Treating new fish for parasites in quarantine tank question

[Reef55]

Ok, I am about to pick up a flame angel or hippo tang for my 55 tank (well established, only a small yellow tang, coral beauty, and ocellaris clownfish in there).

I have a 10 gallon quarantine tank set up.
It will only have a small power head and a heater, with about 30 watts of light above it. Two chunks of live rock will be in there as well to give him places to hide. I do not care if the live rock bacteria gets killed with whatever chemical I dose.

My plan is to dose something like copper safe, malachite green, or kick-ick, and maybe throw in some melafix also. I would treat with one (or more) of the above chemicals every other day, and just before I treat I will do a 1 gallon water change with water from my 55.

Two questions:
1) Which of the above chemicals will work best to kill all the parasites?

2) How long should I quaratine the new fish for before adding him to my tank?

Thanks!

 

[Cruiser]

Reef55

In my opinon.....Between those choices, the Flame angel is the better puchase. The blue tang will cause aggression from the yellow tang, be in unfamiliar territory, become extremely stressed and would have to be returned to the quarantine tank and then back to the store (will probably happen every time you try to re-establish the blue tang).

The Flame angel will also be harrassed by the yellow tang, but, will have more problems with the Coral Beauty angel, and may not fit "in" with your current community.

I probably wouldn't recommend either....maybe chose a different fish - wrasse, anthias, foxface, basslet, gobie..etc.

Quarantine tank:
Don't put live rock in the tank, as the medication - preferably copper - will kill the rock, causing increase in NH3,NO2,etc creating a foul envirnoment. Use some other rock (lava), PVC pipes, clay flower pots, etc.

Purchase a copper test kit and monitor the copper concentration. Marine fish are sensitive to copper levels greater then 0.30 ppm, and may go into shock. Maintain a level around 0.18 to 2.5 for 14 days. Copper Sulfate is harsher on marine fish then chelated copper compounds. Make sure the power head breaks teh surface of water to add oxygen, but, it will also add C02 which reduces copper effectiveness (esp. CuS04). Slowly increase copper levels when above 2.0 ppm.

Copper treatment will not allow a bacterial bed to grow, byproducts from fish repiration, etc., will require frequent water changes & redosing of copper throughout the quarantine period.

After 14 days, reduce the copper level to 0.12 - 0.15 for 7 days. Then I would maintain the fish in the tank with no copper, and "fatten" the fish up with vitamin
supplemented foods.

During the quarantine period,the fish is receptive to foods, try soaking the foods in
Garlic extract (fresher the better

).

Remember that 10 gallons is a small volume of water, so diligence with water parameters and husbandry skills needs to be completed during the quarantine period.

Others might like different medications, just remember no copper products in reef tank itself.

Good luck......just my opinion

.

 

[XXX]

While what Cruiser suggests will work, I personally do not treat a new fish unless/until it shows signs of disease. I would never mix treatments for no reason as you mention.

BTW with a yellow tang in a 55 I would consider your tank more than fully stocked without adding any more fish. For sure don't get a hippo.

 

[Marty M]

Reef 55,
Do you have an external filter on your 55, that you could switch to the 10 gal? The live rock as bio filter would probably work if you were only quarantining the fish for observation and you used a good amount of it. Once you start treating the fish for actual disease or just for prevention, the die off from the rock will overwhelm its capacity as a biofilter. The ammonia and nitrite spikes will be as bad as if there were no rock at all. The ideal biofilter for a quarantine/treatment tank is something nonporous like bioballs, in a trickle or canister filter. It will be relatively unaffected by most of the treatment plans, and it will not lower the copper level, which must be maintained to be effective. In a 10 gal tank, the biofilter has to be very efficient to avoid an ammonia/nitrite spike. An ammonia spike could be as stressful or deadly as anything else associated with adding new fish.I maintain my Q tanks with a product called Supercharger from Reef Care. It's just a solution of ammonia that feeds the bacteria. I add a few drops every day to keep it alive, and increase it whenever I anticipate actually using the tanks. You see, it's not just a matter of sacrificing the rock. The rock itself is not really suitable for a treatment tank. Using the Supercharger is not reccommended with live rock either, so you have to be pretty sure your rock can support what you are quarantining without stimulating it artificially. I'm sorry to complicate your plan because you are trying to do the right thing. I am annoyed by advice givers that make establishing a QT seem so simple. It needs careful thought just like your main tank. If it is not done right you might as well just dump the new fish into the main tank, parasites and all, because it will be less stressful than an ammonia cycle in the QT.

Both the hippo and the flame will have trouble acclimating with one or more of your existing fish. If your tank were bigger, I think it could be done, but Hippos get bigger than your 55 can handle. It would be ok for a year, maybe two at the most. Would you want to give it up then? There are flame wars going on right now over the subject; here and on Reef Central. How long have you had the coral beauty?