I Finally Got Fishys

[Hangfire]

Originally Posted by naesco

Were they eating in the lfs when you bought them?
Never buy any fish unless YOU see it eating.

Yeah, that's something I'm going to take to heart. I bought some of the garlic and cyclopeeze. I'm hoping that will do the trick.

[WhoPoopWrasse]

All sorts of bells are going off!
What are your water parameters? ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH...
Did you quarantine them to make sure they were healthy before putting them into your display tank?
Clowns are usually very good eaters, they could have ich but I'm leaning more towards brooklynella which causes respiratory distress and loss of appetite.

[Hangfire]

Originally Posted by WhoPoopWrasse

All sorts of bells are going off!
What are your water parameters? ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH...
Did you quarantine them to make sure they were healthy before putting them into your display tank?
Clowns are usually very good eaters, they could have ich but I'm leaning more towards brooklynella which causes respiratory distress and loss of appetite.

All the parameters were good when the fish went into the tank. I'll check them again tomorrow morning and post the results here. I didn't quarantine them as they are the only fish in the tank at the moment, and I don't have room for a quarantine tank. Am I going to be in for a hard time without one?

Fed them tonight using the garlic and feeding them cyclopeeze. One of them went nuts for the food, and the other one was like "look, stuff is hitting me on the head. . ." I did notice something odd, and now that WhoPoopWrasse mentions sickness I'm worried about it. They appear to sort of do a little dance thing. They arch sideways and jitter quickly. It only lasts a short time, and both are doing it. They also flutter their pectoral fins quickly in little burst from time to time. So, sickness or usual clown behavior? Man, I'm starting to feel like I'm in way over my head and these are my first fish . Thanks for the help though, and keep it coming, I'm going to need it.

[Hangfire]

Oh crap, now that I go and read about ich I think that might be what it is. I'll post some pictures of the fish and see if anyone can confirm. One of the fish does have a few white spots on it's skin and it was itching it's self on the bottom of the tank. Thanks for pointing that out to me WhoPoopWrasse!

[WhoPoopWrasse]

I don't want to be a party pooper but having a QT is very important since at least 75% of the time the fish you buy WILL have something wrong with them.

Now that you put possibly sick fish in your new tank, chances are the tank is infected and it will infect any fish you add even if they are healthy.

Some people use the hit and miss method but mostly they are at the LFS every couple of weeks looking for new fish to replace the dead ones.

Your best bet is to get a 10 gallon tank, leave it bare bottom, cycle it and the next fish you get should be QTed for at least 3-4 weeks.

[ShrimSkin]

Well if you have ich and you know for sure, you can take some action. You mentioned one of them ate, that's a good sign. Continue to use the garlic and I would add some Selcon(vitamin additive) to the food. If the fish is eating more than likely it will be just fine. You have to get that other one to eat. If your paramaters are in check you could add a cleaner shrimp and that could help. But to get rid of it 100% you need to treat the fish with Copper which you cannot do in your display if you have liverock. There is a lot of info on ich and how to battle it just search the forums and spned some time reading when you are done you won't feel so over your head.

[Hangfire]

Yeah, there appear to be a few products that can be used in a reef tank that are not too bad for inverts. Would a cleaner shrimp really help with this problem?

[WhoPoopWrasse]

any product that tou can use in your display will either kill your live rock or won't work on the ich. The only thing that works on ich is copper (best if you use Cupramine) or hyposalinity but you can't do either in the display or your rock will die.
Garlic is good for enticing them to eat but it won't "cure" ich. It will only delay the inevitable.

[ShrimSkin]

My cleaner is always cleaning off my fish, especially my Hippo tang. Will it help? If the shrimp cleans off the fish then yes it will. As stated in above copper is the only cure but you can't use it in the display. In my experience if you use vitamins and the fish is eating it will most likely pull through.

[Hangfire]

So what's the answer then? The display tank is now infected with ich and there's no cure! I can't set up a QT in time to get the fish out and not infect the main tank. I appear to be screwed.