how to properly introduce a new fish

[Anthony.Luciano710]

ok so i want to get a powder brown tang and i know they are a little more sensitive then other fish so i need some tips on how to introduce it without it getting ich. i know theres ich in the tank because my hippo tang has i right now and i dont know why he got it because hes very healthy and eating algae and everything. maybe its just because of how small he is. but im trying to let him heal on his own before i quarantine him. but for a powder brown tang how do i make sure he doesn't get ich because i know about the quarantine and all but i heard that doesnt work because once the fish is transported to the main tank it will just be stressed again and get it in the main tank.

 

[Tommy Boy]

ich will happen but if the fish is eating well and is healthy from the get go it will get over any ich it gets in a day or 2, as long as it not being stressed out

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

Ok so I know to get rid of it the tank has to be fish less for 6 weeks but what if all the fish are healthy and the ich cant host them. Will the ich die out. And if not how would I be able to introduce this new fish because there is no possible way I can catch all the fish in a 125 gallon tank with over 200 pounds of rock. Especially the fire fish. There's no way I can get them out

ich will happen but if the fish is eating well and is healthy from the get go it will get over any ich it gets in a day or 2, as long as it not being stressed out

 

[Tommy Boy]

just feed them the good stuff, and keep the water clean. ich is like the flu, if ur healthy it wont usually get u, if it does it goes away pretty quickly. but if ur stressed and not feeling good to begin with then its going to hit u hard ( lol long metaphor FTW )

 

[KathyC]

1- It is impossible to introduce a fish to a tank that already has ich in it and guartantee the new fish will not get it
2- Ich is a parasite - an opportunistic feeder living off a host fish
3- Ich doesn't care if a fish is healthy or sick, it only 'cares' if it is available to feed off of
4- Ich does not 'go away' in a day or 2

It would be most helpful if you made an informed decison by having all of the facts about Marine Ich (which is not the same parasite as FW ich, which is far easier to deal with)

You can finding some excellent information here:
http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html

 

[KathyC]

just feed them the good stuff, and keep the water clean. ich is like the flu, if ur healthy it wont usually get u, if it does it goes away pretty quickly. but if ur stressed and not feeling good to begin with then its going to hit u hard ( lol long metaphor FTW )

Where are you getting this info from??
Ich is parasite.

par?a?site

   /ˈp?r

əˌsaɪt/ Show Spelled[par-uh-sahyt] Show IPA
–noun 1. an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment.

 

[Tommy Boy]

personal experience. yes ich is a parasite and it is very opportunistic but a sick/stressed fish will put up less of a fight then a healthy one.

 

[marrone]

You do know that the Flu is a virus and not a parasite? Do you understand the ich cycle? You may think the fish is cured after 1 or 2 days, as the white spots have fallen off the fish, but it's just the final process in the cycle before it starts over again. A healthy, sick, or stressed out fish can and do get ich, and though a healthy fish may have a better chance of fighting off the ich, that isn't always the case.

 

[Tommy Boy]

ok chief. i have a 10 year old hippo that has gotten ich in the past and in just a few days its gone. its still alive and eating well and no i dont QT it or do i nuke the system, i do absolutely nothing, if its healthy it will get over it. it only gets it when there are major changes made to the tank that cause the fish stress; for instance an over haul of the rock work, new fishes added etc. and the flu thing was a METAPHOR in cause u missed that part at the end.

 

[marrone]

ok chief. i have a 10 year old hippo that has gotten ich in the past and in just a few days its gone. its still alive and eating well and no i dont QT it or do i nuke the system, i do absolutely nothing, if its healthy it will get over it. it only gets it when there are major changes made to the tank that cause the fish stress; for instance an over haul of the rock work, new fishes added etc.

Once again, do you understand the ich cycle? Do you understand how it works and how long the cycle last? The part when you're seeing the ich on the fish, and then fall off, is the last part of the cycle. Also it doesn't have anything to do with stress, as it's a parasite and a healthy fish can get it as easy as a stressed out fish. So moving rock around isn't going to give a fish ich, unless you're adding LR, that may have ich spores on it. As for adding a fish, well if it does have ich then it can give it to another fish, though it usually take a short while before you see signs of it on the fish, like white spots, though other signs can show up faster.

As for healthy fish getting over it, well that's not always the case. Many health fish die from ich, and in some case pretty fast, as certain strain can be very deadly. Some fish seem to fight it off better than others, and in time seem to become immune to it, though a different strain could kill it.

and the flu thing was a METAPHOR in cause u missed that part at the end.

It was a pretty poor one, especially with what you added to it.

 

[Dre]

i want to get a powder brown tang and i know they are a little more sensitive then other fish so i need some tips on how to introduce it without it getting ich.

I don't think you should get a Powder Brown tang period, they are not the easiest of tangs to keep. If it's not ich, the fish is not eating enough. I strongly think they should be kept by advanced reefers seriously man.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

what about a powder blue. i like them both but i heard somewhere the powder blue could be a little more aggressive at times. i don't know if its true or not but you might know.

I don't think you should get a Powder Brown tang period, they are not the easiest of tangs to keep. If it's not ich, the fish is not eating enough. I strongly think they should be kept by advanced reefers seriously man.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

so then with all this new info how do i use it to get rid of ich because when i started my tank i was obviously a beginner and i had a clownfish die of ich so i didnt know anything about how bad it was at the time or anything so thats what brought it into the tank now i had a hippo tang for about a week and i see he has it. how do i completely get rid of it so i can get more fish and is there any way to do it without the tank being fishless because theres no way i can catch the firefish without taking out the 200+ pounds of live rock in the tank.

 

[jerl77]

i turn offf my lights of aleast 12 hours :tongueani

 

[KathyC]

Unfortunately the ONLY way to be sure to get it out of the tank is to take out ALL of the fish (and run them through either a copper treatment - for the full time prescribed, or use hyposalinity - again for the full time prescribed) AND keep the tank fishless for 6-8 weeks.

The parasite MUST have the chance to die off and it's life cycle can last up to approx 42 days..some claim even more - so the 8 week mark is a good date to aim for.

After that you MUST be sure to QT all corals and fish before introducing them into your tank. Yes, even corals can carry ich if you purchase them from someone/someplace that has an Ich issue.
How many times have you seen someone say - how did I get ich, I don't have any new fish?? Yeah, but they were buying corals...


btw - the link I posted earlier also has great info on how to properly set up a Hospital tank to treat Ich - using either Copper OR the hyposalinity method.

 

[Jzhou]

Powder Blues are even harder than the Lollipop Tang. Though it has been better than in the past, the majority of Powder Blues comes in with Internal parasite that drains the energy out of their body. Even if the fish doesn't show any outwards signs of it, you need to inspect these tangs carefully. This means no clamped fins, good physical build, and no dents in their faces. BTW, just because your fish doesn't show that it has ICH, doesn't mean it is not in your tank. It is more than likely in some stage where it is free floating or just hanging out in your substrate. In the oceans this isn't much to worry about because the parasite gets spread out so much that it cannot gang rape a fish. This is different in an aquarium because the number of the parasite is s much more concentrated. Normally for people who keep tangs, I recommend the use of a UV sterilizer just because the price in the fish and also because they are more proe to getting diseases.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

ok so i will try my best to catch the fish but what about the dragonets there not prone to ich so do i need to take them out to? and how do i quarantine coral just dip it in coral dip or something or do i watch for white spots on those too?

Unfortunately the ONLY way to be sure to get it out of the tank is to take out ALL of the fish (and run them through either a copper treatment - for the full time prescribed, or use hyposalinity - again for the full time prescribed) AND keep the tank fishless for 6-8 weeks.

The parasite MUST have the chance to die off and it's life cycle can last up to approx 42 days..some claim even more - so the 8 week mark is a good date to aim for.

After that you MUST be sure to QT all corals and fish before introducing them into your tank. Yes, even corals can carry ich if you purchase them from someone/someplace that has an Ich issue.
How many times have you seen someone say - how did I get ich, I don't have any new fish?? Yeah, but they were buying corals...

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

i use ozone which i heard does just about the same job.

Powder Blues are even harder than the Lollipop Tang. Though it has been better than in the past, the majority of Powder Blues comes in with Internal parasite that drains the energy out of their body. Even if the fish doesn't show any outwards signs of it, you need to inspect these tangs carefully. This means no clamped fins, good physical build, and no dents in their faces. BTW, just because your fish doesn't show that it has ICH, doesn't mean it is not in your tank. It is more than likely in some stage where it is free floating or just hanging out in your substrate. In the oceans this isn't much to worry about because the parasite gets spread out so much that it cannot gang rape a fish. This is different in an aquarium because the number of the parasite is s much more concentrated. Normally for people who keep tangs, I recommend the use of a UV sterilizer just because the price in the fish and also because they are more proe to getting diseases.

 

[Jzhou]

Unfortunately the ONLY way to be sure to get it out of the tank is to take out ALL of the fish (and run them through either a copper treatment - for the full time prescribed, or use hyposalinity - again for the full time prescribed) AND keep the tank fishless for 6-8 weeks.

The parasite MUST have the chance to die off and it's life cycle can last up to approx 42 days..some claim even more - so the 8 week mark is a good date to aim for.

After that you MUST be sure to QT all corals and fish before introducing them into your tank. Yes, even corals can carry ich if you purchase them from someone/someplace that has an Ich issue.
How many times have you seen someone say - how did I get ich, I don't have any new fish?? Yeah, but they were buying corals...


btw - the link I posted earlier also has great info on how to properly set up a Hospital tank to treat Ich - using either Copper OR the hyposalinity method.

+1, but i prefer to do it for 3 months just to be absolutely safe. Hyposalinity might also be a better way to treat tangs since many of them are very sensitive to medication. The salinity I normally aim for is 1.014 but I've seen people do it even lower at 1.011. I wont recommend that for invert though.

 

[Jzhou]

All fish are prone to ich. Well not all fish, I remember one of the shark researchers telling me in Stony Brook that sharks and rays aren't prone to ich and many other common marine diseases because of the way their skins are. But Mandarins can be infected as well.