Hospital Tank Questions

[rob.holbrook]

So I have a powder blue tang that is gotten ick.

Any suggestions on how to treat him in a hosiptal tank?

Cooper? if so how much on a test kit?

or anything else

Thanks
Rob

 

[jiriki]

If it's not super severe, I would treat with hypo-salinity. Otherwise, I would do formalin or copper. I have the best success with hypo-salinity.

 

[szwab]

You'll need a fairly large tank for him to avoid additional stress.

 

[rob.holbrook]

Jiriki - Care to go into more depth about the different options ... like how and what should be done?

Mark - How big of a tank, the tang is about 3 inches in diameter? Right now he is in a 10 gallon with some copper in it - followed the instructions on the back of the bottle.

Anyone have a bigger tank I could borrow or buy ? I just dont want this guy to die

 

[CleveYank]

I'd suggest getting a tote about 16 gallons or so from Walmart. Any copper will leach permanently in a glass tank. The tote too but when you're done you can just toss it in the attic until you need to hospital a fish again.

I'd do the hypo and a little copper and I'd soak the fish food in garlic extra or smash some cloves of garlic with a little water and use that as an extract (only the water and juice from the clove)

 

[szwab]

I was going to suggest a 20 gallon tank the tote is a good idea as well. The cloudy plastic sides will help reduce stress as well.

 

[jiriki]

Here's what I've read. I have lowered salinity of a large QT tank down to the specified amount. All my fish didn't even notice. However, by the 6th week, one of my tangs was looking a bit stressed. Thankfully, it was time to let them out. I had a huge breakout of ich in my display and lost a number of fish. The survivors went through hypo-salinity and survived.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

If they are breathing really hard and looking lethargic, I would maybe go with something more aggressive. You're basically at cure or kill the fish stage imo. The fish which were infected really bad with ich did not make it through hypo treatment. I had a heck of a time catching them. I finally caught them but only after ich got a deep hold of them.

 

[szwab]

When you do water changes siphon off the bottom. Part of the lifecycle in non motile so you can get a bunch of cysts out off the bottom. I alwaysleave an ambient light on in the room. IME it has helped no science behind it though.

Good luck

 

[rob.holbrook]

So,

I go to walmart buy like a 20 gallon tote or a 20 gallon long tank from jacks..... take water that I have already from my tank do the hyposality.

SHould I have any kind of filtration with this .... I have a HOB Aqua clear filter and a HOB Skimmer...


Anything Else?

PVC for places to hide?

SHould I still do copper ... how much and to what level on a test kit?

 

[szwab]

Filtration should be mechanical only no carbon if you are medicating. The HOB filter would be good plus it'll create water movement. Otherwise a sponge filter with the airline down the middle. You'll need to keep a close eye on water parameters especially salinity since top off will more than likely be manual. Remember fresh water to replace evaporation.

 

[jiriki]

if you do hypo, do not do copper as well. The combination could kill your fish.

From what I've read, copper only works in very specific concentrations. Too little, it will have no effect, too much and you will kill the fish too.

I think hypo-salinity is far more forgiving. However, it has no effect on marine velvet which it doesn't sound like what you have. Couldn't hurt to double check.

I installed a float valve on mine to keep the salinity constant. I did water changes virtually every day or other day to keep down ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. It's a royal pain in the butt... If you want to make it easy, add a bulkhead to the tote around the middle so you can do an easy 50% water change and have it drain to some place. And place it such that you can fill it easy. You don't want to make it hard to keep this routine up because 4 weeks is a long time.