Hypo in display tank?

[Phoenix7506]

So.. My 75 cycled and has been going for a month now. I added the first few fish and I'm now starting to see ich. I did set up a 20g quarintine tank a week ago. I know I kinda did things backwards but I'm still learning.

 I have the 2 clowns that I moved from the biocube, a purple dottyback, female swallowtail angel, and a chocolate tang. It seems to me that the qt might be a little small for all 5 fish and its not cycled yet. All fish are fat and eating well. The ich isn't very heavy. The angel and tang are rubbing a little. Eyes are still clear.

 I only have a couple shrimp, a dozen snails, and 8 small pieces of coral so I was thinking about just taking them out and putting the 75 into hypo. This would also be a lot easier than catching the fish and a lot less stressful for them.

My real question is what will this do to my sand and rock? I'm guessing the bacteria will be fine but sponges and hitch hikers in the rocks will die off. Is it worth killing off these beneficial critters? It has only been going for a month so I can't see too much of a setback. What are your thoughts?

[Twizted1]

How bad is the it? You may just feed your fish a good diet that includes garlic and just let it go. There are people that live with ich in there dt. No one likes to have it in there dt. But if you go with a larger tang, even if it has been thru hypo. You risk putting ich right back in it anyways. So if the fish can handle it. And they're fishy world is still spinning, I would just let it ride.

[Viggen]

With my last outbreak I didn't want to remove all my rocks to access the fish.... So I yanked a handful of pieces of rock and my anemone and as many crabs and snails that I could get and did a hypo treatment to my display tank and threw the other fish in a extra 75g.  I kept the salinity low for 3-4 months.  Kinda funny though, two days ago I did a water change with the python clean n fill thingy that premium aquatics just delivered to me, and I have a crab in the tank that made it through the hypo treatment, I was completely shocked.

When/if I get ich in my tank again, I will do the same thing.  Hypo the display tank and remove some rock and inverts to put in qt

[Phoenix7506]

I tried catching the fish last night and stressed them out. I found the tang dead this morning covered in sand snails. I thought the tang was OK but he looked pretty stressed after I chased him for 3 hours last night.

I have been feeding them with garlic and a vitamin supplement. I've noticed a slight decline inappitite from the dottyback but the clowns and angel are very fat. I think I'm going to try moving the corals and shrimp to the biocube and move some rock to the qt tonight and start dropping salinity.

Once I get the salinity down and all the ich has disappeared for a week maybe I'll start adding fish till I get what I want in the tank. Once all the fish are happy in hypo for a month or two then I could start bringing it back up.

How does this plan sound?

[Phoenix7506]

After talking to a friend last night in think I'm going to let it ride for awhile and do more water changes. The fish are eating well so I'm just going to wait. Maybe I can't put something in quarantine for awhile and pick up some frags along the way. I think letting the fish settle with no new additions and without disrupting things may be the ticket.

[Neogenesis]

Agreed, A good healthy diet and keep a close eye on them and they should be ok.   Unless your VERY VERY VERY strict on your quarantine practices, it incredibly hard to keep ich out of your system.  Keep a low stress healthy tank and you'll more than likely never see it rear it's ugly head.

[volcano]

I recommend the club's fish trap.  It works very well and eliminates a lot of the stress of catching fish.  You can eliminate ich from your DT, if you let it sit fallow for 8 - 9 weeks.  Use a properly calibrated refractometer on your QT and run the SG at 1.009 for the correct amount of time and never introduce a new fish to the tank w/o the proper QT.  You can cycle a QT rather quickly by using the water directly from your DT.  Do small, daily water changes and your fish should all make it.

If you really don't want to QT, some fish can develop an immunity to ich.  You can also, feed your fish high quality food soaked in garlic and selcon to help.  Offer the herbivores red, purple, and green algae and be sure to soak that in garlic and selcon as well. Cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp will also eat the parasite.

Hope that helps and I hope all your fish make it.  Best of luck!

[Phoenix7506]

Agreed, A good healthy diet and keep a close eye on them and they should be ok.   Unless your VERY VERY VERY strict on your quarantine practices, it incredibly hard to keep ich out of your system.  Keep a low stress healthy tank and you'll more than likely never see it rear it's ugly head.

What do you feed your bellas angel for a sponge supplement, Scott?

[Phoenix7506]

I recommend the club's fish trap.  It works very well and eliminates a lot of the stress of catching fish.  You can eliminate ich from your DT, if you let it sit fallow for 8 - 9 weeks.  Use a properly calibrated refractometer on your QT and run the SG at 1.009 for the correct amount of time and never introduce a new fish to the tank w/o the proper QT.  You can cycle a QT rather quickly by using the water directly from your DT.  Do small, daily water changes and your fish should all make it.

If you really don't want to QT, some fish can develop an immunity to ich.  You can also, feed your fish high quality food soaked in garlic and selcon to help.  Offer the herbivores red, purple, and green algae and be sure to soak that in garlic and selcon as well. Cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp will also eat the parasite.

Hope that helps and I hope all your fish make it.  Best of luck!

If it doesn't go away I will do that. I don't know about driving 2 hours for a fish trap. Lol it would be cool to meet some of you guys though.

[volcano]

Dr. Fosters and smith sells the traps for $40.  Its money well spent.

[Neogenesis]

What do you feed your bellas angel for a sponge supplement, Scott?

Live Aquaria doesn't mention sponges as part of it's diet.  I see it eat dang near everything I feed the tank and it appears to be pretty healthy. 

[volcano]

Read the ingredients of your food.  Many of the frozen foods have sponge in them.  Soak those cubes in selcon and garlic.

[Bucknutz]

John at Tropical Reef has a trap he will let you borrow.

[Phoenix7506]

Live Aquaria doesn't mention sponges as part of it's diet.  I see it eat dang near everything I feed the tank and it appears to be pretty healthy.

That's what I thought. Heath was telling me different about my swallowtail but I'm pretty sure it would be the same. My angel is a pig so I didn't really give it thought. Are you busy this weekend?

[Phoenix7506]

John at Tropical Reef has a trap he will let you borrow.

I'll keep that in mind. I don't plan on trying to chase them again

[volcano]

That's what I thought. Heath was telling me different about my swallowtail but I'm pretty sure it would be the same. My angel is a pig so I didn't really give it thought. Are you busy this weekend?

If you look at the ingredients in the frozen foods for Angles and Butterfly fish, they include sponges.  Therefore, regardless of what liveaquaria says, I would guess that sponge is part of their diet in the wild.

[Phoenix7506]

If you look at the ingredients in the frozen foods for Angles and Butterfly fish, they include sponges.  Therefore, regardless of what liveaquaria says, I would guess that sponge is part of their diet in the wild.

Yea. Ive been feeding a wide variety of foods but none have sponge. Brine, mysis, marine quisine, emerald entree, and a couple different flakes. Ive been using garlic and vita-chem as well. I'll pick up an angel preparation this weekend to throw into the mix. It definitely won't hurt and you can't have too much food laying around.

[Bucknutz]

you can't have too much food laying around.

Tell my freezer that.

[Phoenix7506]

Tell my freezer that.

Bring her over. Oh, you said your freezer!   

[Neogenesis]

Are you busy this weekend?

Busy tomorrow morning with my Sons hockey try-outs.....should be around the rest of the weekend though.  Give me a call or drop a txt.