Help! Hospital tank not working!!!?

[zeldapinwheel]

Hi-

I recently added, at the urging of my LFS owner, a hospital tank to my system. It is a 3 gallon eclipse system, I have one piece of rock in there.
I started using it when my flame angel started showing signs of ick. I had just purchased him the week earlier, and he showed up in my main system with a few (<10 visible) spots of ich. So, I removed him to the hospital tank and have been treating him with a malachite green formulation. The trouble is, his ich has gotten much much worse! Not better at all, despite 2 freshwater dips in the last 2 weeks and daily doses with medication. He is still eating well, but I am at a loss of what to do. Any suggestions, anyone? Meanwhile, in my main system, I have one other fish, a fairy wrasse, who had a brief episode of ich, but I gave him a freshwater dip and my cleaner shrimp is working on him, and he looks fine now, unlike my poor flame angel. What did I do wrong? THanks for the input.

 

[rayjay]

I'm glad the LFS suggested the hospital tank, but I sure wish he'd suggested a larger size. It's been my experience that even a five gallon tank was too small for most fish as being cramped only adds to the stress of the fish. Small clowns would probably be ok for treating in it.
I never had any luck with malachite green when I tried it many years ago. I used hyposalinity treatment at 1.008 for a month, or, I treated with coppersafe at .15ppm for a month. Also, the main tank has to remain fishless for a month as well or the parasite stays in the tank, maybe not in numbers for you to see, but just there waiting for the first sign of stress so they can take over and propagate again.

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

Copper based medications certainly work.

A UV steralised on the hospital tank would keep the infestation from getting worse - very quickly the fish would kick the problem by itself.

 

[naesco]

What is the filtration in your tank?
Do you have carbon in the filter?

 

[zeldapinwheel]

In response to your questions, the filter is a biowheel with an activated carbon filter pad in it. I had no idea size of the hospital tank mattered. Should I do water changes and lower the salinity to 1.008? What about putting some neon gobies or a cleaner shrimp in there (only after all copper is gone, of course)?

I also read on some other topics that shutting out light for longer than a day helps, any comments on this? This seems contradictory to some other information I read at one point, where the author of the article actually recommended the opposite- leave the lights ON because the parasites need the dark.

Over how much time should I lower the salinity to 1.008? The salinity right now is about 1.016-8. And would a 100% water change in this small system help? I can't imagine that it would hurt, at least.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Anonymous]

DO NOT put a cleaner shrimp in your hospital tank - they will not survive with the salinity that low.

Lighting on a hospital makes no difference.

If you are going to use hyposalinity, lower it over the course of a couple of days - two small water changes each day until you get to the recommended salinity level of 1.009. You need to make sure that your hydrometer is accurante. If you go lower than 1.008, you will harm the fish.

 

[Macimage1]

The addition of a hospital or quaranteen tank is a great step, however, as rayjay noted, the 3 gallon tank is much too small. It is suitable for neon gobies and those small types of fish. The small tank is undoubtly stressing your angel much more.

I would first off, go get at least a 10 gallon tank. They sell them quite cheaply as starter kits at WalMart and K-Mart type stores. Of better yet, ask your LFS owner to take the 3 gallon back and trade up, as it was on his advice that you bought it.

I would suggest that you go to the disease forum on RC, ( http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=87 ) as they have tons of threads about treating ick. Follow the advice of either TerryB or FMarini and you will be fine. Also, do not do anymore freshwater dips on the fish, copper and hyopsalinity are the treatments.

Joyce

It would be ok to do a large water change on the eclipse, but only if you replace is with the water from your main system, which should have the same parameters. You also need to test the q-tank, as with that small of a tank, the ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and ph can all go off the charts in a day or two. Good luck.

[ March 17, 2002: Message edited by: Macimage ]</p>

 

[Jawbone]

just resurfacing this post

[ March 20, 2002: Message edited by: Jawbone ]</p>