cowfish with ick... just out of QT. Now what?

[kelso1980]

I bought a cowfish almost 2 weeks ago. when I got him home I put him in QT and noticed one eye was a little foggy and bigger. I figured it was popeye. I treated him with Maracyn-Two for 6 days and left him in QT for 3 more days. I put him in the main tank yesterday. He's in there with only a flame fish and a mandarin, they both look fine. Today I noticed a &*%$ing white dot on one fin...then another...then another. So now what do I do? Obviously it's in my tank now. I've never had ick before. Wouldn't the QT have killed it?! Can I treat it in the main tank? it's a FOWLR now (just sold all coral until I graduate from college and have more $)
I dont really want to put him back in QT because i feel like that's stressful on him especially because i have a hard time keeping the water quality just right in such a small tank (10G)
Any advice would help.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Chris27]

2 weeks of QT may not have done the trick, especially if you didn't treat with copper/hypo/etc..

Pulling the cowfish back out, along with the other fish is the only way to go, extra care must be taken with the cowfish, because if it dies, and is left in the tank, it will release a toxin that could wipe out the rest of the fish.

 

[kelso1980]

ok, so take all 3 fish out and treat them with copper and hypo? can i treat them in the main tank? because it seems more stable than the QT tank...
I guess I dont understand why they have to be taken out of the main tank, I dont have coral in there.

 

[jason2459]

I would not treat the mandarin or any scaleless fish with coper. Hypo would be the way to go with them. You would not want to treat the main tank because you will most likely kill off many other benificial organisms living in your tank. If you have any inverts (ie. crabs, shrimps, snails, pods etc) they would die.

 

[kelso1980]

ok, so could I just use hypo in the main tank? How low should I go? Or should I still take the cowfish out and treat him separately? the other two fish have no signs as of this morning.

 

[jason2459]

If you're going to go the route of treating may as well do it right. Hypo will kill most everything that's not a fish in the main tank as well. Get them all into QT. I'd QT for 8 weeks leaving the main tank with no fish in it for that long. Just watch the health of your mandarin. Does it eat prepared foods at all? If not this might be a great time to train it to.

 

[Chris27]

Reference this, it's a very good article with well documented references covering the lifecycle and treatment options.

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