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View Full Version : Blue Coral Beauty with ICK!!!!


LiL Mermaid
02/05/2006, 03:03 PM
I just got this (rare) blue Coral beauty and it has ick on it. Luckily I put it in a Q-Tank just in case. What is the best way to save this fish. He is not eating, I am trying formula 1 and pellets he is not eating either. What should I do to get him to eat? What method should I use to treat the ick, copper or hyposalinity? If copper which brand should I use with which tester so I can maintain the right levels?

Thanks in advance.

arizona tech
02/05/2006, 03:51 PM
i feel you pain i would do hypo lowering the salinty down to 1.009 over a 48-72hr period,did you see him eat before you bought him?those guys are somtimes finnecky,try some garlic with you food,and good luck

JmLee
02/05/2006, 04:56 PM
try more natural foods?. Maybe brine shrimp etc will work?. And if he's healthy enough a fresh water dip?. Either way best of luck!

leebca
02/05/2006, 05:11 PM
You're asking the right questions. It shows you have some knowledge of what's going on. Also, you've used a quarantine process. Congrats on that! For you, I will be elaborate in my response.

I don't know the exact fish you're speaking of, since you didn't provide a scientific name. However, Coral Beauties in general are not too challenging. If it is in quarantine all alone, you should be able to tempt it to eat.

They like meaty foods and their diet includes algae. So, you want to try almost any Angelfish food preparation and preps with algae and spirulina. I found one thing they and many other fishes that like meaty foods unable to resist is fresh scallop. BUT, you should try to prepare it the way I do:

Obtain fresh scallops from an oriental fish market. If fresh aren't available, frozen will do, but not preferred.

WASH YOUR HANDS before handling the scallops. After you wash your hands, rinse them. When you think they are rinsed enough, rinse them again. Now rinse them again in RO/DI or distilled water. Now you can separate the scallops into their own freezer (thick plastic) bags. You can use small or large freezer bags, just freeze them individually and not touching one another.

Now rinse off a small plate with RO/DI or distilled water. Put it in the refrigerator to chill.

When they are frozen solid (overnight is preferred) wash your hands again, like described above. Use a sharp kitchen or steak knife that has been rinsed in RO/DI or distilled water. Cut the edges off the scallop that all the edges are discarded. This is like cutting the crust off of bread. You want the meat that hasn't been exposed to freezer air.

Now cut a chunk of the scallop off the main piece. Use your clean fingers to grip the frozen scallop. Although it is frozen, scallops remain relatively soft compared to other frozen foods, so cutting it while it is frozen is not that difficult.

Now take that chunk and keep cutting it with the tip of a sharp, rinsed steak knife. Make pieces that are smaller than this letter 'o' BUT not much smaller. Too small it will ignore it. Too large and it won't attempt to eat it.

Now let these little bits thoroughly thaw. Put them in a little bit of tank water in a rinsed cup. Make sure they sink in the cup water. Take a single piece into an eye dropper and drop it near the fish and pray! If it falls to the bottom of the tank, leave it there to see if the fish will pick at it later. If it eats it, try another. One piece at a time until it is no longer interested. Next time feed this again, soaked in vitamins. Avoid feeding the same food twice in one day.

Live brine, live pods from a refugium, and/or live mysis shrimp might pique its interest in eating. From then on, try frozen gut loaded brine and mini-mysis shrimp.

Now. . .back to the Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans). For the pigmy angelfishes, I use copper. It is quicker and thorough and if the fish is eating, the fish should hold up quite well. I use Cupramine (Seachem) and measure the copper with the Seachem Copper test kit to keep the copper in the proper range. For that fish, I would use a copper reading of between 7 and 8 ppm, but don't let it drop below 6 at any time.

Hope this helps! :rollface: