sighs!! this is getting frustrating

greg0385 · Mar 19, 2012

Well so much for a yellow tang, looks like he has tiny white spots on his fins and body. I havent seen him eat today even though he ate ALL the GHA off the rocks. Im hoping he is just full and the white spots clear up. I believe if/when he dies, im going to have to start over with a major steril project and a QT tank for every fish.

The other option is go fishless and just focus on corals and forget about having fish til i get a QT. Corals might be a waste of time too because if im having this much problem with fish i can only imagine sps with flatworms and redbugs are destined.

Oh well now my rants over and i hope im over reacting im going to try and enjoy the rest of the nite with some TV.

On a good note i did get my apex jr and my repaired icecap660 in the mail today. My tank will be well lit and will be iphone controlled weather i have fish and corals!!
Progress report tomorrow
greg

REEFKEEPER10 · Mar 19, 2012

What are your parameters.

gmoney243 · Mar 20, 2012

Tiny white spots as in ich? Or faded color spots?

andywe · Mar 20, 2012

Your tank s new? Less than6 months?

islander84 · Mar 20, 2012

Pick up a neon goby and a blood red fire shrimp! They work wonders! They will have all that ich gone in a few days!

gmoney243 · Mar 20, 2012

i saw critter had a bunch of neon goby the other day .. i love mine great fish and fun to watch too.

greg0385 · Mar 20, 2012

Salt grains on the fins, and goosebumps/ tiny specs on the body. Still true yellow but didnt eat. I figure the cleaner shrimp would take care of the ick but no luck yet.

I will check params this afternoon. I checked saturday and nothing looked bad as i was tring to figure out how i was getting GHA.

I was just in nashville yest, i wont be able to get back up to nashville till saturday. Hopefully he can hang in there til then.

Yes the tank is one month plus old. The tank was put together with establised live rock,live sand, and water change water.

Thanks for everybodys concern hopefully everything will be okay.

Greg

gmoney243 · Mar 20, 2012

new tanks are gona get algae break outs .. the gha is using up the nitrates and phos so u cant detect them .. it should all go away in few weeks if u keep params in check. hopefully your fish are just stressed from all the moving .. where did u buy all your fish from?

greg0385 · Mar 20, 2012

Well the gha is all gone, it just about disapear over nite. I dont know if it was from the tang, or loosing a hour on the lights or just disapear.

The fish are from a local pet shop in columbia, not the greatest place to buy from but i watched the tang for a week before buying and the guy sells his fish to me at cost plus 5%. The tang cost was 31 dollars and the shrimp was 29 and when i bought the chromis they were 5 each. Both are medium size and the tang did peck around this afternoon but still has tiny white spots on it.

i will do a params test to make sure nothing is out of whack.

greg0385 · Mar 20, 2012

So moral of this story is im stupid and i panicked, i remembered i had some algae sheets and a clip. Tie some fishing string on the clip and SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE. Tang is eating it up, so lesson learned dont panick everytime i see something and learn to take things nice and slow. Now im not sure about the white specs but atleast its still eating so i feel my chances went up some.

Oh this tank is going to wear on my nerves if i keep this up, maybe a six pack and a xm radio station is overdue.

Thanks guys for listening to me rant over what might be nothing, still striving to have a awesome tank worthy of posting pics of.
Greg

haysanatar · Mar 20, 2012

all most every tank gets ich near the beginning its standard operating procedure right off the bat. I know I haven't had it since I first got my tank established but it will happen early on. And tangs are just giant stressed out ich magnets. As for the gha its going to happen too you could cut down on your photo period and lessen feeding. My fish probably think that they're in ethiopia.. I feed so rarely. Skimmers gfo and carbon dosing are a huge help too. Be patient and make all changes slowly. It'll come along just fine.

greg0385 · Mar 20, 2012

So moral of this story is im stupid and i panicked, i remembered i had some algae sheets and a clip. Tie some fishing string on the clip and SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE. Tang is eating it up, so lesson learned dont panick everytime i see something and learn to take things nice and slow. Now im not sure about the white specs but atleast its still eating so i feel my chances went up some.

Oh this tank is going to wear on my nerves if i keep this up, maybe a six pack and a xm radio station is overdue.

Thanks guys for listening to me rant over what might be nothing, still striving to have a awesome tank worthy of posting pics of.

Now its time to figure out this apex jr
Greg

nicks387 · Mar 20, 2012

Cleaner fish, or cleaner shrimp will help, but not get rid of ich. The best way to get an ick outbreak to clear up is with good water quality and no stress on the fish. Or you can go crazy and let the tank go fallow and QT every new fish in a seperate system bla, bla, bla,. Thats just not feasable for everyone. People over react and try and "Fix" the problem by catching the fish and treating it in copper, but in my opinion this should be a last ditch effort, or should have been done in QT from the start. If you do not QT, and your fish gets ick, it can go away on its own as long as the fish is not being harrassed, and as long as your water quality is excellent. I don't have a full blown QT but I do have 7 yellow tangs, an achilles tang, a clown tang, and a powder blue tang in my tanks and know how to care for them. I may have ick dormant in my system, but I dont care because my fish never have outbreaks. If I get a new fish that gets a few spots when first introduced I do not panic, I try and do everything I can to get the fish to eat, and not allow any other fish to bother or pick on the new fish. I may do a water change as well, but make sure temp is the same as the display water and salinity is as well. Ick usually clears up in a day or two and none of my other fish get it. If its not clearing up on its own then you have a water quality issue, or the fish is stressed for some reason. Most fish can carry ick and not get outbreaks because they have a healthy imune system. If your fish are getting outbreaks of ich and dying from it then contrary to popular belief, its not because you have a crazy ick infestation that is spreading fish to fish. Something else is going on that is weakening your fishes imune system and letting them brake out in ick. Just about every fish you buy will be carrying ick in its dormant stage, and if you are doing things properly you can keep it in its dormant stage. Not everyone will agree with this but it works for me. I do not QT for ick, but I do treat new fish with prazipro for a week in a seperate system to prevent flukes. A fish with flukes will also get ick, and it will not be able to shake it because of the weekened imune system from the flukes. Flukes are a far worse problem then ick in my opinion and alot of fish with flukes get ick and die, then the owner thinks it was the ick that killed the fish when in fact, the fish may have fought off the ick if not for the flukes. Long story short, if you lose a fish to ick, do a fresh water dip on the body for 10 minutes to see if any flukes fall off, If they do then you need to treat your tank for flukes.

haysanatar · Mar 20, 2012

soaking food in garlic can help as well.

nicks387 · Mar 20, 2012

+1 to that. Garlic is great to boost imune system.

bct15 · Mar 20, 2012

nicks387 said:
Cleaner fish, or cleaner shrimp will help, but not get rid of ich. The best way to get an ick outbreak to clear up is with good water quality and no stress on the fish. Or you can go crazy and let the tank go fallow and QT every new fish in a seperate system bla, bla, bla,. Thats just not feasable for everyone. People over react and try and "Fix" the problem by catching the fish and treating it in copper, but in my opinion this should be a last ditch effort, or should have been done in QT from the start. If you do not QT, and your fish gets ick, it can go away on its own as long as the fish is not being harrassed, and as long as your water quality is excellent. I don't have a full blown QT but I do have 7 yellow tangs, an achilles tang, a clown tang, and a powder blue tang in my tanks and know how to care for them. I may have ick dormant in my system, but I dont care because my fish never have outbreaks. If I get a new fish that gets a few spots when first introduced I do not panic, I try and do everything I can to get the fish to eat, and not allow any other fish to bother or pick on the new fish. I may do a water change as well, but make sure temp is the same as the display water and salinity is as well. Ick usually clears up in a day or two and none of my other fish get it. If its not clearing up on its own then you have a water quality issue, or the fish is stressed for some reason. Most fish can carry ick and not get outbreaks because they have a healthy imune system. If your fish are getting outbreaks of ich and dying from it then contrary to popular belief, its not because you have a crazy ick infestation that is spreading fish to fish. Something else is going on that is weakening your fishes imune system and letting them brake out in ick. Just about every fish you buy will be carrying ick in its dormant stage, and if you are doing things properly you can keep it in its dormant stage. Not everyone will agree with this but it works for me. I do not QT for ick, but I do treat new fish with prazipro for a week in a seperate system to prevent flukes. A fish with flukes will also get ick, and it will not be able to shake it because of the weekened imune system from the flukes. Flukes are a far worse problem then ick in my opinion and alot of fish with flukes get ick and die, then the owner thinks it was the ick that killed the fish when in fact, the fish may have fought off the ick if not for the flukes. Long story short, if you lose a fish to ick, do a fresh water dip on the body for 10 minutes to see if any flukes fall off, If they do then you need to treat your tank for flukes.

+1 to this...this is exactly right IMO

islander84 · Mar 20, 2012

Dont get too crazy with the garlic though...i read that excessive garlic will damage the fishes liver over time....

haysanatar · Mar 20, 2012

ha i wonder if the occasional vodka i dose does too

poolkeeper1 · Mar 21, 2012

greg0385 said:
Well the gha is all gone, it just about disapear over nite. I dont know if it was from the tang, or loosing a hour on the lights or just disapear.

The fish are from a local pet shop in columbia, not the greatest place to buy from but i watched the tang for a week before buying and the guy sells his fish to me at cost plus 5%. The tang cost was 31 dollars and the shrimp was 29 and when i bought the chromis they were 5 each. Both are medium size and the tang did peck around this afternoon but still has tiny white spots on it.

i will do a params test to make sure nothing is out of whack.

Greg, Soak all the Food in Garlic (You can use the chopped garlic in a jar from the grocery store, Use the juice and crush up some small chunks and feed them direct to the tang) This will boost the Imune system of all the Fish you have and give them some time to adjust to the New Tank.
Bill