Hi! I'm new to the hobby and I made the biggest newbie mistake: not quarantining new fish. My Foxface has now fallen ill with what I believe is ich and I don't know what to do. At first he has tiny black spots so I started treating for black ich, however; today when I woke up, he was covered in white spots with little white rings around them. I know the best method would be to quarantine all of my fish and treat with hypo salinity or copper, but that really isn't an option at this point. My quarantine tank is not fully set up yet and no where near cycled, and my new firefish are very shy and already shaken up by the move (I bought them prior to the disease outbreak when I thought I had a healthy tank). This has been such a nightmare! I originally started with two clowns (which I bought from petco-another newbie mistake-and failed to realize they were unhealthy. I believe the one died of Brooklynnela, but the other one is still happy and healthy. I know my tank wasn't the issue because when I went back to petco there were four more clowns from the same tank dead. I just don't know what to do at this point. I can't handle losing another fish and feeling like its my fault and I don't understand why this is happening. My Foxface is by far my happiest, hungriest fish and I really don't understand what happened. My nitrates are at 0, my ammonia is at 0, and my nitrite is at 5, but I am doing water changes constantly to bring it down. My ph is also a little low at 8, however from what I read here I should try to boost it naturally instead of with chemicals. Is there any possible way to treat my entire tank for ich without killing my invertebrates? I am in the process of setting up a quarantine so this does not happen again. Please let me know what I can do at this point because my Foxface is my favorite fish and he is starting to breathe rapidly; I'm afraid to go to bed because I just don't want to lose him. Also, if anyone can tell me how to post photos from my iPhone, I would be happy to do that in order to get a confirmation that it is in fact ich.
Possible ich on Foxface
- Thread starter salty14
- Start date
gone fishin
New member
If one of your fish had brook in the DT then it possible the brook is still in the tank. If the foxface has ich then it is in the tank as well. There is not a way to treat either ich or brook in the DT. Also brook is a fairly quick killer if left untreated.
A lot of folks use a photobucket account to upload pics.
The link should be able to help you out.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2389659
Good luck just my 2 cents.
A lot of folks use a photobucket account to upload pics.
The link should be able to help you out.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2389659
Good luck just my 2 cents.
Capt.Nemo
New member
Get them out and into QT. QT not cycled, get Ammonia badge and some prime. You must treat or lose. No sand or rock in QT. your display must go fishless for at least 72 days. Don't treat display, treat in QT.
I am no expert and learned hard way myself. Lost all fish in matter of 3 days.
72 days will allow life cycle of disease to evolve into its own extinction without host to feed and continue life cycle.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about hypo salinity. Just something else to frustrate you trying to fix.
Sorry for your loss, I hope you can get QT set up. Treat with the copper and or possibly other treatment. I hope they make it.
Best believe I QT everything now.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
I am no expert and learned hard way myself. Lost all fish in matter of 3 days.
72 days will allow life cycle of disease to evolve into its own extinction without host to feed and continue life cycle.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about hypo salinity. Just something else to frustrate you trying to fix.
Sorry for your loss, I hope you can get QT set up. Treat with the copper and or possibly other treatment. I hope they make it.
Best believe I QT everything now.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Turbosreef
New member
Be careful with prime it makes some medications more powerful
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
I'm wondering if the clown did have brook though because the other clown, as well as the two firefish are still in perfect health. Will a QT tank be okay without a filter if I do a lot of water changes?
I only have a 10 gallon quarantine tank; would it be okay to put all 4 fish in that for treatment? Should I have separate tanks for each? Or would it be okay to only treat the Foxface seeing as he is the only one with symptoms? I'm so lost here and I just want to make sure I do this correctly.
iluvmyfishes
New member
I think your 10 gal is small for all the fish so put all the inverts in the 10 gal and treat your tank. That way you treat everything.
Maybe I will just take it back and buy a bigger one, or keep it as a backup. The Foxface was laying against the glass looking like he was going to die and now out of nowhere he keeps trying to jump out of the tank. I'm crying I have no idea what's wrong. He's calmed down now but he's barely breathing and just propped up against a rock at the bottom. This is so upsetting I can't handle it.
gone fishin
New member
I personally do not think the 10g is big enough to treat the 4 fish in. The minimum size I would use is a 29g. I did not see what size tank you have?
From looking at the pics it is hard to tell but I would lean towards ich.
Yes, you can used an uncycled tank for a QT. I would have some water on hand for water changes and something like seachem prime for ammonia as well. Be aware that you should not use prime in the presence of copper, this will create a toxic condition. Also, I like ammonia alert badges by seachem as well.
I would look into using the Tank transfer method (TTM) on your fish, there is a sticky at the top of the page above the big red arrow. This treatment only works for ich. In addition the DT needs to stay fishless for 72 days to get rid of the ich from the DT.
From looking at the pics it is hard to tell but I would lean towards ich.
Yes, you can used an uncycled tank for a QT. I would have some water on hand for water changes and something like seachem prime for ammonia as well. Be aware that you should not use prime in the presence of copper, this will create a toxic condition. Also, I like ammonia alert badges by seachem as well.
I would look into using the Tank transfer method (TTM) on your fish, there is a sticky at the top of the page above the big red arrow. This treatment only works for ich. In addition the DT needs to stay fishless for 72 days to get rid of the ich from the DT.
Well, after dosing with prazipro to treat the black ich last night (I was going to buy the copper today for the regular ich) , all my fish started freaking out. I have a powerless and plenty of flow in the tank, but it seemed like they were suffering from lack of oxygen. I tried everything I could to fix it; I was up until 5am trying to. Two survived when I finally felt comfortable going to bed, but now they are both dead too. Why would this happen? I even added extra flow to the tank last night in a last effort to try and make sure they had extra air, and they seemed ok when I went to bed. Has anyone ever heard of fish dying from prazipro? I'm completely devistated. My fiancé and I are ready to quit were so heartbroken.
gone fishin
New member
prazi can lower oxygen. You added additional circulation, but what size tank was all the fish in. Also, was the water surface being broken to promote oxygen exchange. I suspect you had something larger going on than ich or black ich due to the rapid demise.
It's a 55 gallon tank. I moved the power heads up to the surface so they were blowing bubbles into the tank and really breaking up the surface which seemed to work for the remaining fish, until I woke up this morning and they were gone anyway. The surface was completely broken up. I don't know what happened all the other fish were completely healthy it was just the Foxface but now all of them are dead. I don't think we will be keeping our tank, as much as we love it, because I can't handle feeling like I'm the reason these animals died. However, if we did decide to keep it, would keeping it empty (besides our invertebrates, all of which who are fine) for a few months kill of all possible diseases or just ich?
gone fishin
New member
Ye, if you kept it fishless for 72 days then that would get rid of the ich and any possibilty for brook.
I f you decide to stay in the hobby take the time to look into setting up a QT and doing TTM on the fish. Getting off to a rough start is not fun but it does happen to more folks than not. Look through the link I posted earlier it has a diagnosis section and get familiar with symptoms. This may help you to make an informed decision.
I f you decide to stay in the hobby take the time to look into setting up a QT and doing TTM on the fish. Getting off to a rough start is not fun but it does happen to more folks than not. Look through the link I posted earlier it has a diagnosis section and get familiar with symptoms. This may help you to make an informed decision.
I've been doing extensive research so I recognized the diseases, but I just didn't expect this. I was in the process of starting up a QT tank to prevent this after reading how important it is for new fish. I would love to stay in the hobby I just can't justify all of these fish dying. We did everything right (except for qt). We waited so long to add fish to ensure we were through the nitrogen cycle. I researched everything and read all of these books. I added an extra power head for the fish when treating with prazipro. I just never expected this to happen. I stayed up all night setting up what I could for the QT so that in the morning I could buy the copper and treat them all. I tried so hard and everyone died anyway. I'm completely devistated.
Also, I can't find the link you wanted me to look at.
Also, I can't find the link you wanted me to look at.
