Background:
So I live near Toronto, Canada and have been reefing for 3 years now. I recently lost an ocellaris clown, a coral beauty, a Mandarin along with the new introduction that brought the disease in (black ocellaris). All those fishes along with the survivor, a yellow tang, have been in my tank for two years plus except for the black clown.
I pulled my yellow tang into a qt now and started hyposalinity on him and he is not showing any more signs of ich or behavioural symptoms.
What was the disease?
I couldn't tell exactly, the yellow tang definitely had ich (countable white spots) and the clowns and mandarin didn't seem to have the white spots - coral beauty was in the sump when he died so I couldn't even tell he was sick before I discovered a dead fish.
I saw minor white patches on the clowns.
Maybe it was Brook? Velvet?
What is my current plan?
Tank will run fallow for 80 days and will be disease free by the end of this.
The qt tank is at hypo now and I plan to keep it the same way for 30 days, observing the tang. Then bring up the salinity slowly and observe again to see if the regular salinity brings the disease back somehow
I can't get prazipro or CP here. Heck, I can't even get copper.
The future plan
Here is my plan for the future and it's based on the following understanding and my situation constraints:
1. Prophylactic treatment is the highest possibility of success but it's not 100%
2. Low resources, time and equipment requirements. Full time job, young baby and not having a lot of space at home takes me to this point.
3. Availability of drugs - nothing is available here except for diy copper.
4. My personal confidence in myself for doing treatments
5. My DT size (75gallons) so I'll have maybe 5 or 6 introductions then it'll be fully stocked.
The above list rules out TTM and humblefish's standard method of copper+API general cure.
My future plan is to practice the following steps:
1. Bring fish back from stores or sellers
2. Immediately drop into hyposalinity and observe for 30days
3. Raise salinity and check for behaviourals for another 14 days
4. Introduce to DT and hope for the best
If the fish shows any symptoms during the time, then I treat with my precious bottle of copper power... Hopefully hydrogen peroxide can be our next gen fish treatment approach!
I hope that with only a few introductions, I can get lucky with this non-intrusive approach to qt.
Here's where I need you guys for your expert advise:
1. Do fish generally show signs and symptoms when they carry something? I.e. observation QT - does it work? And how long can they go without showing symptoms?
2. Does hypo suppress issues? In that case, should I increase the time in normal salinity for observation?
3. Any advise or additions I can add to my plan to increase my chances of success, given the constraints I listed above?
Thank you so much for all your help and bringing the scientific research into this hobby instead of the traditional "my LFS guy says..." practices!
So I live near Toronto, Canada and have been reefing for 3 years now. I recently lost an ocellaris clown, a coral beauty, a Mandarin along with the new introduction that brought the disease in (black ocellaris). All those fishes along with the survivor, a yellow tang, have been in my tank for two years plus except for the black clown.
I pulled my yellow tang into a qt now and started hyposalinity on him and he is not showing any more signs of ich or behavioural symptoms.
What was the disease?
I couldn't tell exactly, the yellow tang definitely had ich (countable white spots) and the clowns and mandarin didn't seem to have the white spots - coral beauty was in the sump when he died so I couldn't even tell he was sick before I discovered a dead fish.
I saw minor white patches on the clowns.
Maybe it was Brook? Velvet?
What is my current plan?
Tank will run fallow for 80 days and will be disease free by the end of this.
The qt tank is at hypo now and I plan to keep it the same way for 30 days, observing the tang. Then bring up the salinity slowly and observe again to see if the regular salinity brings the disease back somehow
I can't get prazipro or CP here. Heck, I can't even get copper.
The future plan
Here is my plan for the future and it's based on the following understanding and my situation constraints:
1. Prophylactic treatment is the highest possibility of success but it's not 100%
2. Low resources, time and equipment requirements. Full time job, young baby and not having a lot of space at home takes me to this point.
3. Availability of drugs - nothing is available here except for diy copper.
4. My personal confidence in myself for doing treatments
5. My DT size (75gallons) so I'll have maybe 5 or 6 introductions then it'll be fully stocked.
The above list rules out TTM and humblefish's standard method of copper+API general cure.
My future plan is to practice the following steps:
1. Bring fish back from stores or sellers
2. Immediately drop into hyposalinity and observe for 30days
3. Raise salinity and check for behaviourals for another 14 days
4. Introduce to DT and hope for the best
If the fish shows any symptoms during the time, then I treat with my precious bottle of copper power... Hopefully hydrogen peroxide can be our next gen fish treatment approach!
I hope that with only a few introductions, I can get lucky with this non-intrusive approach to qt.
Here's where I need you guys for your expert advise:
1. Do fish generally show signs and symptoms when they carry something? I.e. observation QT - does it work? And how long can they go without showing symptoms?
2. Does hypo suppress issues? In that case, should I increase the time in normal salinity for observation?
3. Any advise or additions I can add to my plan to increase my chances of success, given the constraints I listed above?
Thank you so much for all your help and bringing the scientific research into this hobby instead of the traditional "my LFS guy says..." practices!
