Whitish film on tang

[TOURKID]

Ive only had my tank five months. I dont know alot at all! the info from reef central has consumed me and almost everything else in my life im doing half a$$ed now lol here, this is where I learned the most about QT's.

extreame qt... lol http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=288805 this is hard core. you have to decide how far your willing to take it lol

Turky baster idea was on RC too, for feeding anemones. I got 2 of them from kroger for 50 cents each. just remember not to use any of the same tools on your main tank (like, i have a 1/2 gal pitcher to remove the qt water, then another pitcher i dip in my main tank, then pour it into 'contaminated' pitcher without them touching (copper is soooo bad in a reef) and i bought a refractormeter because i used my hydrometer on my qt tank, and then dident have anything to test my main tank with

expensive fish.....

to start a biofilter? just put a spounge on a powerhead, or if you have a hang on filter, put a sponge in it. after 4-6 weeks its strong enough.

get a copper test kit. seriously. cause if it drops under .6 (or 6ppm i cant remember) then you have to start over agian. a 1/2 gal is 5 drops of copper, a gal is a 1/4 teaspoon, etc. had to buy more spoons to *sigh*

Oh... another bonus? copper can keep fish sterile for the rest of theyre lives... no babys for feebee. i feel like im raising humans

PM sat... i did the other day when i was freaking out

 

[SAT]

It looks like you two are helping each other along just fine. Glad to hear the tang is looking better.

For a biofilter, I like sponge filters. They only cost a few bucks, assuming you have a little air pump to drive it. They take about a week before they really do any good. I also had good luck with a small bio-wheel. There is also this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=306049

If you can't find the saltwater flavor of Maracyn-Two, the ordinary kind is fine.

You should suspend the copper treatment after 3 weeks. By then the parasites in the treatment tank should all be dead. However, you still need to wait for the display tank to be clear, which takes about 6 weeks (BTW, don't draw water from the display tank after you suspend the copper treatment unless you want the fish to be reinfected).

I believe sterility is more a possibility than a certainty. The prognosis is better if monitor the dosage carefully.

 

[TOURKID]

omg i just wrote a long one and rc crashed it. ouch

guess ill cut this one short just in case

to remove the copper after three weeks, do i just add carbon filter and do a lil water change? or.....

and... were the parasites always in my tank and my fish got stressed and got attacked? or did she get stressed and make thae parasites? how did the whole cycle start?

the bio filter that im making now.. should i use it in a week or so in my qt, or after i remove the copper? should i toss the bio filter after her treatment? Im planning on keeping a qt running at all times now. after its fully cleaned.. id like more than 1 fish... someday

i forget the rest except my side note

side note

My fish is bonding with me!!! *grins* shes such a meanie, she'd try to bite me all the time, never really cared for me.. now shes acting really different, almost ate from my hand today. comes to the glass when im close.

I really considered this being a very bad descicion having her as my first fish in the tank.. shes hurting the anemone, wont let another fish in the tank... wouldent accept a mate... now how am i supposed to stick her in a crappy tank? shes so different now id feel awful putting her in a nano or somthing... guess were in it for the long haul. just hafta get a 125 gallon for those picassos ive been dreaming about *heeehee*

 

[Blinkgyrl2987]

Okay My confusion is... your saying you think there are parasites in my maintank? I have two other fish in the maintank who are fine.. had them forever and they have no signs of disease whatsoever. The tang only have patches while in the maintank and was rubbing.... it wasnt until the quantine tank that I ever saw little dots. I'm lost .... I really dont think the fish in the maintank need to be treated.

I planned on quarantining this one until all sighs of infection were gone.. contining the copper for 3 weeks... I add a little each time I remove water. and yeah thats it.. after he seems fully healed and has had the 3 weeks of copper treatment i was going to leave him in the hospital tank for a week or so just to make sure he's really all good... and then he was going back to the maintank...is there something else I should be doing?

There are sponges in the back of the nano... carbon is out and so are the ceramic rings... will having the sponges back there start a bio filter or do I have to make it outside the Q tank?

I picked up the Maracyn 2 will start using that tonight... fish is eatting now... spots are gone the one patch is pretty much healed just waiting on the other one and I'm waiting for fins to regenerate.... how long will this take??
Okay well thanks again... Megan

 

[TOURKID]

megan... my names maggie... margaret actually

Im excited to see what happens tomorrow after the maracyn2!! I doubled the dose (sat said it was good to do in the pm back) so 2 tabs first night 1 tab after that for.. 5 days i think? ill hafta go back and read.

the spounges hafta be in main tank and copper free im pretty sure. but hopefully sat can answer that...

(cant figure out where to stick the quarters for all this information)

very nice of you sat by the way

 

[SAT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7112337#post7112337 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Blinkgyrl2987
Okay My confusion is... your saying you think there are parasites in my maintank? I have two other fish in the maintank who are fine.. had them forever and they have no signs of disease whatsoever. The tang only have patches while in the maintank and was rubbing.... it wasnt until the quantine tank that I ever saw little dots. I'm lost .... I really dont think the fish in the maintank need to be treated.

Well, Ich doesn't just appear out of the air... if the fish had it when you put it into quarantine then it had it before then also, and had an opportunity to contaminate the main tank if he was in there. The other fish may be immune, may just not be showing it yet, may be hosting some of the parasites without showing, or you may have been very lucky and none of the parasites fell off the tang while it was in there. Or maybe it wasn't Ich after all. There is no way to find out for sure without taking a risk.

The standard protocol for eradiating Ich is to remove *all* the fish, treat them separately, and let the display tank be totally free of fish for 6-8 weeks.

Having said all that, there is a decent chance that when you return the tang all will be OK. There are several ways that could be the case: the Ich might not have survived in the main tank, the tang might have developed sufficient resistance to fight it off completely, or the tang might just have enough resistance to prevent the Ich from killing it. In the last case, you will have Ich resident in the tank waiting for "fresh meat" or for something to happen that lowers their resistance (e.g., a heater failure).

It unfortunately appears to be common for Ich to be resident in aquaria, especially tanks containing tangs. They seem to have a special affinity for it.

 

[Blinkgyrl2987]

hmm that sucks.... I hate tangs... I hate tangs... I am trying to keep this one alive and I will be happy.. but yeah these fish suck... and Ich is the worst disease....

I dont know what else to say.... Its all very clear to me now though... Thanks SAT...

 

[SAT]

Tangs really aren't the easy fish that people want them to be... but let's face it, they are great show fish in a large tank.

Speaking of which, a 46G reef is a bit small for a tang. It's OK while it's small, but a healthy, well fed tang will grow quite rapidly.

 

[Blinkgyrl2987]

Yeah I'm dealing with that one... It wasnt my choice... I put the yellow tang in the tank Yes... I admit to that one.. and this is a tough yellow tang hes living through it all.... and my mom loves him... I think he was enough.... TWO of them in that size tank is disgraceful.. I agree... I didnt buy him though! So at least I rest knowing that it wasnt by my fault that he's in there. I'll end up getting a bigger tank though. And I'll prolly adopt one of the two. I'm the one who does all the work anyways... its really my thing.. my parents just think its pretty...

 

[TOURKID]

mine never showed signs of ick either. is a bacterial infection littering my main tank?

 

[SAT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7114477#post7114477 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TOURKID
mine never showed signs of ick either. is a bacterial infection littering my main tank?

The most common bacterial infections can only exist if the fish has been weakened (due to transport, for instance) or if the water quality is substandard. There are exceptions, of course. However, I wouldn't worry about a resident population of fish killing bacteria persisting for long after the fish have either recovered or been removed.

If you don't think the fish has or had Ich or marine velvet, I wouldn't worry too much about waiting for the tank to be safe.

 

[TOURKID]

so after the copper is done (3 weeks) then its up to me? she looks fine.. fins look a little diff... still courous how it comes about. she gets stressed and the baceria is suddenly there? or is it always there then finds her?

 

[SAT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7118545#post7118545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TOURKID
so after the copper is done (3 weeks) then its up to me? she looks fine.. fins look a little diff... still courous how it comes about. she gets stressed and the baceria is suddenly there? or is it always there then finds her?

The most common cause of fin rot is a bacterial infection fostered by poor water quality. Wastes or toxins in the water irritate the skin, creating an opening, and may also feed the bacteria. Once the infection is established, the fish may then need help to throw it off, although often all they really need is pristine water quality.

If I recall our conversation correctly, in this case the fish arrived with an infection already in place.

The bacteria responsible for this are everywhere. Normally, however, they don't do any harm.

 

[TOURKID]

no, i think i caused it by poor water conditions. the fish was fine for about three weeks or more. my water started getting un stable. i noticed a white funk on her lip, and it was down hill from there. well, up hill now. but i understand better

 

[Blinkgyrl2987]

I dont understand my situation really.. now that I'm treating with the 3 medications I am not seeing any more improvements... I feel that the fin rot is going to have to heal on its own once she gets back into the maintank.. But these white patches look more like a scab on the one side then an open wound. the one side healed up welll is mostly back to being blue again but the other side only slightly showing little signs of improvement.

 

[SAT]

It's been less than a week since you started treatment, right? Give it a few more days and hopefully you will see more improvement. Concentrate on water quality and keep the antibiotic treatment going (you're replacing the medication when you change water, right?).

 

[Psionicdragon]

any updates ?

Very useful info.

Tangs are great, but they don't have the mucus level "shield" as other fishs to fight off ich. Thats why they are known as ick magnet.

 

[TOURKID]

update on the clown... i put her back in the main tank yesterday after observation of two weeks and nothing looking bad. She dove in her anemone within 60 seconds, kept getting stung, kept taking it. within 2 minutes her entire mouth and chin were white and gross. I was really worried, wondering how i treated for mnouth fungus/fin rot and had her in QT all this time.. then Right away she looked AWFUL. Well, I guess she was just to darn excited to wait for her mucus to build up and she had little stings all over her.

I turned off the light 45 min. early so she would hopefully chill and hangout in the disk.. dident sem to sting her.

I woke up today, and all the white is gone. Funny.. the anemone has been looking ill/strange lately... boy does it look great today, the fish is SO happy to lol glad she made it. It took at least an extra hour EVERY day to keep her in QT and healthy. but it was worth it

Thanks agian sat I dident think I had what it was going to take to get her back in the main