Hypo or no hypo that is the ?

[ReefDreamz]

I just got 2 firefish. Right now I have them in QT at 1.022. They look healthy and are eating plenty of mysis. I told the guy at the LFS where I bought them that I was going to do hypo for a few weeks and he said not to. He said hypo would just stress the fish out to the point where they would be more likley to show signs of ich. Now i dont know what to do. I would rather not go through the chore of slowly lowering and then increasing the salinity but I will if its totally necessary. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Bebo77]

if you can do it.. do it.. but make sure you know what you are doing....

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

 

[Duddly01]

Hypo will kill the parasites, not make them show up. It is a myth that ALL fish have ich. You have to use a refractometer to get the salinity to 1.010 and hold it there. A hydrometer is not accurate enough.

With that said, I wouldn't hypo a pair of firefish. Tangs on the other hand I would alwats hypo. Gobies are not nearly as prone to ich as many other fish. 1.020-1.022 should be great to keep them at in case you need to lower it, but I wouldn't unless they start to show signs.

 

[ahullsb]

I agree with the above. Hypo should be about 1.009 if you are going to do it. I would hypo tangs for sure, the firefish might be o.k. You just need to decide whether you want to be on the safe side and qt them for 6-8 weeks, or whether you want to take a chance and have to pull them later. (that is no fun by the way)

 

[Duddly01]

Ohh, absolutely quarantine them for 4-6 weeks. You just don't necessarily need to hypo them. If they have ich it should show up in that time. I would never introduce them to a tank without doing so. The only fish I didn't quarantine is my Mandarin. For one their slime coat is extremely resistent to parasites and two, their eating habits make quarantine more risky than not. All other fish go into QT.

That time is total time without any parasites. If they do have ich you will have to keep them in quarantine for 4-6 weeks after you have it cleared up. Hope that makes sense.

 

[ReefDreamz]

Ok thanks for the advice. I'm going to leave them in QT for 4 to 6 ich free weeks at 1.022.

 

[bigdaddyadam]

quarantine, sure...hypo, only if ich shows up in quaratine...if the fish have it it will show within 6 weeks, hypo is stressful and only deals with ich anyway, plus it is a pain, that being said if the fish DO show ich then hypo is the way to go