Well it's been a few years sence I have added any thing to my tank. so when I was in a shop yesterday I bought a flame angel. very nice fat and happy well it was. I broght him home drip lined him for a few hours neted him then put him in my Q-tank. well I just figured every thing was all good. well I get up today and he has what I think is cotton mouth and he bobs up and down so I started by testing the water(which I should have done before) well the PH is about 7.4 and the niterates are off the scale. So I drained off some water from my reef (where all the fish are healthy and the water I know is good) into a 2 1/2 gallon tank put in a heater and a air pump powered filter. and put him in it. He's not doing so well about the same is there any thing else I can do for him?
What should I do now? I pulled a real bone head stunt!!
- Thread starter starr
- Start date
I would give him some medication until he recovers, then put him in your tank.
You need to correct the water parameter in your Q tank first. adjust the pH back, keep doing WC with water from the display tank, and get a scoop of sand/LR from your display into the Q-tank so he feels safe-r. Just make sure the Q-tank LR/sand do not go back to the main tank ever again.
You need to correct the water parameter in your Q tank first. adjust the pH back, keep doing WC with water from the display tank, and get a scoop of sand/LR from your display into the Q-tank so he feels safe-r. Just make sure the Q-tank LR/sand do not go back to the main tank ever again.
The two main reasons I can see for a quaranteen tank are (1) to protect your other fish in the main display or (2) to treat a disease like amyloodinium with copper sulphate, ich with low salinity, or something else you could not do to invertibrates.
IF the quaranteen tank is completely established, has live rock, has "cycled" and so on, it might not be a bad option. But few people have that. If you take a fish and stick it in a bare 10 gallon tank with maybe a heater for 3 weeks, the likelihood that it will survive until it reaches your reef tank is low.
I don't quaranteen my fish, and also I fish them out of the bag they came in with a net and stick them in the new aquarium with zero acclimation. (I do this because raising the pH of a bag of water filled with ammonium ion gives them an instant high dose of ammonia. Far better to just stick the fish in. I try to equalize the temperatures, but if the fish looks stressed at all, I just get it out.)
IF the quaranteen tank is completely established, has live rock, has "cycled" and so on, it might not be a bad option. But few people have that. If you take a fish and stick it in a bare 10 gallon tank with maybe a heater for 3 weeks, the likelihood that it will survive until it reaches your reef tank is low.
I don't quaranteen my fish, and also I fish them out of the bag they came in with a net and stick them in the new aquarium with zero acclimation. (I do this because raising the pH of a bag of water filled with ammonium ion gives them an instant high dose of ammonia. Far better to just stick the fish in. I try to equalize the temperatures, but if the fish looks stressed at all, I just get it out.)
wgscott":6xyd4cko said:
Sure a fish won't survive in a bare 10 gallon with -0- bio filter and no water changes :? . I've got to totally disagree with that WGS, it takes very little effort to run a Q tank, especially if you've got an established disease-free tank to use as your water source.
10 gallon tank + a simple $15 HOB whisper-type filter or even an air-driven sponge filter and heater are all you need. Buy extra media or a sponge filter to put into the main tank's sump to get a lil biological filtration going. In 3-5 days put that "cycled" media into the Q-tank filter. I use the bio bag-type media because its cheap and I keep one cooking in the main tank at all times during the quarantine process. Oh yeah, don't overfeed, test the water every now and than and change out 10% of the Q tank water using water from the main tank every couple of days.
IMO, if you put a fish that's already stressed and possibly has underlying disease (think how long Ich takes to show up) into your main tank you are asking for trouble.
That's the exact purpose of transfering some LR and sand from the main tank into the Q. Those LR not only makes the fish feel safer, but also provides bacteria instantly.ChrisPrusha":379bdbrv said:
Are you going to risk the whole tank for a fish? It may be a $15.00 fish, but you are gambling that $15.00 for hundreds of dollar of fish already in the tank, and a few more hundreds to come in the future.
It's cruel to quantify in terms of dollar value, but it's a simple fact.
Im gonna ring in here, FWIW.
Stress is a killer. Which do you guys think is more stressful? A q-tank, or a reef? In terms of surroundings alone, the new fish is supposed to be in a reef environment, and thus can cope with sickness much better than a q-tank. I have never used a q tank, and do not intend to, for this reason alone. A stable environment will help the fish beat the illness with its own immune system.
I say put the fish in the reef. However, pygmys are kinda ify at best, IME.
Stress is a killer. Which do you guys think is more stressful? A q-tank, or a reef? In terms of surroundings alone, the new fish is supposed to be in a reef environment, and thus can cope with sickness much better than a q-tank. I have never used a q tank, and do not intend to, for this reason alone. A stable environment will help the fish beat the illness with its own immune system.
I say put the fish in the reef. However, pygmys are kinda ify at best, IME.
Here is a stupid question. If you have a QT and use it to treat fishies and use copper. Do you ever Quarantine shrimp or inverts? Does everyone set up two QT tanks? one for fish and one for inverts. I dont Quarantine anything, I know its bad practice, and I know it will bite me in the ass one day. One day I will set one up. Just trying to snoop for info.
Tackett":2iex5flh said:
I've never QT'd inverts or shrimp as I understand they don't carry the same parasites (Ich, Brook etc) as fish. I acclimate, then scoop and dump into the main tank putting the least amount of LFS water in my tank.
Since I haven't really had to treat a fish with copper for years the issue of separate tanks hasn't come up :?
wgscott":2np03sh2 said:
Unless the supplier has Ich in his tanks
and while the fish may not show overt signs, the stress of the move can cause a formerly healthy fish to erupt into full blown case due to lowered resistance. (raises hand, been there, done that)And the angel could have been kept with all sorts of fish and diseases on its way to the tank.
There is no way I would have ever put that fish in my reef. It's scary enough to do it without QT if it looks fine--if it's obviously showing signs of disease you're asking for trouble.
Just setup a 20 gallon rubbermaid in the future with 3 pieces of live rock and some sand. A flame angel will be fine in that indefinitely.
There is no way I would have ever put that fish in my reef. It's scary enough to do it without QT if it looks fine--if it's obviously showing signs of disease you're asking for trouble.
Just setup a 20 gallon rubbermaid in the future with 3 pieces of live rock and some sand. A flame angel will be fine in that indefinitely.
I had something like that happen once. I had a pair of anthias that I got and put in my QT tank. I woke up the next morning and the tank had leaked about half of it's contents onto the floor. So like a fool, i took those fish and put them in my up till that point disease free reef, and now I have ich. It hasn't killed anything...but you never know when it's gonna get crazy out of control. I'm moving in may, so I'll wait till then to tear everything apart, catch all my fish, and treat them. I shoulda just returned those fish. It's never worth it to put fish right into your reef. Would way rather lose one or 2 fish, then disease my whole tank.
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