Scopas not eating now...

[SecretiveFish]

I put my Scopas and Lemon Peel tang in my display tank a few days ago after over 7 weeks in quarantine. The Scopas is not eating now; last night he was looking at the food but I did not see him eat anything. He was eating like a pig the whole time in quarantine so I am baffled and frustrated. I feed frozen mysis, frozen spirulina brine shrimp and Formula 2 flakes. I tried giving the tangs nori while in quarantine but they would not eat it.

Tank is a 150g reef, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, up for years now.

- Could it be that he has been picking at rocks and is not hungry?
- Is he being put off by the other fish? The most boisterous feeder in my yellow belly hamlet. Tank occupants: clownfish pair, marine betta, pink spotted goby, yellow belly hamlet, indigo hamlet, lemon peel tang, flame hawkfish, sixline wrasse (currently exiled himself in an overflow), and a very cranky coral banded shrimp.
- Do I just need to chill out? He has only been in the display a few days, but the other tang has settled in already.

 

[Dmorty217]

Once the scopas settles in I would expect he will eat again without issue.

 

[SecretiveFish]

So, I found out why he was not eating. On, 7/5 I saw white spots on him. Destroyed the aquascaping getting all the fish out and into the quarantine to treat with copper, just to have him die anyway. Sixline is MIA; suspect the hamlet got him since there were fewer places for the wrasse to hide in the quarantine.

The 150 was fishless for 10 weeks after the first outbreak (all surviving fish had been treated with copper at .4 ppm for 30 days), BUT we had added a couple emerald crabs and turbos to deal with algae issues. Either the protozoa came in on those or we have a brotolid or some other invisible fish I have no idea is in the tank keeping the ICK going. I am terrified it is the later in which case no amount of 'no fish' will starve out the ICK.

I have about had it with this hobby. If I had not moved the scopas to the display that I though was ICK free, he would still be alive. I really, really, really have about had it with this hobby. Killing things and paying money to do it are not my idea of a good time.

 

[Dmorty217]

12 weeks is the fallow time for a fish less DT not 10... Do you have any CP or cupramine, I find it less harsh on fish than copper

 

[SecretiveFish]

Sorry, I am using Cupramine, not copper, to treat the fish. The first day of treatment I brought the level to 0.2ml/L, did not add any the next day, and then ramped up to the 0.4 mg/L per suggested by the illness forum over the course of 5 days. The quarantine reached this level last Thursday. The Scopas was just too far gone I guess as he died over night after the first treatment.

I was so sure it was 10 weeks, but then again I have read anywhere from 30 days to 6 months is the right amount of time to starve it out. I will wait 12 weeks this time.

When I add inverts in the future, do those have to be quarantined for 12 weeks?

 

[Dmorty217]

Inverts don't need to be QTed for 12 wks but with that said I'm not sure how long you need to QT to ensure they aren't bringing in disease... I suppose you could do the TT method with inverts to ensure they are ich free in 2 wks time? I would look to Steve (snorvich) for advise on this to ensure you don't run into this problem again

 

[SecretiveFish]

Update time, finally. All my fish that survived quarantine (indigo hamlet, clownfish pair, and marine betta) and are back in 150g and doing well with no evidence of ICK. During that 12++ week quarantine, I also quarantined and cupramine treated a mimic lemon peel, bristletooth tomini tang, a scarlet pinstripe wrasse, a flame hawkfish, and a whitecheek tang and those are now in the 150g too. It is so nice to have the fish back in the tank!!!

I lost my yellow belly hamlet and pink spotted goby who were still in the quarantine tank about three weeks ago. What we suspect happened was that we closed up the house for late fall and with newer windows, the CO2 built up. After realizing was what was happening, adding airstones seemed to fix the problem. This quarantine tank has a solid acrylic lid on it so the only aeration was in the sump.