Should I QT or will they build immunity?

[carlson]

Hello,
I am trying to decide if I should remove my fish and quarantine (again), or if their immune systems can be made strong enough to fight off disease. I have a small sailfin tang, a frostbite clown, and a percula clown in a 60g cube. Of course, when I bought the tang it looked great in the store due to them running copper in the tank it was in. I have had it for over a week now and it has a decent amount of spots that appear to be ich. I decided I would treat the tang and give him back to the store since I would have to do it when he grew too much anyway so I set up a 20g long qt tank and put him in. I used copper power which I had never used before (cupramine in the past). I tested the water he was swimming in and behaving normal but I got a reading of 6-8ppm copper. I knew this was way to much and I did not have time to do a water change on the qt tank so long story short he is back in the display tank with the clowns. The sailfin has been a pig since day one. I have fed him seaweed literally every day since I have had him and he tries to eat it off the clip before I get it in the tank. Other than breathing slightly heavy he isn't behaving like he has ich even though I see it all over his body. He is not even scratching on the rocks...? Do you all think there is a chance of his immune system building up enough to fight it off? If worst comes to worst all the fish are getting copper, I refuse to let any of them die considering how much money I have spent on them and their system. I'll post some pics below. My ammonia is undetectable, nitrates 2, nitrites undetectable. Also, I started adding garlic to their LRS food and seaweed yesterday.

 

[carlson]

Hello,
I am trying to decide if I should remove my fish and quarantine (again), or if their immune systems can be made strong enough to fight off disease. I have a small sailfin tang, a frostbite clown, and a percula clown in a 60g cube. Of course, when I bought the tang it looked great in the store due to them running copper in the tank it was in. I have had it for over a week now and it has a decent amount of spots that appear to be ich. I decided I would treat the tang and give him back to the store since I would have to do it when he grew too much anyway so I set up a 20g long qt tank and put him in. I used copper power which I had never used before (cupramine in the past). I tested the water he was swimming in and behaving normal but I got a reading of 6-8ppm copper. I knew this was way to much and I did not have time to do a water change on the qt tank so long story short he is back in the display tank with the clowns. The sailfin has been a pig since day one. I have fed him seaweed literally every day since I have had him and he tries to eat it off the clip before I get it in the tank. Other than breathing slightly heavy he isn't behaving like he has ich even though I see it all over his body. He is not even scratching on the rocks...? Do you all think there is a chance of his immune system building up enough to fight it off? If worst comes to worst all the fish are getting copper, I refuse to let any of them die considering how much money I have spent on them and their system. I'll post some pics below. My ammonia is undetectable, nitrates 2, nitrites undetectable. Also, I started adding garlic to their LRS food and seaweed yesterday.

Also, I'm thinking about giving the tang back to the store since they have a tank setup with meds in it already. If I do this what are the chances the clowns will fight off the disease in the display tank on their own?

 

[WvAquatics]

Clowns are pretty resilient. But once you have ich in your tank it's there and every fish from now on will be exposed if not treated. At this point if you don't plan to qt all fish with copper and go fallow for 76 days it will be present. If thats not your plan then keep the tang feed high quality food. Frozen and live and hope they kick the ich.

 

[AcanthurusRex]

Looks like velvet.

 

[carlson]

Looks like velvet.

Does copperpower treat velvet too?

 

[carlson]

If it's velvet and copper treats that I am going to place all 3 of the fish in qt this afternoon. What level should I keep the copper at in the 20 long and how long should I run the dose? I've heard anywhere from 7-20 days.

 

[carlson]

And also, I have to leave the tank fallow for 90 days for all the parasites to die in the tank right?

 

[WvAquatics]

Yes bopper power treats Velvet. I have read a freshwater bath slows the velvet down since velvet can kill in days. The copper level should be 2ppm in the tank without a copper Hanna checker it will be difficult thing to accomplish. The fish should be qt for 2 weeks at a constant 2ppm copper. Fallow for velvet is 6 weeks.

 

[carlson]

All three of the fish are in the QT tank now doing okay. Unfortunately the Seachem copper test I got only test up to 1 mg/L so it is going to be hard for me to know that it is high enough over the period.