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Stock Tank for QT help on Ich


Guff

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So got bit again, last 2 fish to go in and get an ich outbreak. So is the best place to get a rubbermaid stock tank or similar at the tractor supply store? Guessing I might need at least 2 100g to hold the stock I have assuming they dont crash before I can figure this out. I have 8-10" achilles, dussemeir, and tennetti tangs along with 3 yellows, 3 vostros, blue jaw trigger, 3 snow flake clowns, blue eye cole, sailfin, orange shoulder fowleri. Thus the need for a lot of space to try to keep and treat.

 

The Achilles and Fowleri are the ones that have presented and they were the ones added about a week ago after QT. GO FIGURE. Both were fat and happy with no signs....so what are the options for getting something big enough to support that amount of livestock. What can I do for setting up filtration to support it all? At this point I think I have to almost hope they can fight it off and live with it long enough for me to get something frankenstiend to try to take care of it.

 

Any ideas suggested are welcome. Ideally would like to do either tank transfer method or find some one that has a source for Chloroquine Phosphate. Just prefer not to deal with copper if I can avoid it.

 

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I've treated about 5-6 dozen tangs in copper over the past three years - I've never had any issue except for the rare zebrasoma genus tang. Acanthurus handle it well. I would personally recommend coppersafe, as hippo tangs are known to be sensitive to CP and same with wrasses.

 

I would say a 75 gallon tank ($1 per gallon sale is going on at Petco I believe) would do the trick. It'll require large water changes, an ammonia badge by seachem so you know where you are, and daily copper testing. Take some sponge from an established tank for best results. Don't use prime or amquel or any ammonia detoxifiers with any meds but especially copper as it'll turn your water poisonous.

 

Achilles tangs are overly suceptible to ich and velvet. Also, based on how serious it's gotten, I would be willing to bet you actually have velvet. With that in mind, a freshwater dip and a methelyn blue bath (give gills some relief) would be a good move. Match temp and PH as best you can (use araga milk if you have it handy).

 

The problem with all the plastic and rubber stuff is that it can hold and absorb copper and medications. CP levels unfortunately cannot be measured or monitored which is another reason I shy away from it.

 

You may also post on the disease forums on reef2reef.org, those folks over there are very knowledgeable, although I've regurgitated most of what they would tell you here. It might help for second and third opinions.

 

Good luck, friend!

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Sorry for the late replies I got pulled out of town for work unfortunately. Wife has been watching and so far everyone is still acting normally but the achillies still has the spots. So at this poing assuming it has to be ich and not velvet or the tank would be gone by now. Hope to be back home tonight or tormorrow morning and figure out from there what I'm going to do.

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I was able to get them all into my 75g and 40g tanks, lost the tennetti and achilles 3 days in to the copper treatment. AND someone the blue throat trigger managed to hide in the tank so still have to catch her to let the main tank go fallow. Everyone else so far seems to be doing very well and unaffected by the copper.

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All is still going well, knock on wood. Everyone else seems to be happy and acting normaly and eating aggressively. Only issue is verifying the copper level, both my API and chemetrics test kits show above one somewhere below 2. I dosed the recommended mL based on tank size, so afraid to do anything more than that with everyone doing so well....but do want to make sure that if any are/were carriers that the parasite is killed.

 

Plan on trying to catch the blue throat female this week, she's gone about a week without food so probalby getting pretty hungry and hopefully enter the trap.

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Yeah, I'm just going to put the blue throat in a 5g bucket with a hang on back filter that is being seeded in one of hte treatment tanks currently. Once she finishes then I'll add to one of the others to ride out the last of the fallow period.

 

So i've read the fallow should be anywhere between 75-90 days, is there a definitive timeline or just go with the max 90 days?

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  • 3 weeks later...

You want copper at 2.25 or so to be absolutely sure for all copper products other than cupramine. The reason you can dose what the bottle says and fall far short is that many things absorb copper so the therapeutic amount isn't present during treatment. I agree with the comments on the trigger.

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