how long to wait

a little long, but heres the story: i got a niger trigger and a clown tang and added them to my tank that housed a lunar wrasse, foxface, matte filefish, marble star, and crabs/snails. of course the tang got ich and then it showed up on the foxface. i started using Kent RXP at half dose because of the starfish. did so for 3 days and noticed it wasnt affecting the star, so i uped the dose to full for the next 4 days. i did have my carbon and protien skimmer in/on the system during treatment Rxp intructions say to leave skimmer on so that the dose gets taken back out. the ich apperd to be going away the tang was eatting (wasnt at first) just a couple of spots left. at that time i also started for the first time feeding the tank live feeders for the trigger and wrasse. the trigger never stood a chance, the wrasse ate 3 feeders at one time. so i stoped putting them in for the night. the next day i noticed my lunar wrasse staying in his per-say bed (WW2 carrier decor) and he had cloudy eyes and stoped eatting. next day, now 5 days into the RXP treatment i found my filefish stuck to the powerhead intake after coming home from church, he was alive and fine after i shut it off. he swam away on his own, was super spooked and just hid for the next day but alive. the next day i noticed where he was stuck had turned white, the size of intake tube, its not fungus, just his skin color as if it was a white bruise. i suspect a internal injury. so i started using Melafix for filefish and eye problum with wrasse (still using rxp for the next 2 days, talked to trusted fish store manager friend and said he thought it would be ok to combine due to the melafix being organic) , also the filefish did start eating myysis again. the next day the white spot transfered to the other side as well. (used rest of rxp, ended that treatment but still using melafix for next 6 days.) After ending treatment with RXp i did a 10% water change and stoped using skimmer and took carbon out of system, added strees zyme as always when i change water. the next day the filefish died and my tang started to turn black were he has blue (lines) and his face was extremly sunken in. (this entire time i have been doing bi-daily water tests, everytime they come back perfect except NO3 usally about 5-10ppm but thats not toxic enough to even kill the inverts. anyway the next day the tang died, (had about 12 days total).
so for about 7 days the wrasse hasent eaten after eating those 3 feeders at one time, and still stays in carrier most of the time , but when he does come out he satys right on the bottom of sand bed and bumps into things, i suspect hes going blind but now does not have cloudy eyes. maybe the rxp (pepper treatment) damaged his eyes or maybe it was a combo of the rxp and melafix. regaurdless what was done was done, but i was finally done with 7 day treatment of melafix , so i did a 15% water change and started up the skimmer and added the fresh carbon. the next day did another 15% water change, and noticed the warasee comming out more and swimming into different aeras, but still bumps into things as if he can see some, so maybe half blind. was the melafix keeping him blind? i asked myself. so the tank has been going with no chemicals for a week now, water test shows perfect. the wrasse finally took some raw fresh shrimp chunk, after holding it right in front of him 4 days later after the melafix, so hes eating again. but now i see the cloud coming back in his eye and the foxface still jerks his head from time to time (started when i used the melafix).

still have sick fish, wrasse half blind with cloud in his eye and the foxface jerks head and shots acroos tank. its been 7 days scine any treatment has been in the water, carbon in and skimmer on the system. still perfect water tests. so the querstion is how long should one wait between treatments? i plan on using primafix this time for treating a possible bacterial infection (wrasse eye) :-/

AND HERE IS SOMTHING ELSE TO CHEW ON. this whole time my sump for DT that houses a watchman goby and a perc clown (wrasse tried to kill both of them months ago) have had no problums at all? and also 3 days after doing last water change my marble star has started melting. with better water and no chemicals in there? WHAT THE!! i thought it would have 2 weeks ago with the rxp. why the long delay i wounder. i know all of this probly could have been prevented if i had a QT but i dont. no room for another tank. on the good side the snails and crabs are loving the fact the wrasse is blind, havent seen so many of them out at one time in months lol. thanks for the help.

 

First Welcome to 3 reef,

Very unfortunate story. I may have missed some of the details so a couple of questions please?

How old is the tank?
How large is the tank?

Obviously you have a couple of issues going on and unsure if they are all do to the treatment medications you used, so if you could post current parameters that will help others assist you.

 

starfish are weird. they are pretty sensitive to slight water parameter changes. How old is the tank?

 

thanks for the replies, here are some specs on the tank

been running now for 14-15 months
3 inch sand bed
80 lbs live rock
75 gallon DT with a 33gallon sump that has about 25 gallons of water
water specs , nh3 0ppm, no2 0ppm, no3 5-10ppm, alk 2.25 mpl spec gravity 1.022-23 temp 79-80 p.h 8.0-8.1
lights T5 ho on dt on from 4:30pm to 10:30pm and light, on sump (florecent) on from 10:30 pm to 7 am.

 

I would start by getting rid of the wrasse, seeing as he is such a bully and will probably bully any further additions. Maybe since he has a vision problem he will be easier to catch.

Next I would set up an QT or alternative small tank and treat the other fish for ich with the standard treatments for Marine ich.

Copper
Formalin
Hypo-salinity

But never used in combination.

Leave the fish in the alternative tank for at least 28 days and the display fallow( without fish) during that time. Marine ich must have a fish to feed off to complete it's life cycle without a fish the parasite will die.

The most important point is though never treat the display tank unless you absolutely have to. Melafix is ok in the display but any other medication I would not attempt.

 

Welcome, a few things I wanted to ask/add:

- what live feeders were you giving the fish? (most live feeders are infested with disease, etc, wouldn't recommend it)

- a 75g tank is way to small for a Clown Tang, they need 150g or larger systems, pristine water. If I'm not mistaken, they are not very hardy fish & expert only rated. Putting one in a small tank like that will stress it out, stress brings on disease, infests your tank, etc. It's best to research a bit more before buying fish that aren't really suited to be in a tank that small. You will save yourself the headache of what is happening now.

- Please seperate out in paragraphs the OP or someone will get a seizure from it

 

the live feeders were diamnos.

i will try to put it in paragraphs from now on, i told you it was long, lol

i did do my research on the tang, or maybe you can set me right on this. when you buy a fish the min size tank secs are for full grown fish right. on all the sites i see the size of tank never goes up for a larger size fish. so a little tang ,3inch should have been ok. id think when it grows to 12" is when it needs the 180 + size tanks. my plan was to buy a 250 when i move next year. didnt think he was gonna grow that fast. so am i right or wrong ? if wrong then please explain how you can get multiple 3 inch fish in smaller tanks. i know certin fish have different needs but there was only 4 fish in the 75 all of which are 4 inch and smaller. i didnt think it was going to be to crowded.
thanks for the response mo joe. what kinds of feered were you talking about?

 

Hmm, never heard of diamnos? I've not been in the hobby all too long but never considered feeding my fish anything live (other than raising my own mysis/brine). I would think if these diamnos are mass produced for live feeding they would be very susceptible to mutation or disease. Very much like FW feeders are horribly raised, etc. If they were store bought, I would also err on the side of caution and not risk it as to introduce problems to the tank. But again it's all my opinion of live feeders.

I understand where you're coming from on the debate of "why a small fish can't work in a smaller tank". I too have put things in my tank that really can't comfortably grow/flourish in it. 9 out of 10 times though I have ended up having to frustratingly catch said fish as it had grown too large and or become to aggresive as it became cramped. An upgrade to a larger tank is def a good thing if you wanted to try and keep it happy.

There are many reasons Clown Tangs are listed as "expert only" fish. They demand pristine water quality, highly oxygenated water, can be very aggresive, poor survival rate in the home aquarium. Need lots of swiming space as they grow to feel comfortable, 6ft minimum. Most people I've read about have them in 300g-600g tanks, & some still regretted getting one as it became very aggresive or was very susceptible to disease.

IMO something like a small Yellow or Purple Tang would do you much better in a 75g growout. They are much hardier Tangs that are slow growers that will adapt better to a smaller system.

Just my two cents, not judging but just trying to give you some of the knowledge I learned when researching about the Clown Tang. My LFS had one and told me to never get one for said reasons above, and they're very experienced & reliable guys.

EDIT: sorry I had tried to get through your whole first post and realized you said the Tang died, sorry to hear, but again, it's a very hard fish to keep. Filefish are the same way, very hard to keep.

 

I think he means danios or live bearers. There is an assumption that if you feed fresh water feeders to salt water fish that the diseases cant survive.

 

oh ok, got it, never heard of that, but def wouldn't chance it. Way too much $ I've put into my tank to introduce something other than frozen foods for me.