Emergency! Fish with patches help

[starypotter]

I got a midas blenny Saturday
He looks like this today. HELP Laying on his side. Another fish I got is emaciated and i'm trying to get him to eat please tell me how to help him. Checking levels and everything now

 

[Crabs McJones]

Parameters would be a good start also any medications you're dosing. And how much surface agitation do you have? And other tank mates

 

[Antics]

Hard for me to tell from that photo but I have a healthy Midas that is a few years old who can change his pigment pretty significantly when irritated/stressed.

 

[starypotter]

He's got brown patches and is laying on his side panting. I'm workin on the water and will update with everything accordingly

 

[Antics]

He's got brown patches and is laying on his side panting. I'm workin on the water and will update with everything accordingly

How is the water oxygenated? Powerhead? Airstone? HOB filter?

 

[starypotter]

Lips are white, just increased bubbler to high. Water was 82, working on cooling it. No tank mates.

 

[Crabs McJones]

How is the water oxygenated? Powerhead? Airstone? HOB filter?

I see you and I are on the same page

 

[starypotter]

1.028 SG, Ammonia was sky high, didn't wait for the final result. Added prime and started doing a water change, same parameters as my DT. He's only been in that container a day I didn't even think the ammonia could get that high that fast.
Using an airstone.

 

[Crabs McJones]

1.028 SG, Ammonia was sky high, didn't wait for the final result. Added prime and started doing a water change, same parameters as my DT. He's only been in that container a day I didn't even think the ammonia could get that high that fast.
Using an airstone.

Did you cycle the tank at all? Ammonia in any amount is very toxic to fish. Are you using ro/di water or tap? And how are you topping off. 1.028 is very high

 

[starypotter]

Did you cycle the tank at all? Ammonia in any amount is very toxic to fish. Are you using ro/di water or tap? And how are you topping off. 1.028 is very high

RODI, it's day 2 of TTM meaning he went in yesterday. He'd been eating perfectly this whole time so was going to start that method. , never had a single problem until now so I started TTM.

 

[Antics]

How big is the container? I always use big rubbermaid totes for TTM so I've never had ammonia issues but I suppose if you're using something small enough one fish will quickly cause a large enough spike for it to be a problem?

 

[starypotter]

How big is the container? I always use big rubbermaid totes for TTM so I've never had ammonia issues but I suppose if you're using something small enough one fish will quickly cause a large enough spike for it to be a problem?

It's only got a gallon, I saw someone online who used smaller containers and frequent changes to handle the TTM. Something like this, it was a sort of university study thing and another person who did it by using floating buckets in a larger bucket so I did this. I clearly did not understand how much ammonia one fish could create in such a short time. And I saw another person who used smaller containers floated in a big heated thing of water so you don't need many containers or a room at the right temperature. This was the setup I came up with.



I now see that it's just not enough water so I think I will just fill the big buckets with water and use those to TTM and add lots more PVC for everyone.

 

[HotRocks]

@starypotter is this the same fish you were discussing in another thread earlier?

If so, keeping any fish in 1 gallon of water is likely going to end in ammonia exposure.

 

[starypotter]

@starypotter is this the same fish you were discussing in another thread earlier?

If so, keeping any fish in 1 gallon of water is likely going to end in ammonia exposure.

It's not actually the same fish, but between both of these issues I'm going to be making big changes. The other issue I was discussing earlier was because the fish I got was emaciated and not eating. This is a fish that was eating like a pro from the time I started acclimating them. I saw a few things online that led me to believe that they would be okay in that body of water for whatever time they needed since it's only a short time before they're transferred. I severely underestimated the amount of ammonia produced by a fish in a day. I have added prime to all containers for the time being until I can go through and do water changes on them all.

 

[starypotter]

I'll be taking water from DT, it's on a precautionary 76 day fallow because of some corals that I bought, but I figure it's better to get the fish out of there quickly than to worry about some possible parasite which I'll be treating for anyway at this point. Fallow would be up for those corals on September 7th anyway so at least it's past the 45 day mark. The parameters are close and it's better than the ice cold salt water I've had mixing that would take ages. I already used it to do partial water changes on several containers. The fish in question for the purpose of this thread is already starting to look a lot less like a rotten potato. Still looks like a rotten potato, but only a month rotten as opposed to a year.

 

[HotRocks]

It's not actually the same fish, but between both of these issues I'm going to be making big changes. The other issue I was discussing earlier was because the fish I got was emaciated and not eating. This is a fish that was eating like a pro from the time I started acclimating them. I saw a few things online that led me to believe that they would be okay in that body of water for whatever time they needed since it's only a short time before they're transferred. I severely underestimated the amount of ammonia produced by a fish in a day. I have added prime to all containers for the time being until I can go through and do water changes on them all.

It can also be from overfeeding, when feeding you only want to put enough food in there the fish can consume all food in 1-3 minutes. Any laying around food will just create issues for water quality as well.

 

[starypotter]

It can also be from overfeeding, when feeding you only want to put enough food in there the fish can consume all food in 1-3 minutes. Any laying around food will just create issues for water quality as well.

Oh this thing did not leave any food laying around! It took him a minute or two sometimes because he was scared, but I've been using a baster to take out any uneaten food and this guy hardly had any. He's been eating like a pig since I brought him home. I probably overfed him because of that and since I have another fish that's starving to death, but I still couldn't imagine it being so drastic in terms of ammonia.

 

[Humblefish]

The smallest I would go is 5 gallon buckets for doing TTM. And really, it's not that much work to break down/setup a 10 gallon aquarium every 3 days provided you keep it simple. If saving on water/salt is an issue, one can use water stored from a recent display tank water change to implement TTM. Obviously, this only works if you are 100% confident that your display tank is disease free and don't siphon anything off the bottom.

 

[starypotter]

The smallest I would go is 5 gallon buckets for doing TTM. And really, it's not that much work to break down/setup a 10 gallon aquarium every 3 days provided you keep it simple.

I'm going to be using the two 15 gallon totes I have, I didn't want to do the 10 gallon because I was worried about space issues with the amount of fish I had and their compatibility since I have some that they say will be fine with each other provided there's enough room in my 75, but I worried that the 10 would be too small and I thought this would be a good way to be able to monitor them each in their own and make sure none fight. The container has a decent footprint and I'll just make sure to load it up with PVC.

 

[Maritimer]

Hey, Starypotter!

Based entirely on the photo you provided, I think you might be able to relax a bit. I've got a Midas as well, and when he's frightened by something, he takes on that very same overlay of brown "camouflage" pigment. These guys can change their color quite a bit - almost like a foxface.

Keep up with the testing, the water changes, the doing-it-the-best-you-know-how, and feel free to keep asking questions!

~Bruce