Ich hydrogen peroxide lost my dottyback and shrimp

[rangersfishfan]

I have a 6g tank I have had for at least a month. Started with live dry rock. Added wet rock from petco, waited a bit and added a dottyback, peppermint shrimp and clownfish. Did this with plans to upgrade once we realized 6g too small.

I thought we got Ich, so o treated with bid hydrogen peroxide. Clownfish looked better. Now I lost shrimp and dottyback and clownfish has a bulging eye and swimming erratically. Was I wrong about the Ich? I’m discouraged, now have a QT to try to save clownfish with Ich treatment, but what do I do moving ahead? Is my whole tank junk? Do I start over completely when I do my 40g?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

To be honest, those 2 fish in a 6 gallon is overstocked, and a 6 gallon is just simply too small for either one of them, nevermind both, they were probably stressed already in the tight confines.

Inverts are super sensitive and should not be subjected to changes in water chemistry or to medicine, not to mention we don't know how much you dosed.

Hydrogen peroxide, as far as I know, will help reduce ich symtoms, but not completely cure it.

 

[rangersfishfan]

They were doing well up until the ich showed up. I do realize that our local petco sold us the wrong size tank. Now how do I address moving forward? I did move clown to QT and dosed with Ich treatment, so will see if he does okay.

I have live rock and this whole tank, so I let it fallow and just set up my 40g?

 

[jkcoral]

Sorry to hear you’re having some troubles. A clown and a dotty back in a tank than small is not going to end well. Both fish need a larger tank and even if the tank is 6 gallons, taking into account rock, sand, etc., the actual water volume will be considerably less. It’s possible your tank wasn’t completely done cycling. On the other hand, nitrate buildups can happen incredibly quick in such a small water volume. And if it was actually ich, the small and cramped fish are much more likely to become sick/get hit with ich.

The good thing is that you have a 40 gallon, and you should focus on setting that up. I would put the entire contents of the 6g, especially the rock, in the 40 and top it up with fresh salt water.

I hope your clownfish bounces back, they are known to be pretty resilient little guys and can recover from a lot, just be sure to feed them well while they recover.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

They were doing well up until the ich showed up. I do realize that our local petco sold us the wrong size tank. Now how do I address moving forward? I did move clown to QT and dosed with Ich treatment, so will see if he does okay.

I have live rock and this whole tank, so I let it fallow and just set up my 40g?

the ich showed up because they were stressed, it would not have showed up if they were happy.

 

[jkcoral]

the ich showed up because they were stressed, it would not have showed up if they were happy.

Yep. And it sounds like OP gets stuff from petco, which means a decent chance he got his fish from there too. Putting a perfectly healthy dottyback and clown in a tank that small is going to cause problems, let alone putting fish in there that might have already had some underlying disease/condition already from the store.

 

[rangersfishfan]

Clown before the peroxide

 

[jkcoral]

Clown before the peroxide

Oh yeah that’s no good. Hope the little guy can start doing a little better. Just follow through with whatever ich treatment you’re using and keep him well fed.

 

[rangersfishfan]

Sorry to hear you’re having some troubles. A clown and a dotty back in a tank than small is not going to end well. Both fish need a larger tank and even if the tank is 6 gallons, taking into account rock, sand, etc., the actual water volume will be considerably less. It’s possible your tank wasn’t completely done cycling. On the other hand, nitrate buildups can happen incredibly quick in such a small water volume. And if it was actually ich, the small and cramped fish are much more likely to become sick/get hit with ich.

The good thing is that you have a 40 gallon, and you should focus on setting that up. I would put the entire contents of the 6g, especially the rock, in the 40 and top it up with fresh salt water.

I hope your clownfish bounces back, they are known to be pretty resilient little guys and can recover from a lot, just be sure to feed them well while they recover.

Unfortunately he didn’t make it. When I set up the 40, I wanted to switch to sand from crushed coral but was hoping to use the same filter, heater, light and live rock? could any of this transfer the Ich to the new tank? Is it really okay to use the old water?

My plan to be slow and steady with this one and make sure it is cycled and ready before adding anything fish or invert wise.

 

[edd59]

anything in the 6 gal can transfer ich even your hands

 

[rangersfishfan]

So how do I reuse anything in new tank? Is there ways?

 

[Lavey29]

So how do I reuse anything in new tank? Is there ways?

If the 6g stays fallow for 76 days then the ich torrents should be gone and things can be migrated over.

Or you can break it down and chemically clean stuff and start over fresh.

Buy a couple pounds of real live wet ocean rock and Jumpstart the biodiversity and microfauna in the new tank instead.