Mandarin from a tank with ich

Voltaire81 · May 3, 2016

A fellow reefer is offering to give me a Mandarin to add to my tank, but he was upfront saying his tank has ich. Im almost done with my fallow period after dealing with ich (or maybe it was velvet). Frankly, I dont think i want to take the chance on adding a Mandarin thats coming from a tank with Ich and re-infecting again.

I do have a cycled QT with chaeto and live rock that i added pods to, but its only a 5 gallon tank. I would think he would still starve in there if I left him there for a few weeks for ich to die out.

The only reasonable plan I could think of is add him to the cycled QT and add a black molly in there with him. If the black molly doesnt get ich within 3-4 weeks, presumably, it would be safe to add him to the display tank?

Would that plan work? Or should I just decline the offer?

fry_school101 · May 3, 2016

If he is eating frozen food at your friend's place, he would be okay, but on just pods, no. Also, how are you planning to eliminate the ich from his tank? Keeping him separate won't do any good unless you put his system through QT as well. Otherwise you will just reintroduce it to your display when you put him in...

melypr1985 · May 3, 2016

You could run him through TTM. Feeding live pods would get him through the 15 days it takes to get through TTM then put him in the display. By now you probably have an overload of pods in your tank for him to feast on. (this is assuming your fallow period would be finished by then)

Voltaire81 · May 3, 2016

Thanks! I automatically thought that he would not survive TTM, but i can feed him live brine and pods during it. Also @fry_school101 , he does eat frozen so I can feed him that as well.

Humblefish · May 3, 2016

melypr1985 said:
You could run him through TTM. Feeding live pods would get him through the 15 days it takes to get through TTM then put him in the display. By now you probably have an overload of pods in your tank for him to feast on. (this is assuming your fallow period would be finished by then)

^^This would work, unless you suspect your friend's tank contains a disease TTM does not treat (i.e. velvet, brook). I would also dose Prazipro at the onset of transfers 2 & 4 to prophylactically address flukes.