QT Stress

dous

New member
Because of my stupidity, I have to treat all my fish inhabitants in my 55g with hyposalinity due to a fish with ich. This tank has over 80 lbs of LR; 20lbs of sand and I would hate to tear it apart. Most, if not all the fish in it are already established (clowns on anemone, goby and pistol shrimp in tunnel, R. gramma in rock hole, etc. I've made an attempt to catch the fish but I'm stressing them out and I hate to do more harm than good. So far I have moved a small clown fish. There are still basically 6 small fish to go. I have corals but they are all attached to small rocks and easy to move around.

My question is would it be better to just move the corals with their rocks into the QT and keep the SG to 1.026 and do the hypo on the main display? I'm not planning on treating with copper, only 1.009 SG. for a couple of months.

Also, how would hypo affect my shrimps, hermits and snails?

It would be the simplest and less stress way for the fish, I would think.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.
 
Hi Jim, I read that article and am going withh trapping the fish instead. Might be tricky with my goby though.. always under the sand.
 
Good luck! You may need to set the trap in there for a few days so that they get use to it being there. You will also be surprised as to how smart these fish can be.
 
By the way, I know the shrimps, hermit crabs and snails can stay in the main tank, what about Starfish? I have a serpent star and a Red Linkia. Do they get affected by ich or do I just leave them in the tank?
 
Nope, you will only need to remove the fish. Be sure to leave your main tank fish less for atleast 4 weeks, 6weeks would be best. I am assuming you will treat the fish in a seperate tank and leave the main tank alone....just want to make sure.
 
Yes, I have another tank I'm using as a hospital tank where I would treat with hyposalinity for 6 weeks as soon as I get all my fish in there. It's running now with a heater, sponge filter and a powerhead. I have lots of PVC pipes inside for hiding.

So far its still half full and all I have in there is one of my O. clowns. It will be challenging to get all of them in there. I need to hurry though as I can see 3 of my other fish are brushing up against rocks.

I ordered "The Trap" and will hopefully get here soon. I made a 2-liter bottle trap tonight and will set that up while waiting for the other trap which I'll add in there as well.

Should I run a skimmer on the tank if I'm only doing hypo? I have an extra one that I can use. Also what trap did you use?
 
I couldn't tell you what trap I used. My lfs had on they let me use. Round clear plexi with a sliding door on one end. I have never used a skimmer on my qt, but then again I do not have a extra one. I do not see why you wouldn't want to use it. Although I'm not sure how well it will work with the lower salinity, the salt content changes the bubble size inside the skimmer. Just make sure you keep tabs on the qts water parameters. You may need to do daily water changes to keep the nitrates, nitrites and ammonia down.
Good luck
 
While waiting for the acrylic trap I made the famous bottle trap... I set it up with brine shrimps and chopped up table shrimps inside.. Boy are these fish ever smart.

They wouldn't go inside.. Aaaarrrggghhh!!! All I causgt so far are shrimps and snails.
 
You'll be amazed as to how smart these fish are. It sounds stupid, but you will feel so good when you catch one. You know, because you just out smarted a two inch fish. Ha! Not as easy as it sounds!
 
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so far I think I'm smarter.. ;) Like I said in the newbie forum, I've caught 5 fish out of 9 since yesterday. 4 more to go.. I bet the fish can't subtract either. LOL
 
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