Fallow failed
- Thread starter beginnerreefer04
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EricR
2500 Club Member
The fish then would be first suspect (to me).
Meaning,,, did you treat fish (in separate QT) with some active infection/parasite and were convinced they were "cured" of that?
...or did you add new fish to your tank that had gone through 90+ day fallow period?
EDIT -- I only mentioned "90+ day fallow" based on my reading of OP "13 weeks of fallow"
Meaning,,, did you treat fish (in separate QT) with some active infection/parasite and were convinced they were "cured" of that?
...or did you add new fish to your tank that had gone through 90+ day fallow period?
EDIT -- I only mentioned "90+ day fallow" based on my reading of OP "13 weeks of fallow"
beginnerreefer04
Active Member
Yes had an ich outbreak in display tank removed all fish and rock and let the rock air dry for multiple days put the fish in quarantine tanks treated with copper for 4 week and went fallow in display tank for 13 weeks with temp raised to 83. Fish were stressed from quarentine tanks being small but showed zero signs of ich no spots no Itching nothing. within 3 hours of adding fish back into display tank fire fish are scratching on the sand bed again. I will not be quarantining again and instead will let it run its course call me what you want but for my own mental sanity and financial stability quarantine and fallow again is not an option
EricR
2500 Club Member
I hope my post didn't come across as if I was judging in any way,,, because that was not my intention.
Beyond that, my reading of your synopsis sounds like you covered your bases pretty well -- I have questions but will bow out so as to not offend further.
There are people on here who are very adept at diagnosing fish issues but I do NOT claim to be one so my suggestion would be to post pictures and 20+ second video of current situation so the experts can assist.
beginnerreefer04
Active Member
Cupramine yes checked with Hanna checker consistently even tho it’s crap and the readings vary wildly when testing back to back. Would get a test of .4 would add cupramine get a test of .3 test again without adding get a result of .45 test again .35 wildly inaccurate tester yet the only on the market. Quarantine tank was down stairs display tank is upstairs in my room worked very religiously to not cross contaminate
beginnerreefer04
Active Member
No you did no come across as offensive it’s been a very long 3 months and to see ich symptoms within hours of reintroduction was soul crushing. I love these fish but the constant problems drives me nuts to the point of wanting to tear down the tank entirely but it will crush my girlfriend if I do that. In the time I’ve had this take set up I’ve gotten ich dinos cyano vermitide snails hair algae and more it’s like every month I have to spend 2-300 dollars on some treatment for some out break. I just don’t understand every coral gets dipped all inverts get rinsed fish are all quarantined yet every problem in the book hits me back to back to back. I’m just lost and losing motivation if my response sounded like I was retaliating that is my fault and I am sorry
Tcook
2500 Club Member
Scratching is certainly a sign of flukes for which we recommend treatment with Praziquantel, but not always a sign of ich. Did the white spots reappear on the fish when you moved them back?
Photos under white light will be useful to confirm diagnosis.
The variation you received when testing the copper concentration is of concern to me. I have not had that difficulty with the Hanna Copper checker. If the concentration truly dropped as low as .35, the cupramine treatment may very well not have worked.
Some have had problems with not completely rinsing the test tubes between tests, and some have experienced difficult adding all of the powder reagent into the test tube consistently. Also, check the expiration date of the reagent packets.
Photos under white light will be useful to confirm diagnosis.
The variation you received when testing the copper concentration is of concern to me. I have not had that difficulty with the Hanna Copper checker. If the concentration truly dropped as low as .35, the cupramine treatment may very well not have worked.
Some have had problems with not completely rinsing the test tubes between tests, and some have experienced difficult adding all of the powder reagent into the test tube consistently. Also, check the expiration date of the reagent packets.
DaJMasta
Well-Known Member
Ich wouldn't reinfect that quickly, and if you're not seeing the white spots, maybe it's not actually ich.
Some wrasses and I've seen firefish have a behavior where they sort of quickly brush their side on the sand bed intentionally - I've seen it basically as a sign of territorial aggression/claiming.
Some wrasses and I've seen firefish have a behavior where they sort of quickly brush their side on the sand bed intentionally - I've seen it basically as a sign of territorial aggression/claiming.
beginnerreefer04
Active Member
My testing procedure starting from a dirty tube is. rinse with tap water a few times, rinse with rodi, rinse dry clean tube with tank water, dispose of tank water, shake dry, fill with 10ml tank water. Took extreme care getting powder out of packet. Also have Hanna po4 checker and have been dealing with their packets for a while no issues with that tester
beginnerreefer04
Active Member
Thankfully on day two I have not seen any itching behavior. No spots I want to say it was my fire fish being weirdos. Only way I could imagine it being ich is if copper treatment failed and the itch was dormant and the stress of transferring back into display tank allowed it to take hold again
beginnerreefer04
Active Member
Also cupramine levels stayed at a lowest of .4 in tank the majority of my testing irregularities happened while trying to mix new water as I wasn’t able to mix it all at once since I had multiple quarantine tanks running at the same time and no place to store enough water to last the entire treatment
Yang’s Blue Paradise
Well-Known Member
Personally I’m doing ich management with running a UV and feeding salon soaked food. Keeping the fish healthy won’t be an issue. I plan on ordering quarantined fish so I don’t get more of the nasty disease
DaJMasta
Well-Known Member
If it was only your firefish showing it, that is just territorial aggression and both likely won't persist long and isn't disease related. It's a very aggressive (quick, snappy movement) looking behavior done only when the other fish is in sight. It sounds like you've got more than one, and my two have done this before in vying for being in charge.
So, sounds like maybe the first day back in DT had some false alarms but fish are looking ok at the moment?
I'm still concerned about your experience with copper testing. The variations you had are not normal without some external variable interference. One other possibility is that when you added copper to the tank, it did not disperse evenly in the tank before you took another sample, or, again, maybe bad reagent. Hopefully, everything is ok now and you will not need to retrace your steps.
