how to properly introduce a new fish

[Jzhou]

You might want to buy some bottles of tigerpods to feed the dragonete while it is in qt. Honestly buy one bottle for use, and the second empty into a large clear bottle with some fresh salt water and macro algae. Put it by the window and wait. Those guys reproduce pretty fast.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

ohhh man i forgot about the dragonet's only eating copepods. uhhhh this is going to be hard. but i just have a question. if i just leave the dragonets and firefish in the tank and they are really healthy and the parasite cant get to them would this be the same as leaving it fishless since the ich still cant latch on to the fish in that stage. so it will still starve and die in the 6 weeks but why cant i just take out the sick ones if the other ones never get sick.

You might want to buy some bottles of tigerpods to feed the dragonete while it is in qt. Honestly buy one bottle for use, and the second empty into a large clear bottle with some fresh salt water and macro algae. Put it by the window and wait. Those guys reproduce pretty fast.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

ok another option is medicine. i really don't think its possible to get out all the fish so i guess my only option is medicine. i know theres reef safe ones out there so could you recommend any. im not really worried about the coral because i only have small frags now so i can easily put them in my other tank if i have to. im just worried about all the snail and hermit crabs that would die if i don't use it correctly so i cant use any copper based ones.

 

[KathyC]

There are a grand total of NO reef safe Ich medicines - treatments- that effectively kill ich. Period.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

what about kent rxp its supposed to be extremely good like with new studies or something. or can you recommend one that you know works i don't care if its reef safe or not i will take out every invertebrate in the tank and every coral in the tank i just need to get rid of ich completely without having to remove a fish.

There are a grand total of NO reef safe Ich medicines - treatments- that effectively kill ich. Period.

 

[KathyC]

ohhh man i forgot about the dragonet's only eating copepods. uhhhh this is going to be hard. but i just have a question. if i just leave the dragonets and firefish in the tank and they are really healthy and the parasite cant get to them would this be the same as leaving it fishless since the ich still cant latch on to the fish in that stage. so it will still starve and die in the 6 weeks but why cant i just take out the sick ones if the other ones never get sick.

They all need to come out.
You will NOT necessarily see the Ich itself on the fish, it tends to settle inside of the gills (where it kills the fish).
While Dragonetts are not PRONE to getting Ich (due to their thick slime coat) they are also not impervious to it.

If you take the chance of leaving ANY fish in the tank, you take the chance of wasting your time QT'ing & treating all of the others. It takes only a SINGLE Ich trophant left in the tank to start the infestation all over again.

Inverts don't get ich btw. They can all stay in the tank.

 

[Jzhou]

lol its not a fishless tank if it has fish.

 

[Jzhou]

Kick Ich is sold as a Reefsafe Ich Treatment, but the way it works is that it prevents the parasite from binding to the fish. Unless you're willing to buy bottles and bottles of it to use for 2 months, its a total waste of money.

 

[KathyC]

what about kent rxp its supposed to be extremely good like with new studies or something. or can you recommend one that you know works i don't care if its reef safe or not i will take out every invertebrate in the tank and every coral in the tank i just need to get rid of ich completely without having to remove a fish.

There are none that work. I'm sorry.
Anything not reef safe has copper in it and it will render your tank (rocks, sand, etc) useless, and will kill your inverts & pods.
That is why the fish have to come out to be treated

 

[Jzhou]

slow and steady wins the race.

 

[KathyC]

Kick Ich is sold as a Reefsafe Ich Treatment, but the way it works is that it prevents the parasite from binding to the fish. Unless you're willing to buy bottles and bottles of it to use for 2 months, its a total waste of money.

It does not kill the parasite.
It contains Cayanne pepper (like most of these supposedly 'reef-safe' ich treatments). The idea is it will irritate the living snot out of the fishes 'skin' and it will build a thicker slime coat, thereby causing the ich not to be able to attach to the fish.
It does not work...

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

that quote just made me think of something. what if i take out all my coral and inverts and put them in another tank and then use the slow method of hypo salinity on my display tank that way i don't have to set up another tank to keep all my fish in because thats what im truly trying to avoid. if i do that then will im guessing it wont be as harmful as if i needed to use copper and more effective then a reef safe medication. it would also be a perfect time to get my dream fish the powder brown tang since it will be in hypo salinity already and i know its not sick because the fish store its in keeps the invert system separate from the fish system so they can run copper on all of the fish so im guessing if you guys approve this will be my best way to go. oh and incase your wondering why im so hesitant on setting up another tank and stuff its because im only 15 so im limited in what i can do and my parents will get mad if i set up another big tank in the middle of the living room or something. and i already asked them and they said no thats why i need something i can use in the display tank and i can take out all the coral and inverts its just the fish i cant.

slow and steady wins the race.

 

[Jzhou]

The pepper idea has always been somewhat strange to me for 2 reasons. 1 is that Paprika is often mixed into freshwater fish dry food by many breeders because it is suppose to enhance color. The other is that when I use to breed discus, there use to be a certain airborn parasite that jack wattley always warned about. The way it works is that this parasite would latch on to a fish's skin an cause them to over produce slime. When the coat is thick enough, the fish would fail to be able to osmoregulate properly and slowly die. This disease wa also hard to kill of because the extreme thickness of the slime makes it so that no toxin can get to them.

 

[Jzhou]

that quote just made me think of something. what if i take out all my coral and inverts and put them in another tank and then use the slow method of hypo salinity on my display tank that way i don't have to set up another tank to keep all my fish in because thats what im truly trying to avoid. if i do that then will im guessing it wont be as harmful as if i needed to use copper and more effective then a reef safe medication. it would also be a perfect time to get my dream fish the powder brown tang since it will be in hypo salinity already and i know its not sick because the fish store its in keeps the invert system separate from the fish system so they can run copper on all of the fish so im guessing if you guys approve this will be my best way to go. oh and incase your wondering why im so hesitant on setting up another tank and stuff its because im only 15 so im limited in what i can do and my parents will get mad if i set up another big tank in the middle of the living room or something. and i already asked them and they said no thats why i need something i can use in the display tank and i can take out all the coral and inverts its just the fish i cant.

Its better to just qt your fish seperately. Hyposaliity kills alot of inverts that you want in your rock. You can def do it that way, but you'll need to fully cure your tank again so that I has enough copepods and whatnot that you would want.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

what if i disconnect the refugium so the copeods can live because my rock probably has nothing in it anyway. its only beed set up for 2 months and after the cycle i added a ball of cheato with pods and the dragonets have been living off of that but they are very skinny and i dont know what to do with them. i wanted to sell them but like i said im 15 my mom wont let me and she makes these stupid excuses like if there living now then they have enough food. because she loves the fish so much she doesn't want to give them away and she even started crying one time when a fish died. oh ill also buy a bag of copeods to help seed it.

Its better to just qt your fish seperately. Hyposaliity kills alot of inverts that you want in your rock. You can def do it that way, but you'll need to fully cure your tank again so that I has enough copepods and whatnot that you would want.

 

[Jzhou]

The best way to do it is to just qt your fish separately. There really isn't any short cuts here.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

oh and during hypo salinity the denitrifying bacteria will still live right. and can i still do my 10 gallon weekly water changes or do i have to do it more often or something?

Its better to just qt your fish seperately. Hyposaliity kills alot of inverts that you want in your rock. You can def do it that way, but you'll need to fully cure your tank again so that I has enough copepods and whatnot that you would want.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

even if i was aloud to i cant catch them. i rather just do hypo salinity on the whole display tank. theres nothing that important on the rocks they were bought as base rocks with no living pods or anything.

The best way to do it is to just qt your fish separately. There really isn't any short cuts here.

 

[Jzhou]

You should always monitor your water when your fish is in QT. Though some bacteria won't die, most will. The same is true if you use medication.

 

[KathyC]

The pepper idea has always been somewhat strange to me for 2 reasons. 1 is that Paprika is often mixed into freshwater fish dry food by many breeders because it is suppose to enhance color. The other is that when I use to breed discus, there use to be a certain airborn parasite that jack wattley always warned about. The way it works is that this parasite would latch on to a fish's skin an cause them to over produce slime. When the coat is thick enough, the fish would fail to be able to osmoregulate properly and slowly die. This disease wa also hard to kill of because the extreme thickness of the slime makes it so that no toxin can get to them.

But this is cayanne pepper, not paprika
The gills do not get as slime coated as the body of the fish, so the Ich can still get in anyway. If the gills got as tickly covered with slime as the fish - from the cayanne- the fish would suffocate anyway.

As far as Watley is concerned - the fry also would not be able to feed off of the parents if the slime coat was too thick. A double whammy.