Possible sick fish with inverts.

Discussion in 'Fish Diseases' started by rjweng, May 29, 2006.

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  1. rjweng

    rjweng Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    May 8, 2006
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    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    OK as it was memorial weekend, and very nice weather spent most of my time outside cleaning and spending tiem with family. I noticed that my Coral Beauty and Heniochus Black and White Butterflyfish have some white spots on gills and fins. I have a bunch of snails and a arrow crab, now my question is should I take the snails and crab out and treat the whole tank or get a QT tank going for fish? I also have 2 clowns but really didn't notice anything on them, but I will be studying them when I get home from work in the morning. As I hear that treating them with copper is the way to go BUT the copper is not good for inverts.

    some advice would be nice.

    rj
     
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  3. rickzter

    rickzter Torch Coral

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    You do not want to dose copper in a tank with inverts. Not even temporarily. Setting a QT would be the best method for counteracting the problem. Of course, you could invest in a sterilizer or start lacing your foods with garlic and vitamin c to boost the fishs' immune systems. I would go that route instead of copper. Copper is for badly infected fish with advanced parasitic infestations and/or lice, etc.

    If you treat your tank with copper, some might stay in the tank and I have heard that silicone might absorb it and keep it in there. If a tank was treated with copper, I would never, EVER use that thing ever again if planning on a reef or invert tank.

    If my fish came down with a sickness, copper would be my last choice for treatment, too dangerous for my precious animals in my coral reef. The best way to prevent stress is water changes, feeding nutritious foods full of garlic and vitamin c.
     
  4. powdertang05

    powdertang05 Fire Worm

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    you want to qt them in a bare bottom tank with no sand or anything in it so dont do it in your main tank!
     
  5. rjweng

    rjweng Astrea Snail

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    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    ok so how would you go about doing the garlic? is there food with this or do I need to do a mix myself, and if so any suggestion on mixes?
     
  6. Reef Lover

    Reef Lover Sea Dragon

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    Soak the food in garlic
     
  7. rickzter

    rickzter Torch Coral

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    Kent sells a product called "Garlic Xtreme", kinda steep but it's very good. What you do is soak whatever your feeding in the garlic. Place the food in a cup and follow directions on the bottle and drop the garlic inside the cup. Let it mix and soak for a couple of minutes then feed. Placing the garlic left in the cup inside the tank is also ok. Kent also has another product called Marine-C and you can soak your food with it just like the garlic. You can also dose marine-c in the tank water to keep levels of it in the water to prevent outbreaks.

    There are also foods out there already laced with garlic and vitamin-c. Just look around, you can find pellets or frozen foods. Manufacturers are now adding both as they are found to keep fish a lot healthier and happier. There is a nice food product called "Formula 2 pellets" made by Ocean Nutrition that is green algae laced with a lot of garlic. I suggest you get it as everyone in my tank loves them, even my mandarin dragonet now eats those pellets!

    Keep us all updated on the health of your fish.