Racoon and ick!

[sfsalty]

Hi all,
I think my racoon has ick. It has two small dots. Yesterday, he had one. The only potential stressor I can think of is that I added some ESV sand to my sandbed to make the bed deeper about a week ago. I screwed up and added 1" instead of only 1/2"; however, there was no ammonia spike that I know of. At first, I thought the spot was from floating sand sticking on the fish, but I have since seen the fish scratch a number of times yesterday (none today) and the second dot. He is eating and breathing fine. But he does look like he has a spot where he rubbed his scales off. At first I thought the spot was from the female maroon attacking him, which happened a few weeks ago.

The tank also has a pair of maroons, who seem to be unaffected. BTW, my cleaner shrimp has been useless so far.

I do have a 25 gal q-tank but it is at 1.009 sg for a new powder blue that had a parasite of some sort (probably ick) so I did hypo based on the board's suggestion.

What do y'all suggest I do? I am feeding more (soaked in selcon or zoe at one feeding and garlic for the other). I was thinking of somehow having a stopgap measure of reducing specific gravity in a rubbermaid for the three fish and then letting them join the powder blue but am afraid the Q-tank is too small for 4 fish. 4 fish in that size tank may cause more stress.

Main tank: up for 14 months now
100 gal
110 live rock
Lots of snails and shrimp.
3" Female maroon
1.5" Male maroon
2.5" Racoon
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate = 0
SG = 1.024

Q-tank
25 gal
Aquaclear 200
3" Powder blue
SG = 1.009

Please your suggestions are appreciated.

Larry

[sfsalty]

OK, an hour later, there are now 3 dots all on one side. none on the fins, and i have seen him scratch again.

also, he gets in front of the cleaner, but the shrimp seems to ignore him. did i get a lazy cleaner?

[FMarini]

Okay:
so it appears you got ick...so you have a few choices...you either make space in your Qtank for another inhabitant, or you start lowering your salinity in your main tank(to 1.009) for the next 3 weeks. My personal preference is use copper(such as cupramine-my fave-monitor twice/day)as this will elimiate the ick in a few days(but do treat for the full 10days), Bill howevr is a big fan of hyposalinity.Last point, inverts have to be removed for the hypo.
I suspect your tang is not used to using the cleaner for his services, so until he sees anotherfish using its services or you "teach" him that its available it might not be provided.
Your call
frank

[sfsalty]

Thanks. I am very comfortable with hypo, so I would probably go that route. I have a DSB, so I will got Q-tank. Are 4 fish the size of mine with temperaments like the maroon and powder blue gonna be ok in a 25 gallon?

Thanks.
Larry

[billsreef]

It'll be tight, but with plenty of hiding places it should work.