Qt Dilemna

[ataller]

Nothing is ever easy.

I have all of my fish (purple tang, flame angel, 2 dispars, 2 percs, and a yellow canary wrasse) in hyposalinity tx (1.010).

Today was day 7.

Today the two dispars wouldn't eat and aren't swimming quite right. They are swimming upwards, hard to explain I can tell its different.

So, do I continue the tx and kill the ich with 7-9 more days to go of hypo or do I start to bring the salinity up to see if that will help the dispars. Either way something isnt going to be right. I hate to have to make the call but there are more fish that will benefit from the hypo than will be potentially saved by bringing the salinity up.

There is no guarantee that the dispars will die at 1.010, there is also no guarantee that they will be saved by brining it back up to 1.026.

There was 100% an ich infection that is much improved. Fish are less shy, eating again, no more spots, they have done a complete 180.

What are your opinions, do I give up on the hypo or not?

Adam

[Sisterlimonpot]

I would wait it out the full 8 weeks. However, what your describing sounds like an oxygen issue and not a salinity issue. what do you have in place for providing oxygen?

Question, what do you mean by 'tx'?

[ataller]

tx short form for treatment, sorry a carry over from my everyday.

I thought 16 days hypo, and 4-6 weeks fallow for the tank. where do you get the 8 weeks?

Oxygenation from running my skimmer (mce-600) on the tank. I don't think you can get much more oxygenation than that. I also have a koralia disturbing the surface.

Anyways they are still in hypo and I think I will agree with you and leave it that way.

[sfboarders]

What are your water parameters? Check your pH. With hypo the pH will be low. You need to dose with cooked baking soda to bring it up. 8 weeks is the recommend you should leave your tank fallow.

[Sisterlimonpot]

How about PH then?

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by sfboarders

8 weeks is the recommend you should leave your tank fallow.

yeah, 8 weeks of them in the QT so the display tank can go follow (fishless) for 8 weeks to ensure all the parasites are dead in the display. Sorry for the confusion.


EDIT: and another question: Just to make sure we aren't overlooking the obvious, what are you using to measure the salinity?

[ataller]

Yah Ill go check the PH.

If its low, should I dose a bit of ALK also to help keep it stable?

[sfboarders]

Originally Posted by ataller

Yah Ill go check the PH.

If its low, should I dose a bit of ALK also to help keep it stable?

What I did was cooked some baking soda and mixed it with RO water. I put it in a 2 liter bottle and slowly dripped it in. This is what makes hyposalinity a PITA treatment to treat ich.

[ataller]

Hmm Ph was a bit low, around 7.9, I also noticed that my ammonia is higher than I thought it would be.

I have been doing small water changes. Looks like those weren't enough.

Did a rather large water change (I have 1.010 water mixed and ready to go). I will do another water change tomorrow morning before work.

Hopefully the dispars live. If i had to guess I am thinking the ammonia is probably the bigger problem than the PH atm. Test shows yellow with a tinge of green now so I am pretty good atm. Hopefully there has been no permanent damage.

If it is ammonia burn, will the gills repair themselves or is the damage irreversible?

Adam

[shifty51008]

isn't hypo supposed to be at 1.009 cause the ich can still survive at 1.010?

[ataller]

Sg is between 1.009 and 1.010, I say 010 bc constant evap tends to keep it a bit higher. Ill try and keep it closer to 009.


Fish die at 008, ich dies at 009, fish die at 010, great.


Dispars still alive this morning but with heavy "breathing". Did another wc. Doesn't look good. All other fish ok.

[sfboarders]

Get some amquel + or prime to keep the ammonia at tolerable levels for your fish.

[ataller]

Bought some prime and dosed it after another wc. One dispar kicked the bucket, the other doesn't look to good.

Hope there isn't something else going on in my QT.

pH is good, salinity good, temp good, no signs of ich anymore....

[ataller]

Holy cr*p......


So this morning both dispars dead, flame jumped out.

Clown and purple tang look like this [not good].






From ich in my tank about 2 weeks ago, to QT for a week, then all of a sudden in 2 days all my fish drop dead?

This fish were healthy, I have had those clowns for three years... What on earth is so virulent that it could do this?

Fish are laying on their sides, is it worth while trying formalin (if I can find some) or will that just kill them quicker?

[sfboarders]

Ah sh!et that sux man. Purple tangs are not cheap! It's my most expensive fish. I'm thinking the ammonia got to them. Your salinity is not that low. I've had mine at 1.007 a couple days when I treated with hypo. What size tank and koralia are you running?

[returnofsid]

Have you checked your ammonia? If you have all these fish in too small of a Qt tank, that didn't go through a complete cycle, you could be having ammonia issues.

Also, 16 days of hyposalinity isn't enough. It should be continued at least 4 weeks, AND at least 2 weeks after ALL visible signs of Ich have disappeared.

You are correct that tank needs to remain fallow for 8 weeks.

[Indymann99]

+1 on the Ammonia... depending on your QT size, that many fish and you could need "daily" waterchanges of 20%..

I use a Ammonia badge to monitor Ammonia in my QT. I also monitor QT water params on a 1-2 day basis... things change fast in a small tank.
I also have my QT covered with eggcrate to prevent jumpers.






Sorry for your losses..

[dwd5813]

hey indymann99, how did you prep your pvc pieces before adding them? i just picked some up for my qt tank and want to clean them up a bit before i add them.

[Indymann99]

I just washed them in hot water and let them dry for a day... I have found that a mix of 1" pieces and 3'' pieces (T's work well) provide different size hiding places.