Something is VERY wrong with my fish

Vivid
Jump to Last
WWC
I don't know. Maybe I will tomorrow. On yet another devasting note, do Bellus angels by any chance sleep on their side? I've never seen one sleep so I don't know if that's normal or I'm losing another one.
 
I think the logical thing to do is use copper in the QT, since that treats both ich & velvet. You'd be covered both ways. Chloroquine phosphate treats all 4 of the external parasites (ich, velvet, brook, uronema), but that requires a vet script which can then be filled at a local pharmacy. Lots of time consuming red tape.
 
Nutramar Foods
The saying "buy cheap, buy twice" sometimes rings out. I don't trust many online places that have high volume and cheap prices. More than likely they don't have the time to treat everything properly. I could name a few but that's just not kosher. You already named a couple but it's through your experiences.

As for you fish, it sounds like you have both ich and velvet and more than likely secondary bacterial infections.

Treatment must be administered quickly and carefully. Sadly it might be too late.

A formalin bath might help knock off the parasites but it's also harsh on the fish. But it's worth a shot, try one fish for now. Do it in a bucket* with proper airstones and clean saltwater.

You should change at least 25% of your Qt water or all of it and start fresh.

Add furan 2 or nitrofurazone if you can find it and combine it with kanamycin. Add the correct amount. And add cupramine in also the correct amount.

This should be an effective cocktail as long as it's not too late. Make sure water stays clean aka ammonia ect... And aerate well.

Best of luck [emoji106]
 
It could also be flukes, at which you can also add prazi pro to the cocktail. It's a lot of meds but they should react ok with each other. Except that prazi might make the copper slightly less effective.
 
Humblefish said:
Velvet trophonts (and the correlating dots) are much smaller than ich. They range in size from 10-80 micrometers in diameter. They are also perfectly round. Ich trophonts are more oval shaped and range in size from 48 x 27 to 452 x 360 micrometers. Both start off small but then grow in size before dropping off. Ich looks more like salt or sugar sprinkles, whereas velvet looks more like a fine dust. This dust may look gold colored if viewed at the right angle and under the right spectrum of light. Ich is always white.

With velvet, key behavioral symptoms will often prelude visible ones. A fish with velvet may breathe heavy, seek relief by swimming into the flow of a powerhead and act reclusive (velvet makes them sensitive to light). You normally won't see any of that with ich, unless it is a heavy infestation.
Click to expand...

I've seen all of those behaviors with ich and velvet - and my most recent infestation of velvet my fish didn't swim in to power heads at all or do any of that!

But generally I concur, you're the fish doc! :D
 
You have brought up a common misnomer - people put fish in qt that are already heavily sick and infested, they die, and people blame qt.

I have tons of very fragile fish in qt for months at a time running a tank fallow twice due to a stupid mishap and everyone is thriving.

If this is not evidence that qt can be done safely and well then I don't know what is. 10 tangs,3 Angels, a butterfly, and several others


lots of fragile fish.

I might also add that these fish came down with ich due to me cross contaminating like an idiot after being treated for 2.5 months (while the tank ran fallow). They're now 1.5 months or so in to their new treatment and tank again running fallow. No issues and that's lots of copper exposure and time in cramped quarters.

The fish in that 55 gal qt go up to 2 weeks between water changes now, it's very much cycled.

And reaching hands in several tanks within seconds of one another, sharing nets, etc. is not smart when you have a qt that is known to be infected with a parasite (I am a real dummy). That's what reinfected my tank.
 
Last edited:
@Breakthecycle2 - please don't be too down. This is a sad experience for you but you can do this! It's confusing and difficult and being afraid to commit to a treatment because it might not be the right one is just so frustrating for you! I know, I've been following along without much help to offer, but here I think I can. Don't give up! Just pick the treatment that will hit most of the possibilities at one time. Copper will treat both velvet and ick, so my gut says to go with that. Again, i'm not much help there. But, I can tell you that no matter how hard and stressful this is, it will get better. The fish you save will have a special place in your heart after this. You'll have learned ALOT about these diseases and be able to help many other people (and their fish) because of this. Try to think about that. This situation sucks, HARD, but in the end you'll be able to help so many people going through the same thing. I hope you don't give up. We are all here for you, whether it's to give advise or to give moral support. I'll be your cheerleader! YOU CAN DO IT! Just breathe for a moment, close your eyes then.... act! Save those fish! I'm rooting for you!

oh and... my angel sleeps in the rocks so I cant tell what it would do without rocks to sleep in. maybe it would sleep on its side?
 
Humblefish said:
I think the logical thing to do is use copper in the QT, since that treats both ich & velvet. You'd be covered both ways. Chloroquine phosphate treats all 4 of the external parasites (ich, velvet, brook, uronema), but that requires a vet script which can then be filled at a local pharmacy. Lots of time consuming red tape.
Click to expand...

My vet said she wouldn't write it for me without "seeing my fish" which is ridiculous. I tried two vets now.
 
3FordFamily said:
My vet said she wouldn't write it for me without "seeing my fish" which is ridiculous. I tried two vets now.
Click to expand...

They are worried about getting fined/losing their license. CP was widely used to control external protozoa in saltwater aquariums back in the 70s & 80s. It was even used in some aquarium medications sold at LFS. At some point the FDA decided to make it a controlled substance and that was the end of that. dang kids trying to snort antimalarial white powder. I'm sure glad big brother put a stop to all that. ;)

I've got one possible lead on obtaining CP online. I've seen a certificate of analysis showing their CP is 99% pure, and the owner has offered to send me a sample to verify with an independent chemist. But he's also admitted his CP is sourced from China and there can be QC issues when obtaining meds from over there. This place also sells everything by the kg, so the only cost effective way to buy would be for a bunch of local reefers to "group buy" from him.
 
Regarding your questions about hypo curing Velvet and Velvet causing a cloudy body...

Google Marine Velvet treatments and you will see that they say hypo is not a cure. A lot of scientific research has gone into this sort of thing (for a variety of reasons). They also all describe it as causing a "dusting" look. It does kinda give a velvety, fuzzy, dusty look. Super tiny spots and usually lots, really close together. Nothing at all like Ich, which to me looks like pimples the size of a grain of sand and are usually spaced a bit more apart.

IMO, copper covers the bases between the two. If I were unsure, that is the route I would take. If it were just Ich, I prefer hypo (even though I know there is a slight chance of it being the resistant strain).

It is frustrating, but hang in there. I think many of us have had those moments where we were ready to throw in the towel, but I personally feel that the long term benefit outweighs these temporary setbacks.
 
Two deaths in QT. The wrasse which I knew and I stupidly forgot to cover the stupid tank and the diamond goby jumped. Last night my Bellus was completely sideways on the bottom. A little while ago, she was swimming normally. Very strange. I haven't seen all the remaining fish in my DT tank yet as the lights aren't on. I see two right now. I only have one piece of PVC in the QT tank. Maybe I should get some more.
 
Most likely if a fish is acting differently than they typically act, they are ill. Hopefully you can save a decent amount of fish. My tank became infected with Brooklynella and the only way I found to get rid of it was through freshwater baths and mixing General Cure into the food to hopefully provide defense against secondary infection. Only lost the kole tang that had the initial infection. Nearly lost my clownfish, but the freshwater baths worked. Not sure that will help with Velvet though. The freshwater baths only kill the external parasites.
 
Avast
Now another issue. The temp in QT is down to 71 degrees. I had a mishap yesterday. The container I put the fish in from the original QT (was a 20g then I bought a 40 breeder to accommodate more fish), broke when I went to dump the water into the new QT tank ( after I had put the fish in) all over my dang floor. I sucked most of it up with a wet vac and put a fan on to dry up the rest. It's almost dry, but it drastically cooled down the QT. The fish all seem to be eating. I just fed Reef Frenzy. The tang seems to be the only one not eating. I did put a little Nori in the other day and I saw him picking on it then. He doesn't seem to have a visible signs of anything anymore. The weirdest part is, as I previously mentioned, the angel laying down on his side and now "appears" to be fine.
 
Alright, well Mr. Saltwater (the you tube guy) is relatively sure it's ICH. He recommends keeping the copper treatment going, removing the coral from DT and doing Hypo.
 
Maybe the Angel thing is stress related? I just added a Lyretail Hogfish to my DT. When I took it out of QT and put it into the bucket, it laid down sideways for the entire time I acclimated it. I put it into the tank and the current blew it against a rock, where it stayed motionless for hours. I went to sleep expecting it to be dead the next morning and when I woke up, it was out swimming with all the other fish.
 
Deltec
Regarding the hypo and fallow DT...I did that with mine and was told to watch for a cycle when the water is brought back up to normal salinity. Something about the bacteria either going dormant or dying (I heard conflicting stories on what really happens in hypo).

In my situation, I dosed ammonia and it took a couple days to get down to zero. Faster than an uncycled tank, but not the normal 24 hours. I had no survivors, so I just added a fish at a time and it never registered any ammonia.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
See comments…

New Posts

Reef-Mart
Chewy.com
Top Shelf Aquatics
Dinkins Aquatic Gardens
Nutramar Foods
Tidal Gardens
TCK Corals
World Wide Corals
Deltec
New Posts
Back
Top