Should i put fish in hospital tank

[lokii_37]

I’m kind of lost about if i should remove my fish from my tank and treat them in a separate hospital tank.

I have a 75G reef. that about a month after adding a hippo tang looked liek the tank broke out with ich. I had been keeping an eye on it to see if it was ich or velvet or something else. only the hippo, the kole and one of the PJ cardinals. everyone has been looking good for a few days. they are eating like their normal piggy selves but then the hippo vanishes, I look all over the place and its nowhere to be found. This was a few days ago.

Today everyone still looks good and I haven’t seen any more spotted fish and no more MIA.

What i am wondering is should I catch the fish and treat them with copper and keep them in the hospital tank for 6 week so my DT can be fish less? At this point I am not sure what I should do because I am not even sure if it is ich. I only have a 30G hospital tank and I am worried a kole tang, a wrasse, and 2 PJ cardinals will be to many fish in to small of a space for too long.

Any guidance would be great thanks.

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Good evening lokii, i would advise you to put them in quarentine with copper for a few days they'll be fine, hope this helps!

[hollister]

If the main ank is infected then i would treat the main tank..
Just curios , whats used for water flow in there and the tanks age?

[Painted skin]

If the main ank is infected then i would treat the main tank..
Just curios , whats used for water flow in there and the tanks age?

If it's ich why would he want to nuke his display tank with copper or even hypo it??? That's just wrong!

QT the fishes and go fish less for a period of time is best.

[hollister]

Soooooo , whats your point.

[Painted skin]

Seriously? You're going to ask me that? What are you taking right now?? You giving them reckless advice giving them nothing but headache.. Do you not know what copper does to corals and inverts and LR? Same goes for hypo. Base on the amount you posted you should know better.

[sponger0]

Seriously? You're going to ask me that? What are you taking right now?? You giving them reckless advice giving them nothing but headache.. Do you not know what copper does to corals and inverts and LR? Same goes for hypo. Base on the amount you posted you should know better.

Agreed. Hollister you should know copper will kill inverts and so will hypo. You have to do those in a seperate tank.

The only way to treat a reef tank for ich is to leave it fishless for at least 2 months.

[bnumair]

if things are done right from the beginning there should never be a need to medicate a Main tank.
At this point for OP: yes you need to setup a qt and move ur fish there and medicate accordingly. leave main tank fishless for 8-9 weeks.
i have a sticky on top of this forum for guide to setup a QT and if u follow me to by blog by clicking blue number under my name there you will find a guide how to administer copper med for rid of ich.
hopefully this will help.

[EllieSuz]

When a thread gets so many varied opinions, the OP should do some independent research and there's plenty of that on Reef Central. Read the stickies on the disease forum to get accurate advice regarding Ich. Until you understand the life cycle of the parasite, you won't know whose advice to take. I recommend a hospital tank, treated with copper or hypo and your display tank left fallow for 72 days, but don't take my word for it either...do some reading and make up your own mind. The argument over Ich is the most often repeated subject on RC and the responses range absolute wrong answers to excellent advice given by experts on the subject. Oh, and if you're going to keep tangs, start to quarantine all your new fish or this will keep happening.

[Kyle918]

If it's ich why would he want to nuke his display tank with copper or even hypo it??? That's just wrong!

QT the fishes and go fish less for a period of time is best.

I agree, why would you treat the main tank that he said in the OP that it is a reef tank?

Did you quarentine before putting new arrivals in your tank?? I would remove all of the fish and QT and leave the DT empty.

[sponger0]

When a thread gets so many varied opinions, the OP should do some independent research and there's plenty of that on Reef Central. Read the stickies on the disease forum to get accurate advice regarding Ich. Until you understand the life cycle of the parasite, you won't know whose advice to take. I recommend a hospital tank, treated with copper or hypo and your display tank left fallow for 72 days, but don't take my word for it either...do some reading and make up your own mind. The argument over Ich is the most often repeated subject on RC and the responses range absolute wrong answers to excellent advice given by experts on the subject. Oh, and if you're going to keep tangs, start to quarantine all your new fish or this will keep happening.

While much of this may be true, the fact is there are only a few ways to treat ick. And its based around the life cycle. The lifecycle will help you understand the reasons for the way for the most effective treatments, whether it be copper, hypo, or tank transfer method. All proven to work. And as long as there is a host (fish), the parasite can continue to live on.

Many people just disregard the proper methods for eradicating ich and chose to go with the garlic/immunity myth way. And other just 'deal' with it.

Ill confess, I fought off the whole copper thing for awhile...until I read the life cycle, tried the crappy reef safe ich treatments and couldnt keep a fish alive longer than 2 weeks cause my tank got ich from the first fish I bought. Then I finally used copper in a QT and my life has been so much easier since. I got my 2 clowns 19 months ago and they had ich. They are still with me, ich free and happy...until I put my hand in the tank lol

[Kyle918]

While much of this may be true, the fact is there are only a few ways to treat ick. And its based around the life cycle. The lifecycle will help you understand the reasons for the way for the most effective treatments, whether it be copper, hypo, or tank transfer method. All proven to work. And as long as there is a host (fish), the parasite can continue to live on.

Many people just disregard the proper methods for eradicating ich and chose to go with the garlic/immunity myth way. And other just 'deal' with it.

Ill confess, I fought off the whole copper thing for awhile...until I read the life cycle, tried the crappy reef safe ich treatments and couldnt keep a fish alive longer than 2 weeks cause my tank got ich from the first fish I bought. Then I finally used copper in a QT and my life has been so much easier since. I got my 2 clowns 19 months ago and they had ich. They are still with me, ich free and happy...until I put my hand in the tank lol

I agree. Understanding the cycle will help you understand the best way to treat. It can't be stressed enough to always, ALWAYS quarentine new arrives for at least 6 weeks. The ich life cycle last 6 weeks. If you quaretine for 8 weeks you should never run into a problem with ich. Also, "reef safe" doesn't always mean that. There are no regulations for home reefs to the best of my knowledge, meaning, anyone call sell a product that says reef safe, even though it kills eveything in your reef. It's not the same as buying say flea medicine for a dog but it kills your dog because turns out, it isn't safe at all for your pet.

Plus copper treatments will kill off your beneficial bateria and why would anyone want to do that when they spent weeks or months cycling to build it up?? Treat the fish in a barebone QT.

It is probably best to seperate some of those fish into different QT as they may not all have ich. I wouldn't want you to confine a fish with ich and one without ich in an even smaller tank and spread ich to all your inhabitants.

[sponger0]

It is probably best to seperate some of those fish into different QT as they may not all have ich. I wouldn't want you to confine a fish with ich and one without ich in an even smaller tank and spread ich to all your inhabitants.

This maybe be a good idea, but the problem within it is, how can you tell if a fish doesnt have ich, if there are no signs but you can tell if ich hasnt gotten into their gills? Thats when the fish will go downhill very fast.

Its best to treat all fish.

[lokii_37]

Thanks guys. i work on getting all of the fish out of the tank and begin treatment. i will set up two 30G tanks so i dont have so many fish in one small space for so long, 8-9 weeks. I will treat them all with copper. i have been doing my reading on the life of ich and undestand it as well as i can without being a marine biologist. I will check out your blog bnumair for a little more reading.

Also if copper will kill off my benificial bacteria do i just keep up with the ammonia by doing water changes?

[Painted skin]

Yes, water change.

[sponger0]

Agreed water changes. When having ammonia in a QT, if you arent using any treatments, prime or amquel works but those can throw off readings of treatments and make it deadly to fish with copper treatment.