opinions on qt treatment please!

[ahullsb]

I have five fish in a 55. one flame angel, two clowns, a goby and a blue tang. The tang has developed ich over the last two weeks. It did look a lot worse, and now it is looking a little better. I am planning on giving the tang back to the fish store after I get rid of the ich. (Tang Police) It is still a young tank and I will continue to add corals and rock. My question is that I have been told to pull all the fish for six weeks and treat them in another tank. Should I do that and risk killing them even if none of the other fish are showing signs of ich? Or do I just treat the tang and see what happens? I already have a 50 gallon rubbermaid with a heater, powerhead, and canister filter so I could put them all in. Any opinions? I'd like to cure my tank of ich but don't I risk introducing it every time I add something?

 

[ronjeremy]

if one fish has it, they all have to be treated...also, if you treat it and give the fish back to the lfs, it is almost surely to get it right back when they add it into their system...most lfs' have one, if not several parasites in their system..you can treat in the rubbermaid, but you will not be able to observe the fish..

 

[ahullsb]

So the fish is doomed? I'm not sure I want to treat it for six weeks just to let it die again in a lfs. What should I do then?

 

[ronjeremy]

i'm not saying that it positively will get it again, but the chances are very high..also, once they sell it, the person who buys it could have ich in their tank!!...about the qt tank, i would always go with a glass tank!!! the rubbermaid is last resort..you must be able to observe the fish while treating..it is impossible in a rubbermaid container..with a glass tank, get a background that will wrap around you tank..all you will need to do is remove a portion when you need to see the fish..this will keep light at a minimum, which will in turn, reduce stress while in qt...also, never put a lid on your qt tank like someone suggested doing on a rubbermaid..the buildup of CO2 will cause your ph to drop!!! also,you asked if you would be able to visibly see the parasites fall off.. you will not necessarily be able to see the parasites fall off, but you will know when they are no longer there..so actually, you will be able to see when the last trophont has fallen off..

 

[kimha]

My blue tang had ick months ago in a 300g reef tank. I was impossible to catch the fish without removing all the corals and LR. so treating it in a QT tank was no an option for me. One of the members recommended using a product call "Kick-Ick" and it worked for me. It was a bit expensive to treat a 300g tank, but it worked for me. I tried it twice on 2 different tanks, and it worked both times. I hated Ick so much and worry about Ick coming back when introducing new fish, so I added a UV light to my setup. I haven't had Ick for almost a year now. You don't need to run UV light all the time. Just run it a few weeks to kill all the parasites and a few weeks when you introduce new fish. It is important that you have good water flow in your tank (No dead spots).