Help!.. one dead flame angel and one sick tang!

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tic

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Aug 5, 2006
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Hello, my wife chose marine aquariums for her new hobby .. well, we have a 75 gallon tank that we bought used, it came with 4 fish , live rock, pumps, filters, protein skimmer, coral sand bottom, the works.. We saved all the water from the tank when we moved it... The tank is setup since July 15 and all was well until our the flame angel became lethargic and looked sick.. We put it in an isolation tank and treated the water with MarOxy... The fish died anyway.(the flame angel was bought 2 weeks after we got the tank). Now we have a purple tang that has ich.The tang is an original occupant to the tank. We don't know if we can put the tang in the QT with the MarOxy already in that water and then treat for ich.. Do we need to dump that water and start over in the QT?... Also, we were sold "copper safe" to treat the tang.. My wife has read that this is a dangerous treatment and that you never get rid of all the copper.. Any alternative treatments you folks could reccommend.. Please help!.. She was crying when the flame angel died. If we lose the purple tang, I know there will be more tears!.
 

dorkfish

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Jul 25, 2005
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Windsor,Ontario,Canada
1. Is the quarantine cycled?
2. Did you keep the rocks, sand and filter media wet while you were transporting the tank?
3. What fish came with the tank?
4. What are the amonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, and salinity levels (in both the QT and the main tank)?
5. Did you quarantine the angel?
6. How much research have you done on marine aquariums and have you read The Marine Aquarium For Newbies?
7. Can you describe the set up (equipment) better?

I would change close to 100% of the water out of the quarantine, you don't need extra chemicals stressing the fish out. Lowered salinity in the quarantine tank should kill the ich. Once you get the tang in the quarantine with freshly mixed saltwater, start changing out small (0.5-1 gallon at the most, in a 10-20g quarantine, with atleast 3 hours between each change) amounts of water with (dechlorinated) freshwater until the salinity is at 1.017-1.016. Keep it like that until the there is no visible signs of ich. After the ich is gone, do the same procees you used to lower the salinity, using saltwater instead of freshwater (to increase the salinity back to normal). Wait atleast 2-4 weeks after seeing the ich go away before returning the fish to the main tank, to make sure there is no more ich left in the fish.

Depending on how big your quarantine is (8. how big is the quaranitine?), and what kind of fish you have, it may be adviseable to give all the fish this treatment, to make sure none of them have the ich.
 

tic

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Aug 5, 2006
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Thanks for the response!I will answer the best I can and in order. 1) The QT has only been up for about 2 days. It's not cycled but we used the display aquarium water in it.8) it's 10 gallons..It has no live rock , just a pvc pipe (boiled of course) for the fish to hide in. it has it's own filter,heater and light.2) yes, all were kept in the orginal water during the transport of the aquarium to our house.3) one purple tang and three damsels. 4) all levels are correct and normal in both tanks EXCEPT nitrate which is high in both. 5) the angel was NOT quarrantined. (didn't know any better at the time) 6) this is my wifes hobby, she's bought at least 10 books and has been reading constantly but the mistake she made was to get the aquarium FIRST, and then read later(oddly, the checking account balance has been lowering dramatically since the arrival of this tank).7) it's a 75 gallon tank, two filters and a protein skimmer. 4 bulb compact flourescent light system. two heaters. 100 lbs of live rock. (most of it came with the tank, what we added was cured or we were told it was) We use RO water ( I installed a machine for her). She has a refusium with copepods in it to feed the mandarin we bought.. We also bought a coral beauty, 2 shrimp, a gobey, several crabs and snails. We also have a very mean emerald crab we bought. She would eventually like this to be a reef and fish tank combined.. I will make SURE she reads "the marine aquarium for newbies" thank you for your time and sharing your knowledge!..
 
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dorkfish

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Jul 25, 2005
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Windsor,Ontario,Canada
I suggest you use some filter media out of the main tank in the quarantine - the water has no bacteria in it, and without that bacteria, amonia and nitrite spikes (both of wich will kill most marine fish) are un- avoidable withot testing the water daily and without doing daily water changes (wich will add up $ wise).

Sadly, there's a good chance of your mandrin starving to death; not only has the pod population been injured greatly by the moving of the tank, but the goby will compete with it for food (mandrins have a very poor ability of competing with other fish for food). Most if not all gobys, wrasses, dragonet's and any other fish wich feeds on pods (even fish wich will eat prepared foods will feed on them) are out of the question for future additions to the tank, if you wish to keep the mandrin alive. There is places online where you can buy pods to make sure he gets enough food - there was a place like that linked to a while ago, I just have to find it for you first (I'll start looking now).
 

tic

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Aug 5, 2006
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The refusium was purchased just a few days ago from a local place and it was already mature.. We got the copepods from an online place, plus food for them, plus a brine shrimp hatchery. We were hoping with enough copepods and brine shrimp that the manderin would find enough to eat.. I didn't know he'd have to compete w/ the gobie!.. thanks again for your time.. Any further information would be greatly appreciated.
 

BadRoma1

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Nov 29, 2005
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here it is what i recomend. u need the med by the name quinsulex from aquatronics. don't use it in your main tank, because the med will kill your shrimp. it's very good med and will show that it works in two days. remember to double dose this med for marine fish. use some sand from the main tank, because it will be better if there will be good bacteria in your QT. don't forget about some sort of air, like airstone or small powerhead.
 

BadRoma1

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Nov 29, 2005
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forgot to say that by using water from the main tank will keep the parameters steady, thus preventing the fish from having to adjust to new parameters while he is sick, but for bacteria u do need something from your filter, sand, or pieces of rock, from the main tank. is the fish letting your cleaner shrimps to service him at all? i was just wondering. i can't keep cleaner shrimp, so i was just curious
 

tic

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Aug 5, 2006
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Thanks.. Yes, the tang does allow the cleaner shrimp to clean him but he's obviously not getting it all, or keeping up with the tangs rate of infestation
 

BadRoma1

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Nov 29, 2005
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by the way, u must hurry because unless the tang will fight the ich off himsef, u don't have much time before he dies
 
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