Pictures of my sick fish, please help

Paranoiattack91 · Aug 4, 2015

NeuroticAquatics said:
You must be out in my area if you are in CA and its 110+ ...where exactly are you?

yea close. I'm in Rancho Cucamonga. It was 102 today

The avid anglerfish · Aug 4, 2015

Paranoiattack91 said:
This has started over the last week and the fish are losing their appetite. mostly on my purple, chevron and sailfin tang (and symptoms on some other fish) I'm afraid they don't have much time left if it continues. Is it brook or ich. I thought it was ich and started treating with a mix metroplex, focus, reef plus vitamins and garlic as recommended by a few people. I don't have a hospital/ qt tank.. Any opinions, suggestions or ideas. Please help

Turn the lights out to help kill the ick.

NeuroticAquatics · Aug 4, 2015

My QTs have fish right now or I'd give it a try. Have you asked local fish stores? Know anyone that runs their AC that you could set a tank up with? Petco has their dollar a gallon deal going, so $20 tank...get a cheap powerhead for approx $25 and you are in business.

We average $300 a month (annual) out here. Easily $400+ per month during summer. Just part of having dogs and fish I guess.

hybridazn · Aug 4, 2015

Paranoiattack91 said:
It is about 110 degrees during the day here. We don't run the ac during the day when no one is here. Keepin the house at a set 78, the ac runs all day, we've tried it for a month and our electric bill was just under $400. By only running the ac at night when we are home the bill is under $200. I'm thinking about setting up a hospital tank in my walk in closet and putting a small portable ac in there.

I suggest running a couple fans and have them blue across the surface of the water. That will help keep it cool. If ambient temp doesnt get higher than 78 as long as there isnt anything else in the tank to produce heat you will be ok.

hybridazn · Aug 4, 2015

The avid anglerfish said:
Turn the lights out to help kill the ick.

Im curious to where you heard this, the ich life cycle has nothing to do with photosynthesis.

NeuroticAquatics · Aug 4, 2015

The avid anglerfish said:
Turn the lights out to help kill the ick.

Lack of lighting does not cure Ich.

Paranoiattack91 · Aug 4, 2015

3FordFamily said:
Sorry but the above is not going to help. This looks like velvet to me. At the very least, a horrible case and strain of ich.

You need to remove all of those fish and treat them in a quarantine tank with cupramine ASAP. They WILL NOT recover without treatment with something so advanced, it may already be too late.

Run your tank fallow for 72 days. keep cupramine @ .55-.6 ppm, testing regularly with either sailifert copper test kit or seachem copper test kit.

Buy an ammonia badge also by seachem and change at least 50% of the water if it is ever anything but yellow. With many fish, daily 75% water changes may be necessary (re-dose meds at this point).

Do NOT use prime or amquel or any ammonia detoxifiers as they will cause the meds to become poisonous. Don't over feed.

You should probably start with a dip as you transfer them. Some fish may not survive the dip but if that's the case it's because they were not going to make it anyway.

Humblefish would have been the guy for this, but in his absense maybe someone else from [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] could suggest a good dip for velvet.

When I say act soon, I mean like tonight. You'll lose all of those fish if you don't act yesterday that's advanced, and velvet acts quicker than any other parasite.

hybridazn said:
Im not sure im following. A qt does not need the heat causing lights or anything of the sort. You can go pick up a 55 gallon at Petco or even find one used on Craig's list and set it up quickly for no more than $200 at the most. And im sure you can come down off that price a good bit.

If money is an issue setting up a qt like that look at it like this. It'll be cheaper than re buying the fish. That chevron tang alone is roughly 150-200 dollars.

NeuroticAquatics said:
My QTs have fish right now or I'd give it a try. Have you asked local fish stores? Know anyone that runs their AC that you could set a tank up with? Petco has their dollar a gallon deal going, so $20 tank...get a cheap powerhead for approx $25 and you are in business.

We average $300 a month (annual) out here. Easily $400+ per month during summer. Just part of having dogs and fish I guess.

Sorry if this is a newbie question but does a qt tank need to cycle like a normal tank or can I just add water and medicine and get them in the tank? Also, how does the tank hold the bio load with no sump, fuge, or skimmer?

hybridazn · Aug 4, 2015

Paranoiattack91 said:
Sorry if this is a newbie question but does a qt tank need to cycle like a normal tank or can I just add water and medicine and get them in the tank? Also, how does the tank hold the bio load with no sump, fuge, or skimmer?

What I do when I used to have to set a qt up in a hurry was I would take water out of the display and fill the qt with that. Making no acclimating needed for the fish to the new tank. After that I would use fresh saltwater for changes.

I also use the ammonia badges to keep an eye if it starts to cycle. But if you keep the water quality good and dont over feed you should be good.

Shep · Aug 4, 2015

Here's the thing, if you do not set up a hospital tank your fish will die anyways from the ich. You have nothing to lose at this point so I would set one up with a fan blowing across the top to help keep the tank cool (you might want to put an ATO unit on it to help keep up with the evaporation) and get the fish in there asap.

Paranoiattack91 · Aug 5, 2015

Well they didn't make it through the night. Sailfin, purple, and chevron tang all within 72 hours.
At least my carpet anemone makes them easy to get out of the tank without having to look for them.
Here is the chevron

Purple tang

So today I decided to go get a QT to hopefully avoid this happening again. 40 gallon.