Something is VERY wrong with my fish

Humblefish · Aug 12, 2015

Since there has been so much discussion about velvet in this thread, I thought I would throw out a couple of useful links on the subject.

This one is easy to understand and was really ahead of it's time (was written 7-8 years ago): http://www.ultimatereef.com/articles/marinevelvet/

The two below links are more recent & scientifically based info:

http://agrilife.org/fisheries/files/2013/09/Amyloodinium-Infections-of-Marine-Fish.pdf

http://agrilife.org/fisheries/files...mportant-Parasite-of-Cultured-Marine-Fish.pdf

I took this quote from the second link above:

Freshwater dips are effective in killing free-swimming stages of amyloodinium; however, since encysted stages are protected, a single freshwater dip is not an effective treatment. Decreasing the salinity in a system has been suggested as a method for controlling amyloodinium epizootics, but because the organism flourishes in brackish water, the effectiveness of this strategy is doubtful.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 12, 2015

Fish in DT with no symptoms as of this writing: Lunatus, Lanceolatus CF, Golden Pygmy Angel and Dracula Goby (which I already thought was dead). My Hooded wrasse is not out.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 12, 2015

My LFS suggested I lower my salinity to anywhere between 1.018-1.020. Would this help in my display?

Lynn52 · Aug 12, 2015

No to have an effect on ich it has to be kept at 1.008 - 1.009.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 12, 2015

But not according to this:

http://www.ultimatereef.com/articles/whitespot/index.htm

kschweer · Aug 12, 2015

Lynn52 said:
No to have an effect on ich it has to be kept at 1.008 - 1.009.

Agreed. I would say 1.010 is the highest you would want to be when doing hypo.

kschweer · Aug 12, 2015

The ideal thing for you to do in my opinion would be to remove all fish from your display and treat in at/hospital tank or tanks and let your display sit fallow for 8-10 weeks before adding anything back to it.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 12, 2015

kschweer said:
The ideal thing for you to do in my opinion would be to remove all fish from your display and treat in at/hospital tank or tanks and let your display sit fallow for 8-10 weeks before adding anything back to it.

I understand that, but I cannot catch the remaining fish. I have tried and tried.

kschweer · Aug 12, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
I understand that, but I cannot catch the remaining fish. I have tried and tried.

It can be tough to catch some fish I know that from experience. Have you thought of trying a fish trap? You can buy one or make a simple homemade one from a water or soda bottle.

NeuroticAquatics · Aug 12, 2015

I have always done 1.010, but have seen 1.009 used here more. If it is Ich, then that should kill it off. If it is MV, then it won't. I think you will know soon, as MV will kill fish quickly. If all the DT fish are okay after several days, I would lean more towards it being something else.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 12, 2015

Are wrasses sensitive to copper? I put another one in QT yesterday, really because I was able to catch him, no signs of anything and now he's just laying at the bottom in stress colors. I tested the copper today and it is .10.

Humblefish · Aug 12, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
Are wrasses sensitive to copper? I put another one in QT yesterday, really because I was able to catch him, no signs of anything and now he's just laying at the bottom in stress colors. I tested the copper today and it is .10.

IME; wrasses are sensitive to just about every medication, even Prazipro. I usually TTM them. But 0.10 shouldn't be having that great of an effect.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 12, 2015

Humblefish said:
IME; wrasses are sensitive to just about every medication, even Prazipro. I usually TTM them. But 0.10 shouldn't be having that great of an effect.

Would dropping salinity down to 1.019 have any effect on ICH?

Humblefish · Aug 12, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
Would dropping salinity down to 1.019 have any effect on ICH?

No; you'd have to drop it down to 1.009 for ich.

4FordFamily · Aug 12, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
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 **** 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.

Make sure you remove excess uneaten nori every evening or it will foul water quickly.

4FordFamily · Aug 12, 2015

NeuroticAquatics said:
I have always done 1.010, but have seen 1.009 used here more. If it is Ich, then that should kill it off. If it is MV, then it won't. I think you will know soon, as MV will kill fish quickly. If all the DT fish are okay after several days, I would lean more towards it being something else.

I've had 100% certain strains of velvet take weeks to kill fish. Classic velvety symptoms. Depends on fish. My fish were all resistant to ich, that probably helped.

4FordFamily · Aug 12, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
Would dropping salinity down to 1.019 have any effect on ICH?

Don't do hypo and copper, it's known to make copper more toxic.

Keep salinity within normal ranges (around 1.023) for fhe duration of copper treatment.

What test kit are you using?

With cupramine, only seachem's test kit (seachem's makes cupramine) and salifert register properly. Api and many others I've used were virtually worthless.

I also see that salifert registers about 5-10% higher than seachem's kit. Not sure if that's normal experience but I've done both about a dozen times with the same results and following the directions flawlessly.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 13, 2015

I was going to drop the salinity in my DT to help with the fish in there.

Lynn52 · Aug 13, 2015

Unless you take it all the way down to 1.009, keep it there for at least a month (needs to be measured with a freshly calibrated refractometer, if it is just a little too high it won't work) and your fish have ich it won't help anything.