Kole Tang losing it's color

ltrace · Feb 13, 2017

I'm in day 5 of 76days of QT. I have 9 small fish in a 50 gal QT with CP and GC in it. All fish look well except the Kole Tang looks to be losing it's color. Blotchy spots on both side and fins are losing their color on the tips. Constantly swims or hide because the Yellow Tang bully's him. Hard to get good pics of it. It's not eating much. Plan on doing a 15 gal water change because ammonia alert badge signals alert. After doing the water change how much CP and GC should I put back in the QT?

melypr1985 · Feb 13, 2017

ltrace said:
I'm in day 5 of 76days of QT. I have 9 small fish in a 50 gal QT with CP and GC in it. All fish look well except the Kole Tang looks to be losing it's color. Blotchy spots on both side and fins are losing their color on the tips. Constantly swims or hide because the Yellow Tang bully's him. Hard to get good pics of it. It's not eating much. Plan on doing a 15 gal water change because ammonia alert badge signals alert. After doing the water change how much CP and GC should I put back in the QT?

The splotchiness could be from flukes or spots of infection popping up. I would keep going for now, but if it gets worse then you'll need to add in an antibiotic.

ltrace · Feb 13, 2017

Would I add 3 x 40mg of CP and a 2nd shot of GC

Humblefish · Feb 13, 2017

@ltrace So long as the fish get 24 hrs exposure time to the GC, I wouldn't worry about replenishing it.

But for the CP you'll want to dose any replacement water before adding it back to the QT. So the therapeutic level remains constant at all times. So, for a 15 gal WC you'd want to add back 600 mg of CP.

ltrace · Feb 13, 2017

Thank you

ltrace · Feb 16, 2017

melypr1985 said:
I would keep going for now, but if it gets worse then you'll need to add in an antibiotic.

I started with CP and GC. Did a 15 gal water change and brought the CP back up to therapeutic level. The Kole Tang seems to be getting worse. Losing more of its color. Royal Gramma has gone into hiding continuously. I Have access to Prazipro, Formalin or Amoxicillin for an antibiotic. Is one better than the other?

Humblefish · Feb 16, 2017

ltrace said:
I started with CP and GC. Did a 15 gal water change and brought the CP back up to therapeutic level. The Kole Tang seems to be getting worse. Losing more of its color. Royal Gramma has gone into hiding continuously. I Have access to Prazipro, Formalin or Amoxicillin for an antibiotic. Is one better than the other?

Where did you get your CP from?

ltrace · Feb 16, 2017

Diamondback Drugs. Scottsdale, AZ

Breakthecycle2 · Feb 16, 2017

ltrace said:
Diamondback Drugs. Scottsdale, AZ

With or without a prescription?

Humblefish · Feb 16, 2017

ltrace said:
Diamondback Drugs. Scottsdale, AZ

Can you post some recent clearer pics of the Kole Tang? Maybe we will see something wrong which neither CP or GC addresses.

ltrace · Feb 17, 2017

Ammonia very high. Seachem ammonia did not detect the ammonia in the QT. Did a 50% water change yesterday and will do a 30% today. Pics of current condition of the Kole and Royal Gramma.

Humblefish · Feb 17, 2017

@ltrace How are you reading ammonia? Via the alert badge or a test kit? The latter doesn't work in the presence of copper, while the former still does.

However, you must shine a bright white light either directly overhead or behind the ammonia alert badge to see its true reading.

ltrace · Feb 17, 2017

I use was reading the alert badge but didn't detect any ammonia so I tested it with API test kit. With the test kit ammonia was a 1.0ppm. Does CP or GC have copper in them? That's what I have been using. Thank you for the information about getting the true reading on the alert badge

Humblefish · Feb 17, 2017

ltrace said:
Does CP or GC have copper in them? That's what I have been using. Thank you for the information about getting the true reading on the alert badge

Ahh, that's right - you are treating with CP + GC. Too much going on today...

I've never had a false positive for ammonia whilst using CP, but I cannot say for sure if prazi or metro (active ingredients found in GC) will throw off an ammonia reading.

ltrace · Feb 17, 2017

I did shine a bright light behind the alert badge and it did read safe. Tested the same time with API and it reads above .50ppm

melypr1985 · Feb 18, 2017

Even if you are getting a false positive on the ammonia test, it never hurts to do a water change. You might have a bad ammonia badge. It does happen on occasion.... maybe get a new one and see if that one works better for you.

mcpeachy · May 8, 2019

Humblefish said:
@ltrace How are you reading ammonia? Via the alert badge or a test kit? The latter doesn't work in the presence of copper, while the former still does.

However, you must shine a bright white light either directly overhead or behind the ammonia alert badge to see its true reading.

you need to shine a light on the ammonia badge??? i didn't know this!