Redness on fish in quarantine

Vyper

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I had an ich out break in display tank and after losing two fish and battling for a month trying to do ich management I have thrown in the towel and moved fish to quarantine. Display will be fallow for 76+ days. I have 1 yellow tang 1 powder brown tang and 2 frostbite clowns in a 25 gallon tank. Started yesterday around 5 pm and had copper up to 2.3ppm 10pm. Everyone looks like they are ok and are a little this morning. Clowns are developing a pinkish redness down their spines of their back. Obviously being white is stands out a bit. Is this an issue or normal in quarantine. I have never done this before so new one on me. Any help is greatly appreciated. Ammonia on Red Sea test kit says 1.2 but I know everyone says they aren’t correct with copper In the water. Acting normal, no hard breathing

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I'm pretty sure ammonia tests are accurate unless the copper is cupramine. I would very strongly suggest getting a biospong and a big bottle of cycling bacteria.


You might want to add some more pictures. Something with more light might help too
 

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As for the coloration, maybe @Jay Hemdal may have an answer as I don't think I've ever seen red/pink form along the top of a fish (or at least haven't at the lfs I part time at). He should be able to clarify the copper and ammonia test question if you state what copper yoy are using. He will also want you to post your parameters.
 

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I had an ich out break in display tank and after losing two fish and battling for a month trying to do ich management I have thrown in the towel and moved fish to quarantine. Display will be fallow for 76+ days. I have 1 yellow tang 1 powder brown tang and 2 frostbite clowns in a 25 gallon tank. Started yesterday around 5 pm and had copper up to 2.3ppm 10pm. Everyone looks like they are ok and are a little this morning. Clowns are developing a pinkish redness down their spines of their back. Obviously being white is stands out a bit. Is this an issue or normal in quarantine. I have never done this before so new one on me. Any help is greatly appreciated. Ammonia on Red Sea test kit says 1.2 but I know everyone says they aren’t correct with copper In the water. Acting normal, no hard breathing

B1620BF7-1196-4B54-B2D0-07759E7BD09D.jpeg
What copper product are you using? All three main brands will give up to 0.5 ppm false positive, but a 1.2 reading is 0.7 higher than that, so you may have an ammonia issue. Be careful using ammonia removers and copper. Better to manage it with bacteria or water changes.
The red coloration may well be from the ammonia….
Jay
 
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I lost one this morning and the other looks terrible. I am using a sponge that has been in my sump for at least a month. i also added a little microbacter 7 a few days prior to anyone going in. Ammonia badge still reads zero. I did do a 20% water change yesterday as well as vacuuming the poop and food off the bottom twice a day. i removed this clown and is now in 10 gallon with no copper. Am I dealing with something else here?
 

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What copper product are you using? All three main brands will give up to 0.5 ppm false positive, but a 1.2 reading is 0.7 higher than that, so you may have an ammonia issue. Be careful using ammonia removers and copper. Better to manage it with bacteria or water changes.
The red coloration may well be from the ammonia….
Jay
I am using copper power. Should I just add more microbacter 7 and do another 20% or larger water change?
 

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I am using copper power. Should I just add more microbacter 7 and do another 20% or larger water change?
I would do a water change and then dose the replacement water with a proportional amount of copper and test it for ammonia - that will tell your baseline value, anything above that is from your fish. Then add the microbacter.
Hay
 
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I ca
I would do a water change and then dose the replacement water with a proportional amount of copper and test it for ammonia - that will tell your baseline value, anything above that is from your fish. Then add the microbacter 7
I coul add a second sponge as well if needed. How long does one take to seed? I have 2 that have been in the wife’s tank for about A week
 

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I ca

I coul add a second sponge as well if needed. How long does one take to seed? I have 2 that have been in the wife’s tank for about A week
Those probably haven’t been in the water long enough to help much, but they won’t hurt.
Jay
 
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Ok I did 50% water change added more microbacter 7. Going to add a second sponge just for any more biological help I can get and extra air I don’t believe is a bad thing. Actually marked the tank in 3 gallon increments now so I can be a littile more exact. The yellow and powder brown tang are all I have left and the brown looks surprisingly good compared to what he did in the display. Heavy breathing has stopped. The yellow never really had any trouble. Spent a lot of time with cleaner shrimp. Hopefully I can keep these two healthy and not lose anyone else.
 
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I forgot I had put bio balls in wifes tank upon startup. I took a dozen from her tank and put in a little filter bag. Hopefully that will be the extra bio I am needing. I knew I had them in mine but didn’t want to keep putting more ich in quarantine so trying to leave mine alone.
 
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Here’s a humdinger for you. I have put nothing but quarantined fish, the same type humble fish and jay want done. It was a new tank, no corals, quarantined inverts, quarantined fish and still got ich. Last fish added was a powder brown, yellow eye kole tang and bicolor blenny. They were in my tank 2 months before I saw a sign of ich and it isn’t hard to spot on my pb. The only two fish that were not quarantined going in was the kole and bicolor but they came from my year and a half old tank. No signs of ick ever or anything other than bristle worms( which I have been at war with). I still have two clowns, 6 line wrasse and goby pistol pair in it. Still no signs of ich and I have done plenty in that tank to constitute an event several times. Do I separate my clowns from their anemone and run them through the copper wringer and separate the yellow watchmen goby from its pistol shrimp before moving them to mine and my wife’s tank? I am assuming the pistol would need a 76 fallow as well. The stress the seperation would put on them alone would be a lot. I need an ich test kit….. going 76 days fallow on mine only to rinse and repeat after adding those in it would really suck.
 

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That’s a tough one. I’m not sure how/why ich popped up in your tank, but f you don’t move all the fish out for the fallow period, you run the risk of just managing it, and it can crop back up later on. Pulling the fish, as you mentioned isn’t going to be something they enjoy.
Jay
 
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My new tank is fallow now. It is my year and a half old nuvo 40 I intend to shut down and move everyone to my wife’s and my tank (in like September). Not knowing where the ich came from makes me wonder how to do that since the kole and bicolor came from that 40 but it still shows no sign of ich in it. Would sure suck to move them over only to find out it was hiding in the 40 all along. the only reason I didn’t already move everyone was because I was waiting for our tanks to mature for the anemone and pistol/goby.
 
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So for whatever reason I can’t seem to keep the ammonia down in this tank. I just do daily water changes 50% to take care of it. I add microbacter 7 daily after each change. Copper held between 2.3 and 2.5 never dipping.
My question is my two tangs look absolutely perfect in quarantine. No signs of ich at all. I read humble fish article saying if I used a second sterile tank for quarantine that I cut the time to 2 weeks. I have a 30 gallon I bought and set up with sand and dry rock and kick started it with fritz and nitrocycle. My plan is this weekend will be day 16 in quarantine and I would like to transfer them to the newly setup tank. If ich shows in that tank obviously it would have to go fallow but I am fixing to go on vacation off and on first two weeks of July and they need a tank that can handle the ammonia much better. It would be a lot to ask someone to change the water daily. is the two week method as good as the 30 day? Do I need to do multiple dips on way over to new tank to avoid bringing ich over through the water? Any advice would be appreciated. Started QT 6/11 and longest I could go is 7/02 but wouldn’t leave any time to see how the tank handles them since I leave that evening.
 

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So for whatever reason I can’t seem to keep the ammonia down in this tank. I just do daily water changes 50% to take care of it. I add microbacter 7 daily after each change. Copper held between 2.3 and 2.5 never dipping.
My question is my two tangs look absolutely perfect in quarantine. No signs of ich at all. I read humble fish article saying if I used a second sterile tank for quarantine that I cut the time to 2 weeks. I have a 30 gallon I bought and set up with sand and dry rock and kick started it with fritz and nitrocycle. My plan is this weekend will be day 16 in quarantine and I would like to transfer them to the newly setup tank. If ich shows in that tank obviously it would have to go fallow but I am fixing to go on vacation off and on first two weeks of July and they need a tank that can handle the ammonia much better. It would be a lot to ask someone to change the water daily. is the two week method as good as the 30 day? Do I need to do multiple dips on way over to new tank to avoid bringing ich over through the water? Any advice would be appreciated. Started QT 6/11 and longest I could go is 7/02 but wouldn’t leave any time to see how the tank handles them since I leave that evening.
I personally don't think the 14 day copper treatment is sufficient, but in the absence of symptoms, the risk is much less. There is another risk though - if you move these fish to a new sterile tank to watch them, if ich is there sub-clinically, you may miss it. Then, when you move those fish to your DT, you could bring ich along with it. I'm now subscribing to the idea of only moving fish out of QT when they are actually IN a full dose of copper - that way the likelihood of there being any infective theronts is much reduced.

Jay
 
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Would you suggest going as long as possible? Does going 20 days help any? That would give me 1 day observation before leaving for camping trip for 4 days. I think the rock and sand in observation tank will help with bacteria to process the ammonia and should allow me to do that. I will move my seneye to that tank while I am gone to keep an eye on it and won’t be to far away should it spike.
 

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Would you suggest going as long as possible? Does going 20 days help any? That would give me 1 day observation before leaving for camping trip for 4 days. I think the rock and sand in observation tank will help with bacteria to process the ammonia and should allow me to do that. I will move my seneye to that tank while I am gone to keep an eye on it and won’t be to far away should it spike.
I think it would be tricky to move the fish right before you leave on a trip, so much can happen when you aren't around, even if you have somebody else caring for the fish.

What about moving them 17 days in (move them right out of full copper) to the new tank, then watch them (and the ammonia!) for 3 days, then go camping?

Jay
 
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I can do that. Do you suggest full copper to any sort of dip to more or less rinse the fish off then to quarantine? Didn’t know if I needed to worry about any of the quarantine water coming over on a net or anything like that.
 

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I can do that. Do you suggest full copper to any sort of dip to more or less rinse the fish off then to quarantine? Didn’t know if I needed to worry about any of the quarantine water coming over on a net or anything like that.
No - no dip, that just adds stress. There is no issue moving some water, since you are moving the fish - the fish will do a better job of moving parasites over than a little water ever will (sigh).

Jay
 

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