Sick coral beauty

[gobywonkenobi]

I just bought a cb angel for my wife thursday after the LFS held it for me for a week to see if it got ich from the shipping. When it didnt get ich the owner sold it to me. It looked very healthy. Today when I woke up it had ich. So i went down to the LFS that i bought it from and asked her what I should do. She told me to use ich-x. She said she uses it and it works very very well for her. So I got home and put some tank water into a 10gal QT and added the reccommended dose. It said to dip them for a half hour so I did. When the half hour was up he went back into the DT. I left home for a few hours and when I got back the cb was laying on the sand barely breathing and starting to lose color in its nose. Is there anything I can do to help it? Should I put it back in the QT and do the hyposalinity treatment? My wife isnt gonna be happy if she gets home from work and her fish is dead. What can I do to help it?

 

[jcoll]

i only have about 6 months of experience but ive had a coople fish were it looks like they have ich the day after i put them in and then the next day its gone i figure is just because they are stressed in the new enviorment... i would keep it in the qt tank but dont give it the ich x just leave normal saltwater in there see how it does.... but thats just me hopefully you get a more experienced person in here soon

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Are you sure it is ich and not velvet? Velvet is a quick killer. You should be treating the fish in the QT with Cupramine as it is an effective medication against both parasites.

 

[sandwi54]

this sounds like velvet and not ich. ich does not kill in a few hours. If it's truly velvet, then I'm sorry because it's most likely too late to save the fish. However you can still attempt to save this fish by putting it back into QT and dose 0.25ppm of cupramine immediately. Also, giving it a freshwater dip would dislogde some of parasites and might just save the fish.

Having "the LFS held it for me for a week to see if it got ich from the shipping" means absolutely nothing. Please read all of the ich stickies in this forum to understand its life cycle and why one week of QT does not do anything. Also, all of the LFS' tanks are connected, so their quarantining is useless. You have to quarantine yourself for a minimum of 4-6 weeks and prophylactically treat with cupramine and prazipro to eliminate most of the parasites.

 

[gobywonkenobi]

Okay, thanks guys. He started to turn white and then at about 7 last night he died. Ill read up on ich and velvet. I didnt tell the LFS to hold it for a week, she said she likes to do that. So should I QT every single fish I buy?

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Yes, quarantine every fish. It is a lot of trouble but the downside is having a sick fish take out all of your other fish.

It is good that your lfs holds the fish for a week as many fish don't eat or otherwise die in that period and the lfs is making sure they are selling you a fish that has passed this initial test. Beyond that, you need to quarantine the fish, adapt it to captive life and feeding over 4-6 weeks, and then introduce it into your tank.

I quarantine every fish and treat prophylactically with Cupramine and PraziPro. You may lose some during this period, but I am committed to doing what I can to keep disease out of the tank.