Hospital Tank - What am I doing wrong?

[EntitledSushi]

I have had a yellow tang in a hospital tank for over a month. I bought him from a local store and put him in the DT. A couple days later he showed white spots that looked like ich. I set up a HT and treated him with Paraguard for a few days. Spots disappeared and he looked great. Wisdom on the forum said to leave him in the HT for 72 days to make sure they are gone and to protect the other fish in the DT. Fine, so I started treating him preventatively with Cupramine in the HT. Over a week he went from great to bad, not eating and not swimming (but no spots). I stopped the Cupramine and did basically a 100% water change. Added Garlic to his food and in a couple days he was back to awesome. Still planned to leave him the in HT for 72 days per forum advice.

About a week later he started turning red. On his face and gills, red lines on his fins, and a long red line from front to back almost like you could see his veins. Research suggests red indicates a bacterial infection. Started treating with Kanaplex a week ago. No improvement in the redness. He is getting worse, not eating and swimming much.

I tested the water in the HT today. Shows ammonia at 1 ppm and nitrite at 0.25 ppm. I've been doing regular water changes, but of course I can't have carbon or live rock in the HT due to the medicine. I'm not sure what else I can possibly due to control ammonia and nitrite other than frequent water changes. I'm afraid the water is killing him, maybe it is not even a bacterial infection at all. And he certainly doesn't look happy in his little 10 gallon hospital tank.

I'm considering just putting him back in the DT and hoping for the best. It would be tragic if my attempts at hospital treatment killed him. any advice?

 

[ZoWhat]

Some new fish you buy are just "lemons".....thats why its important to have a trusted LFS thst will give you straight answers to:

- how long have you had this fish in stock?
- what products to you treat your fish system with? What medicines?
- can i see it eat?

What I'm saying is all we can do is hope for the best. Its up to the fish if it wants to live in our artificial environment.

Sounds like your Yellow had a disease from the start. You've done all that you can. I say keep in QT so it doesn't wipe out your other fish. The Yellow is gonna come around or croak. Its up to the Yellow

Provide stability in the QT and do a lot of Hoping

 

[Uncle99]

Sounds like the YT is suffering from Ammonia Toxicity.
The 72 days is for the DT, fish recover within 30 days in general terms.
Using cupramine, 4-8 days spots usually gone, go 21 days beyond last spot seen, 7 days in normal salinity water.

I run my HT at 1.018-1.020.

Water changes, vacuuming up bottom, maybe some Ammo-rid or like product to detoxify.

 

[SantaMonica]

No mention of your tap water quality. You might try to find water conditioning drops, that say they are suitable for saltwater.

 

[JCTReefer]

My preffered copper treatment is copper power “Chelated copper“. Maintained at a level of 2.0ppm to 2.3ppm. Verified with a Hanna copper checker. And ramped up to that level over a few days. The Hanna checker is a blessing. Cupramine “ionice copper” seems to be less tolerated by a lot of fish and is easier to overdose. Not saying that’s what caused the issues. Copper is a nasty poison. Chelated copper also stays in the water column. No need to keep dosing to maintain therapeutic levels. A lot of fish will come down with bacterial infections if left in copper too long. That’s why after two weeks at therapeutic levels, I transfer to a sterile, freshly set up Qt. Then observe for two weeks after that while treating with 2 rounds of General Cure. Of course if you don’t have a second quarantine tank you have to treat the full 30 days in copper. Prime, an Ammonia neautrlizer is also safe to use with Copper Power.
Using ammonia binders with Ionic copper can increase copper levels to deadly amounts.
I think one of the biggest advantages chelated copper has over ionic is the wider therapeutic range. It’s also Easier to maintain.
0.4 - 0.5 with Cupramine “ionic copper” doesn't allow much room for error. Now there are some species that seem to tolerate cupramine better than chelated. You say you’re using Kanaplex. Most antibiotics only remain active in water for 24-48 hrs. Do you have any bottled bacteria on hand like Biospira? You could try and reseed the biofilter, but it might be difficult with meds in the water. My Yellow tang before last didn’t make it in quarantine. And that was after a freshwater dip to check for flukes. Some fish just don’t make it. I hope yours pulls through though!!!!!

 

[JCTReefer]

No mention of your tap water quality. You might try to find water conditioning drops, that say they are suitable for saltwater.

I hope the OP isn’t using tap water! Lol

 

[EntitledSushi]

No mention of your tap water quality. You might try to find water conditioning drops, that say they are suitable for saltwater.

It is the same RODI water I use for the main tank, so I don't think that is the source of the problem. Will try the water conditioning drops though.

 

[EntitledSushi]

My preffered copper treatment is copper power “Chelated copper“. Maintained at a level of 2.0ppm to 2.3ppm. Verified with a Hanna copper checker. And ramped up to that level over a few days. The Hanna checker is a blessing. Cupramine “ionice copper” seems to be less tolerated by a lot of fish and is easier to overdose. Not saying that’s what caused the issues. Copper is a nasty poison. Chelated copper also stays in the water column. No need to keep dosing to maintain therapeutic levels. A lot of fish will come down with bacterial infections if left in copper too long. That’s why after two weeks at therapeutic levels, I transfer to a sterile, freshly set up Qt. Then observe for two weeks after that while treating with 2 rounds of General Cure. Of course if you don’t have a second quarantine tank you have to treat the full 30 days in copper. Prime, an Ammonia neautrlizer is also safe to use with Copper Power.
Using ammonia binders with Ionic copper can increase copper levels to deadly amounts.
I think one of the biggest advantages chelated copper has over ionic is the wider therapeutic range. It’s also Easier to maintain.
0.4 - 0.5 with Cupramine “ionic copper” doesn't allow much room for error. Now there are some species that seem to tolerate cupramine better than chelated. You say you’re using Kanaplex. Most antibiotics only remain active in water for 24-48 hrs. Do you have any bottled bacteria on hand like Biospira? You could try and reseed the biofilter, but it might be difficult with meds in the water. My Yellow tang before last didn’t make it in quarantine. And that was after a freshwater dip to check for flukes. Some fish just don’t make it. I hope yours pulls through though!!!!!

Thanks for the advice on the chelated copper. I will go that route next time. I bought a Hanna copper checker just for this occasion and I did try to keep the Cupramine at the recommended level, but it really seemed to me like Yellow Tang was going south quickly at that level. I can see how transferring him into a 2nd sterile hospital tank at that time would have been good, but that wasn't an option for me.

There's no copper in the water now so I assume adding an ammonia neutralizer is OK. I do have Biospira or something similar, but I had assumed using Biospira plus an antibacterial medication was kind of pointless. Just got some Furan-2; thinking of switching to that.

 

[DSEKULA]

Sounds like your generally doing things right. Along with using chleated copper you may want to get an ammonia alert on that tank to help keep an eye. You can culture a sponge in your main tank (at least 2 weeks ime) and use a sponge filter in the quarentine tank. Copper may take out some of the bacteria but just a plain sponge won't have negative effects and seems to keep ammonia at Bay for me. I buy sheets of sponge for this purpose and just cut down what I need and always have a few ready and cheap enough to toss as their used with meds etc.