'm going to take my time and properly cycle a QT before trying that again.

And since I had an empty tank all setup and going, I decided use it to cure my dry rock from the brs group buy, nice.

[PowderBlue]

Admit it or not most of our tanks have ich present in them, unless the fish are stressed, we are ok. Mine fought off a bout of ich about the same time as yours. Didn't loose anything., all fish ate like normal. Only thing I can relate mine too was the nitrate spike?

[SteveHash-fish20]

Admit it or not most of our tanks have ich present in them' date=' unless the fish are stressed, we are ok. Mine fought off a bout of ich about the same time as yours. Didn't loose anything., all fish ate like normal. Only thing I can relate mine too was the nitrate spike?[/quote']

 

They still have ich present then, and I don't find it valid to say most tanks have ich.. If you take the right precautions you won't have ich. Copper the qt or hypo will kill ich. My goby jumped about 2 weeks ago and due to damage lost his tail from lack of blood flow. And still no ich. I'm sure he's stressed beyond belief.. Not having a qt is like playing Russian roulette with your tank. Don't know who I should quote on that but it's true

[SteveHash-fish20]

Admit it or not most of our tanks have ich present in them' date=' unless the fish are stressed, we are ok. Mine fought off a bout of ich about the same time as yours. Didn't loose anything., all fish ate like normal. Only thing I can relate mine too was the nitrate spike?[/quote']

 

They still have ich present then, and I don't find it valid to say most tanks have ich.. If you take the right precautions you won't have ich. Copper the qt or hypo will kill ich. My goby jumped about 2 weeks ago and due to damage lost his tail from lack of blood flow. And still no ich. I'm sure he's stressed beyond belief.. Not having a qt is like playing Russian roulette with your tank. Don't know who I should quote on that but it's true

[PowderBlue]

Buy a tang, qt it for 8-10 weeks toss it in your tank, sooner or later it will spawn an ich outbreak. So explain to me how it shows ich? If it was qt, proper time, etc. how does it still contract ich? Happened to me.

[Gill]

Short answer, gave up. I used a fish trap and caught every fish in my tank except for my scooter blenny. They were all set up in the 40 gallon QT downstairs. Brought everything down to hypo and was set to go. I had a couple problems.

1. I couldnt catch my scooter blenny, I had just gone through the amonia spike scare and there was no way I was going to tear up my rock work to get it.

 

2. The blenny eats pods and would have died

3. The fish looked miserable in there. The tank would have cycled soon and taken out half of them because I was unprepared.

4. I Was mostly concerned about my clown fish because they were the first fish I ever bought. I think they had a better survival chance in the display than in the uncycled QT.

 

I put all fish back in the tank and continued to feed them heartily. The blue tang which was the only fish with symptoms cleared up in 2 days. They are all fatter and healthier then ever. Now I realize that ich drops off and hatches and re attaches in there life cycle so I'm not blind to the fact that it could come back at any time but my current approach is to see if this is somthing my fish can live with.

If not I'm going to take my time and properly cycle a QT before trying that again.

And since I had an empty tank all setup and going, I decided use it to cure my dry rock from the brs group buy, nice.

 

Sounds like you made the right choice to me. I always say that ick can be deadly but so can a quickly thrown together QT. I'm really curious about the process of taking the fish out of hypo, how many days did it take? Or did you not drop the SG?

[Toby Flenderson]

They were in hypo allright. Wish all salt tanks were like that I'd save a lot of money on reef crystals! I raised the salinity back up gradually by putting a fan on the water surface and not topping off the fresh water. Got the salinity up close but not all the way and scooped them out. Easy.

[PowderBlue]

They were in hypo allright. Wish all salt tanks were like that I'd save a lot of money on reef crystals! I raised the salinity back up gradually by putting a fan on the water surface and not topping off the fresh water. Got the salinity up close but not all the way and scooped them out. Easy.

 

Atleast now you can get the qt tank setup with the proper amount of time, I hope ya don't need it anytime soon, but always good to have one running!

[SteveHash-fish20]

Lol, did you treat it or just pray and watch??

 

I've seen much success with tangs after qt. also I would never buy a fish I knew had ich.. Or even something I can identify. If the fish has even the hard to notice foggy fin or an unusual spot anywhere.. I'm not purchasing the fish.

 

And your saying a 100% if I buy a tang, qt it for 8-10 weeks, then throw it in my tank that I'm going to no matter what get an ich outbreak?

 

And you might have ich as it is. Tangs are more susceptible due to the fact they travel more than most aquarium fish in the open ocean.

So their slim coat is not as thick or strong. Leading to them getting ich easier and showing signs a lot more often then other fish.

Fish for example like a scorp are a lot more hardier when it comes to anything including ich.

My answer to your question is if he looked good in the qt then you threw him in the tank.. You have ich in the display. And other fish are not showing it.

 

You can have ich for a long time, have an outbreak and even have fish survive. It's not gone... And it's going to come back. Unless you go fallow for 12-14 weeks and hospital your fish, your going to continue getting ich unless you break the thing down.

[Garrett]

Ich can live in rocks and sands for weeks and in fish for as long just waiting. My best aevice is study the life cycle and act appropriately. People have cured it by putting a fish in a tank with no rock no sand and do 50% water changes daily for weeka taking out all the free flying ich. Its a vicious cycle that gets worse with time.

[Garrett]

The ich lives in fish for month or two eating rheir gills etc bring the parasite it is, drops off lives in sand and shoots out thousands of baboes after a couple weeks to restart the cycle only worse. Each drop and reinfestation will be worse then last eventuslly killing the fish. All the xures for ich dont work while it is still present on fish, soon as the parasote goes for its free swimming atage in either copper or hypo then it dies, thats why it is imparative to wait a few weeks after the final spot is gone off the fish to be certain.

[Garrett]

Stress imo and ime has nothing to do to with this at all besides their initial ability to fight the infextion, after that STRESS is NOTHING. Try to not stress out an animal that you have to catch in a net and move tanks water tank mates etc its whole world, its imppssible, if stress had anything to do with it EVERY SINGLE fish would have ich now wouldnt it at one point. Because for it to never be stressed from beign harcested to being flown.around the world is bull.

[Garrett]

Does a person get diseases if theyre stressed, how about any other animal? No. If we got picked up out in a bag and dropped off in africa would i be stressed yes would i magically develop a disease, no. Only if its present in my.new enviroment. So why would a fish or any other animal operate in a different fashion

For exanple, a long time hiv patient. Does their hiv turn to aids when theyre stressed, no. We are all animals and we all operate on the same basic principles. If your stresses just like a fish your more likely to get sick, yes but your sickness has.nothing to dobwith stress, if you eat rigjt your LESS LIKELY to get sick but does it prevent sickness no. We all operate on same principles i just dont know why people assume fish are so biologically different, were all from the same planet and weither you believe in evolution or creationism were all basically the same thing wrapped up in a new pattern.

[Toby Flenderson]

Does a person get diseases if theyre stressed, how about any other animal? No. If we got picked up out in a bag and dropped off in africa would i be stressed yes would i magically develop a disease, no. Only if its present in my.new enviroment. So why would a fish or any other animal operate in a different fashion

For exanple, a long time hiv patient. Does their hiv turn to aids when theyre stressed, no. We are all animals and we all operate on the same basic principles. If your stresses just like a fish your more likely to get sick, yes but your sickness has.nothing to dobwith stress, if you eat rigjt your LESS LIKELY to get sick but does it prevent sickness no. We all operate on same principles i just dont know why people assume fish are so biologically different, were all from the same planet and weither you believe in evolution or creationism were all basically the same thing wrapped up in a new pattern.

 

The ich was allways in the tank and in the tang but there has to be a relation between stress and showing symptoms. First ammonia spike ever, had the fish for a year, the spots show up the next day? That would be quite a coincidence.

[Garrett]

Sorry wasnt trying to be a dick was just getting out my opinions, their is a rationship of sorts but sorry to say he always had the ich imo, i assume he was fat and healthy. His body was strong making his ability to repress the parasite, at the first sogn of weakness in his immune system the ich took its chance, kinda like your sick before you even have symptoms the bug is already in you

[Garrett]

Like all major outbreaks of disease in mankind the parasite has the abiloty to lie dormant. The black plague, a boat left turkey or some shizz full of people trying escape the blaplague which kills a human beong in three days, none of these people died on boat, which is a couple weeks sail to italy, upon landong in italy they spread the plague that whipped out one third of europe. And another aids example, first man woth it was a gay flight attendant, laid dormant in him yet upon his sexual interactions with others it came out and now is the epedimic of today. Seems like its all willy nilly magic but you can looks in history in people and find solid ecidence of the abiloty of parasites and diseases to wait. A parasite is an animal even if its tiny just like any other animal it does what it needa to to aurvive and reproduce, it had no reason to attack qn unvunerable tank and die, so it choose to wait making it seems as if it came from nowhere. You dont have to believe me these are my opinipns and i mean no offense at all. The black plague stpry is true, same with the aids. Just examples i could think of in human history off the top of.my head

[Garrett]

Another good example, breast cancer. Only tgrough early detection is it possible to cure, when it seems everything is okay they really have a cancerous growth thats been hiding waiting for a time to attack.

Us and fish arent very similiar but the parasites, diseases etc that attack both are very similiar imo

The last stage of the life cycle of ich is the stage which shows spots on fish, he had or got it atleast a few weeks ago to even be ahowing any white spots at all.

[Gill]

They were in hypo allright. Wish all salt tanks were like that I'd save a lot of money on reef crystals! I raised the salinity back up gradually by putting a fan on the water surface and not topping off the fresh water. Got the salinity up close but not all the way and scooped them out. Easy.

 

That is a good idea with the fan. won't work in my 125 though LOL.

 

It is amazing how little salt it take for hypo isn't it!?!? I put as much salt into a 20 Brutte trash can as I usually put into a 5 gallon bucket!!!!

[Gill]

Does a person get diseases if theyre stressed' date=' how about any other animal? No. [/quote']

 

Why do you think they call it a "cold" when you get sick??? If you don't all ready know the human immune system becomes weekend when the body is under "stress" Before germ theory people noticed a correlation with exposure to bad weather and sickness, thus the "cold"

[Garrett]

Yeah, so stress is a catalyst to this serious of problems, perhabs. But once again stress doesnt matter, the ich does. To say your animal is.never stressed is absurd. The stress weakens the immine system yes, but if you take the right steps then you wont have thr PARASITE attack them. If theres no parasite then their stress has nothing to do woth anything besides personal husbandry. The only reason stress would even play a factor is if your system pr your fish already had ich and you added an uninfected individual in. Im not saying stress isnt involved but its is neither the reason for or a reasonable prevenrative. Just like keeping them "fat and healthy" it may strwngthen their immune system but ich has nothing.to do with nutrition or lack there of. Its like tape wprms or whatever fpr people but microscopic and lives in lungs

[Garrett]

My refrence to the cold as well was more on the point that befpre yoy even have a "cold" your actually sick with it prior. Its not an instant thing, it sits and waits to attack just like ich thats why i refrenced it.

Ive lost a handful of fish to ich not because of my freding habits because i fed them like kings, and from my assumption they were stress free but to a single blue hippo which affected my whole tank

[Derbird]

I honestly think he did the right thing. Putting all your fish in a small tank that is uncycled is a death sentence for your little friends. It is unfair to attack him for acting in the best interest of his pets.

 

And yes I honestly belive almost all of us have ICH in our systems. Even if you QT all of your fish correctly. The bathic life stage of the ICH parisite lives in substrate, like rock, and frags. As we all trade rock and frags back and forth it is almost inevitable to get ICH in to our tanks. I don't know of many how do a 8 - 10 week QT on frags and rock. Although its not a bad idea. We just don't see outbreaks on our heathy fish because they can easily fight off the very few parisites present. Tangs just have minimal slime coats so when they get a little stressed or sick they lose it right away and that is why they are so prone to ICH. The other fish get attacked when the tang drops thousands of little parisites that all attack at once. Thats when we have a catastrophic outbreak and lose all of our critters :(.

[PowderBlue]

I honestly think he did the right thing. Putting all your fish in a small tank that is uncycled is a death sentence for your little friends. It is unfair to attack him for acting in the best interest of his pets.

 

And yes I honestly belive almost all of us have ICH in our systems. Even if you QT all of your fish correctly. The bathic life stage of the ICH parisite lives in substrate, like rock, and frags. As we all trade rock and frags back and forth it is almost inevitable to get ICH in to our tanks. I don't know of many how do a 8 - 10 week QT on frags and rock. Although its not a bad idea. We just don't see outbreaks on our heathy fish because they can easily fight off the very few parisites present. Tangs just have minimal slime coats so when they get a little stressed or sick they lose it right away and that is why they are so prone to ICH. The other fish get attacked when the tang drops thousands of little parisites that all attack at once. Thats when we have a catastrophic outbreak and lose all of our critters :(.

 

Very well put and agreed :-) James did the right thing for his situation. His fish beat the parasite, I hope they stay healthy and good job buddy!

[SteveHash-fish20]

I honestly think he did the right thing. Putting all your fish in a small tank that is uncycled is a death sentence for your little friends. It is unfair to attack him for acting in the best interest of his pets.

 

And yes I honestly belive almost all of us have ICH in our systems. Even if you QT all of your fish correctly. The bathic life stage of the ICH parisite lives in substrate, like rock, and frags. As we all trade rock and frags back and forth it is almost inevitable to get ICH in to our tanks. I don't know of many how do a 8 - 10 week QT on frags and rock. Although its not a bad idea. We just don't see outbreaks on our heathy fish because they can easily fight off the very few parisites present. Tangs just have minimal slime coats so when they get a little stressed or sick they lose it right away and that is why they are so prone to ICH. The other fish get attacked when the tang drops thousands of little parisites that all attack at once. Thats when we have a catastrophic outbreak and lose all of our critters :(.

 

 

Just to clarify I would have done the same thing as flenderson. I guess I got off topic when I started talking about ich.

And now it's led to what it has.

 

 

I still very much so disagree with some of the comments. Cause it's theory.

 

I mean you can say the same thing to Garrett's and my comments but there is a lot more success stories with ich involving a qt, going fallow, and hospitalizing the fish, then just watching and praying,

 

It's like if it was your dog would you just feed it heavier with garlic hoping his disease and illness goes away? Or treat it, that's my look on things and agin this is a forum so opinions are going to be different.

 

But at the same time I don't feel anyone is wrong as what do I know? I'm just a hobbyist I'm not a scientist.

[Garrett]

He did the right thing, thats a personal belief. Not much you really can do at that point cause ita too late. But yeah he did good. But no theres no ich in my systems at all. Yeah in theory it can be on rock and frags. But heres the catch 22 i got pieces from people who have ich and i dont, and this is the same across the board. Im just trying to help you understand what it is. If you believe its in EVERY system yhen your sadly mistaken. Im not attackong.him on what he did im attacking people like you who aupposrdly care so much about your fish but you choose an ignorant approach to their sicknesses and you preach it to others. Do your fiah have ich, then why are you telling people how to cure it...