Are my fish sick and if so, what is it??

[alabella1]

Hey guys, QT question. If a fish that I just picked up has been being treated with Prazi for the last five days, should I start him on the normal cycle with copper ore should I reverse the order and continue current treatment and then do copper afterwards.

#fishmedic

 

[Sharkbait19]

Generally it’s advised to start with copper, as the illnesses it treats kill much faster than flukes would.

 

[alabella1]

This couldn't possibly be happening again. Please tell me it's not happening again. Not just 4 months into my new tank going live. I was so careful. I quarantined everything and the things that came pre QT'd I kept in observation for a few weeks before adding. I got a couple fish looking dusty. The sailfin went through the FULL QT protocol as did the white tail, tomini, purple. My gold nugget wrasse, maroon clowns and pajama cardinal all look ok as do my dottybacks. It's really just the sailfin and trigger I'm worried about. Now the inside glass looks dusty as do my vortechs so not sure. I've been lights out from day one. I just turned on the lights for a few minutes today to check things out and saw my sailfin looking dusty so i started checking everyone. I noticed the cleaner wrasse as been spending a lot more time around the tangs lately so I got suspicious. Here are some pix

#fishmedics

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Sorry to hear.

Are the fish breathing normally and still eating? If so, this is ich. It is pretty advanced, so has been cooking for some time.

To be honest, I can’t go back and read all 6 pages prior to this, but these are new fish?

Jay

 

[alabella1]

Sorry to hear.

Are the fish breathing normally and still eating? If so, this is ich. It is pretty advanced, so has been cooking for some time.

To be honest, I can’t go back and read all 6 pages prior to this, but these are new fish?

Jay

The weird part here is that with the lights out and shining a flashlight on them i cannot see anything. TBH I'd rather it be ich because the velvet from last time completely wiped out my old tank. I only have 3 fish that survived - the tomini, the gold nugget and the pajama. In other news I just found a body - my royal gramma. All that being said, everyone is eating, no one acting particularly strange except maybe the whitetail, but he's always hiding. I'll throw up the gramma picture here and then upload some videos with the flashlight shining instead of the tank lights.

#fishmedics

 

[alabella1]

Under tank lights -
lights out - flashlight -
#fishmedics

 

[alabella1]

It's divide and conquer time. I'm not going to let this beat me or take the lives of any of my pals this time. Last night I pulled the Sailfin, White tail and Trigger since they seemed the worst off. I have started them on copper. Trigger and Sailfin are swimming around, eating, etc. The white tail is sitting by the airstone breathing heavier than usual but he made it through the night. Anything else I can be doing for him?

I'll be spinning up QT #3 today, maybe just for observation of the other healthier looking fish. Don't want to medicate if they do not need it. I'm fine with going fallow for a bit on the new tank. I've been lights out for almost 4 months trying to get this thing off to a good start, but this ain't it.

So, that will leave the tank with just rocks and sand. Is there anything I could treat the tank with being that it IS fallow to make it safer, sooner? I planned to at least get some UV going on there, but anything else you can recommend would be awesome.

And in case I have not said it before... thank you guys... honestly... for everything. If not for your help and positive support I would have packed it in by now. I'm in this for the long haul. I want to grow old with my fishies, lol.

#fishmedics

 

[Sharkbait19]

Sorry it happened again - I know the feeling. Most likely something slipped through that you weren’t even aware of, all it take is one ich parasite.
You can try some of the reef safe meds in the dt. Obviously they don’t actually do much for ich, but can help to kill some of it to ensure all are killed.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It's divide and conquer time. I'm not going to let this beat me or take the lives of any of my pals this time. Last night I pulled the Sailfin, White tail and Trigger since they seemed the worst off. I have started them on copper. Trigger and Sailfin are swimming around, eating, etc. The white tail is sitting by the airstone breathing heavier than usual but he made it through the night. Anything else I can be doing for him?

I'll be spinning up QT #3 today, maybe just for observation of the other healthier looking fish. Don't want to medicate if they do not need it. I'm fine with going fallow for a bit on the new tank. I've been lights out for almost 4 months trying to get this thing off to a good start, but this ain't it.

So, that will leave the tank with just rocks and sand. Is there anything I could treat the tank with being that it IS fallow to make it safer, sooner? I planned to at least get some UV going on there, but anything else you can recommend would be awesome.

And in case I have not said it before... thank you guys... honestly... for everything. If not for your help and positive support I would have packed it in by now. I'm in this for the long haul. I want to grow old with my fishies, lol.

#fishmedics

The trigger clearly has ich. In the flashlight video, the tang in the cave seems to be holding its mouth open all of the time - that isn't good. Has it damaged its mouth, or is keeping its mouth open because it is breathing fast?

Since all fish were exposed, you should treat all of them with coppersafe or copper power at full dose for 30 days. If you only treat some, the asymptomatic ones can bring the ich back active later on.

Jay

 

[alabella1]

Sorry it happened again - I know the feeling. Most likely something slipped through that you weren’t even aware of, all it take is one ich parasite.
You can try some of the reef safe meds in the dt. Obviously they don’t actually do much for ich, but can help to kill some of it to ensure all are killed.

any recommendations??

 

[alabella1]

The trigger clearly has ich. In the flashlight video, the tang in the cave seems to be holding its mouth open all of the time - that isn't good. Has it damaged its mouth, or is keeping its mouth open because it is breathing fast?

Since all fish were exposed, you should treat all of them with coppersafe or copper power at full dose for 30 days. If you only treat some, the asymptomatic ones can bring the ich back active later on.

Jay

Ok, that's all I needed to hear. Everyone is going into QT and tank will go Fallow for a bit.

 

[Sharkbait19]

any recommendations??

The polyplab medic stuff is frequently used. To my knowledge it’s H2O2 based.

 

[alabella1]

So... This would be my first time with ich. Does it clear up very fast (visually) with copper power? I dosed 1.25ppm last night and 1.25ppm this afternoon to get to 2.5. Look at the difference in the Sailfin.

Before...


and AFTER!



Thoughts?

#fishmedics

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So... This would be my first time with ich. Does it clear up very fast (visually) with copper power? I dosed 1.25ppm last night and 1.25ppm this afternoon to get to 2.5. Look at the difference in the Sailfin.

Before...


and AFTER!



Thoughts?

#fishmedics

Tough to explain, but ich trophonts come and go on the fish and they can be in sync, making it seem like the fish has gotten suddenly better, but they are just off the fish reproducing. Copper takes about 3 days to really start to work.
Jay

 

[alabella1]

QTs are up and most the fish are out. I got 5 stragglers to catch still but the bulk are out and in copper.

 

[alabella1]

Well, unfortunately I lost the white tail overnight. After some reading, seems once they injure their mouth most don't recover from it. Such a bummer. I'm just having the worst luck. One more fish in QT... 4 left in the DT. 3 out of 4 are on the smaller side - cleaner wrasse and 2 dottybacks. I think I'm going to just take out the rocks and drain some water so they have no where to hide. Everyone in QT looks to be responding well so wish me luck that I have no more losses over the next 6 weeks while working to reset my 4 month old DT back to being clean.

#fishmedics

 

[alabella1]

All fish are in my 2 QT tanks and both are up to 2.5ppm copper power. I was watching a BRS video on treating ich and they mention Nitrofurazone OR API Furan-2. What are your thoughts on that? Also should I being doing anything else other than copper power and feeding as usual? Any recommended additives for food any particular food?

#fishmedics

 

[Jay Hemdal]

All fish are in my 2 QT tanks and both are up to 2.5ppm copper power. I was watching a BRS video on treating ich and they mention Nitrofurazone OR API Furan-2. What are your thoughts on that? Also should I being doing anything else other than copper power and feeding as usual? Any recommended additives for food any particular food?

#fishmedics

Those antibiotics control secondary bacterial infections that sometimes follow severe ich infections. Are you seeing any signs of bacterial infection - cloudy eyes, cloudy skin, red patches?
Jay

 

[alabella1]

I don't think so... maybe a little red at most. So just to update. The Sailfin, Purple and Trigger are looking a lot better. They are together in one tank. Everyone else is in the other tank and all appear to be doing pretty well except the Tomini. He looks really bad today. Covered in spots and dust. I did a 50% WC, cleaned the filter and sponges and replaced from my fresh batch of water keeping the copper at 2.5. Ammonia was rising which I expected with how many fish I have in there now. They are mostly small but there are a lot of em. I'm wondering if I should shift some to the other tank to balance things out a bit. I just worry about the lack of space/hiding places with the big bullies in there.

Tank 1 - Big Purple, Big Sailfin, Med Female Bluethroat Trigger, Med Male/Female swallowtail pair.

Tank 2 - Oreni tilefish, gold nugget wrasse, choati wrasse, cleaner wrasse, orchid dottyback, indigo dottyback, falco hawkfish, small tomini tang, small gem tang, tailspot blenny, small female angel, 2x small gold stripe maroon clowns, pajama cardinal, magnificent foxface.

I suppose I could shift over the foxface and hawkfish. They can hold their own. Clowns might do ok too. Wrasses stay where they are because that is where the container of sand is.

As for the big tank... it's mostly cleaned out. I cannot find the pistol shrimp. He may or may not be alive in there. I cranked the heat up to 86. Tomorrow I'm hooking up UV. It's bug killing time!

#fishmedics

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I don't think so... maybe a little red at most. So just to update. The Sailfin, Purple and Trigger are looking a lot better. They are together in one tank. Everyone else is in the other tank and all appear to be doing pretty well except the Tomini. He looks really bad today. Covered in spots and dust. I did a 50% WC, cleaned the filter and sponges and replaced from my fresh batch of water keeping the copper at 2.5. Ammonia was rising which I expected with how many fish I have in there now. They are mostly small but there are a lot of em. I'm wondering if I should shift some to the other tank to balance things out a bit. I just worry about the lack of space/hiding places with the big bullies in there.

Tank 1 - Big Purple, Big Sailfin, Med Female Bluethroat Trigger, Med Male/Female swallowtail pair.

Tank 2 - Oreni tilefish, gold nugget wrasse, choati wrasse, cleaner wrasse, orchid dottyback, indigo dottyback, falco hawkfish, small tomini tang, small gem tang, tailspot blenny, small female angel, 2x small gold stripe maroon clowns, pajama cardinal, magnificent foxface.

I suppose I could shift over the foxface and hawkfish. They can hold their own. Clowns might do ok too. Wrasses stay where they are because that is where the container of sand is.

As for the big tank... it's mostly cleaned out. I cannot find the pistol shrimp. He may or may not be alive in there. I cranked the heat up to 86. Tomorrow I'm hooking up UV. It's bug killing time!

#fishmedics

Wow - that is a LOT of expensive fish in one small tank and the Oreni and Choates are not really good at handling treatment tanks. Here is a wild idea: the tomini is relatively low value and is acting like a "typhoid Mary" in that it is producing a lot of theronts. What about putting it through a TTM protocol? I normally do not suggest those, but in this case, it would get that fish out of the QT for a time, and might even cure it enough to put it back in the copper.

Another option would be to set up a third QT.


Jay