Tang In QT ?

[travis32]

Well, following the proper procedure, I'm QTing new fish. Initially I'm going to QT for observation only. I don't want this to turn into an observation vs. Treatment Thread. That is not my purpose for posting.

What I want to know is, I picked up an aweseome awesome looking powder brown tang. Visibly it appears to be very healthy, the LFS just got it in that day. So, it had barely been acclimated to their tank and then home to mine.

It was in 1.022 water, and my QT was 1.027... So, I acclimated it for an hour, changing out half it's water with my water every 15 minutes. Did that 3 times, then put it in my tank. It was still alive this morning and appears to be o.k.

So, my question is that it's on the medium - largish side. Probably between 4-5" in diameter.

Please don't kill me... My QT is 30 gallons. (I don't have room for anything much bigger, and the 30 gallon is kinda an eye sore..

Is having him in a 30 gallon for 4 weeks going to be too stressfull on the fish?

I'm prepared to do 2 -3 10-20% water changes a week if need be and have prime at the ready. Not to mention the QT is cycled with 20-30 pounds of LR.

I may add one or two more pieces from my display just to make sure it's seeded good. (QT has been up close to 6 months).

feeding it shrimp every couple of weeks when fishless.

So, aside from the nitrogen cycle, will the fish be stressed from the size of the tank? Or would I be better off observing for 1-2 weeks, if no signs, move him asap before he gets sick from stress?

Assuming the water changes and prime, keep any ammonia possibly generated by the tang under control, is it going to go out of it's mind from lack of swimming room?


I know I should have a bigger QT. I'm lucky I'm allowed to have a QT setup at all. . . . .

If signs of ich show up at all, period. I'll be doing hypo treatment for 4 weeks.

The other option I guess, I have a rubber made tub (50 gallon) That i used for curing rock that had gone through a major cycle prior to setting up my 125g. I could always get that out and relocate the fish and rock to that. I'd prefer not to, because it would sit in the middle of the room, and rarely have light.... So, kinda inconvenient...


well, let the opinions fly. :bounce3:

 

[palmer373]

i think it would be fine. i also have my 10g QT set up for observation (treating if necessary). set it up maybe a month ago and put some damsels in there to test it out. 1 otu of the two made it during a 1 week period so i called it good and threw him into my 75. swimming as happy as can be. i think a 1-2 week period should be fine if your just observing. i was keeping the damsels in the QT until i saw them feeding and stuff.

 

[Toddrtrex]

A 30 isn't isn't ideal, but I think it will be fine for 4-6 weeks. But, just make sure to keep on top of your water parameters, that big of a fish in a smallish tank.... things could go South quickly -- though with the live rock should help a lot, I would still stay on top of water changes.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't you just have some clowns die? Did they die in the DT? If so, I would not add any of that rock to the QT -- better to be safe then sorry.

 

[travis32]

Todd, good point. I had a clown die and one other sick. Given that I have a tang in the DT with the clowns and it's my bestest "touchy fish" in terms of species.

(My marine betta seems to be immune to almost everything.. He survied an 8.0 ppm ammonia spike in a 55g tank.)

Tangs, I consider more susceptible to disease than anything else I have, and the bristletooth I have so far, has been unphased by the clown issues.

The powder brown will be in QT for 4 -6 weeks in QT, depending if I need to do Hypo or not. That will give me time to determine what to do with the one clown I have left.

The fish store had a good price on the PB Tang, and it was one of the fish on my wish list. The timing is poor, but, I'll do my best to care for it as well as deal with the clown. A part of me says I should put the clown in the Qt and the tang in the DT. Both would probably fair a lot better. LOL.

 

[travis32]

Well, got home today, I was a little concerned. The QT i"m using was a freshwater tank, and it came with a freshwater castle fixture... At first I was going to throw it out and just use pvc pipe and a few pieces of live rock.. I decided that the castle (hollow on the inside) provides a nice "cave" for fish and has more surface area for bacteria. So, I kept the castle as a piece of the QT. It's still not great to look at by any means.

It's been a home to my marine betta while he recovered from tank crash, etc. The fish seem to love the castle. Well the PBT loves the castle as well. However, given his shape, he doesn't exactly fit... Well, That didn't stop him.. I got home today and the PBT was all nestled in the castle, except his face was facing the tank floor and he was "laying" vertically.

At first I was very concerned, is he dieing, is he dead? Is the ammonia spiking? Did I make a huge mistake? I started to panic. I fed a little to see if he'd come out. He didn't come out, however, he moved.. I was still worried, thinking maybe he's dieing. (always assume the worst right.)

Well, eventually he nonchalantly came out and swam around and to just show off to me he started doing figure 8's in and out of the rock work. nipping a little here and there, but, for the most part, showed off to me, by swimming where I was standing.

He's got a great personality so far. A tad shy, but, he's very healthy. No ammonia detected, and all appears o.k. in the QT in the first 24 hours.

I'll test every other day and water change twice a week. More water changes if anything is detected.

 

[travis32]

Just an informational post to all those out there thinking about QTing... I highly reccomend it. My Tang developed visible symptoms of ich this weekend. I have implemented a hypo salinity treatment regimen this weekend. As of last night, I got the tank down to 1.010. I orderred some pinpoint solution to calibrate my refrac with. (been calibrating with RODI water --- 0TDS).

I'll recalibrate it with the solution then bring the water down to 1.008-1.009.

It will stay that way for 4-5 weeks.

Am so glad I QT'd!!

 

[tmkx3]

I set-up a qt almost the same way. I had to move my dt to get new floors put in. Make sure you have some water movement. I had a powerhead in my qt and I made the mistake of taking it out the night before I put the fish back in the dt. I thought I needed the circulate the dt a little well, my mistake cause the next morning when I went to move the fish my powder blue tang was swimming vertically. I found out that I had oxygen deprived the poor thing. Tangs need lots of water flow. I lost my tang to stress




i

 

[travis32]

eek. He sleeps vertically in the castle fixture I have (facing the floor) but when he comes out he swim just fine. doing weird things like figure 8s in the rock work.. I really didn't want to have him int he QT for 4-5 weeks. Due to size, but, I don't have a choice now.

I have two hob filters that agitate the surface some and i have an airstone in the HOB filter to airate the water. So far, the airation must work, because I had up to 3 fish in that tank for 2 months and not a single loss. And one of them was a fairly large marine betta..... So, stressed maybe due to small tank, but, no signs of oxygen issues with the air stone going.