Heavy Breathing in TTM

[Lil Puff]

Hi guys, my fish (harlequin tuskfish and porcupine puffer) are breathing fast and heavily in ttm. The tusk hasn’t stopped breathing fast since the beginning. The puffer was doing okay the first day of ttm but overnight got cloudy eyes and white fluff all over him. The tusk also has a but off cloudy eyes. I dosed Tri-Sulfa yesterday to see if it will clear it up. It has helped get a lot off the small bits on his back but his eyes are still cloudy and he has a big patch on his fin. Is there anything else i can do for them? Is the air stone not producing enough oxygen in the water?

Info
Treating: Ich
Method: Tank Transfer Method
Filtration: air stone
Water: Fresh Salt water

 

[Lil Puff]

Update: Added a small power head

 

[Dburr1014]

Hi guys, my fish (harlequin tuskfish and porcupine puffer) are breathing fast and heavily in ttm. The tusk hasn’t stopped breathing fast since the beginning. The puffer was doing okay the first day of ttm but overnight got cloudy eyes and white fluff all over him. The tusk also has a but off cloudy eyes. I dosed Tri-Sulfa yesterday to see if it will clear it up. It has helped get a lot off the small bits on his back but his eyes are still cloudy and he has a big patch on his fin. Is there anything else i can do for them? Is the air stone not producing enough oxygen in the water?

Info
Treating: Ich
Method: Tank Transfer Method
Filtration: air stone
Water: Fresh Salt water

What have you done to treat so far?
PraziPro now if you haven't but probably a fresh water dip for flukes first.

@Jay Hemdal
#fishmedic

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I'm not a big fan of TTM, in fact I stopped using this method back in the mid-1980's. It works pretty well against marine ich, but does not work for flukes at all, and often does not work for velvet (Amyloodinium). It is hard on the fish due to ammonia build-up and the extra handling. Also, you cannot get a good lateral view of the fish, so issues can creep up on you unseen (like the start of these cloudy eyes).

So - what to do? First thing to do (after adding aeration, which you've done) is check the ammonia level in the buckets. TTM schedules very often create high ammonia levels - you need to keep the ammonia below 0.50 ppm if you can, and anything above around 1.0 can cause fish loss. Then, if that doesn't fix the issue, you have to try and identify if there is a disease issue. You say the fish had ich, how severe was it, are you certain of your diagnosis? Could the fish have flukes? Flukes are a common cause of rapid breathing and cloudy eyes in fish. Velvet causes rapid breathing, but the eyes are usually clear. Bacterial infections cause cloudy eyes but rarely rapid breathing. Of course, to compound things, fish can have more than one issue at a time.

Jay

 

[Lil Puff]

I'm not a big fan of TTM, in fact I stopped using this method back in the mid-1980's. It works pretty well against marine ich, but does not work for flukes at all, and often does not work for velvet (Amyloodinium). It is hard on the fish due to ammonia build-up and the extra handling. Also, you cannot get a good lateral view of the fish, so issues can creep up on you unseen (like the start of these cloudy eyes).

So - what to do? First thing to do (after adding aeration, which you've done) is check the ammonia level in the buckets. TTM schedules very often create high ammonia levels - you need to keep the ammonia below 0.50 ppm if you can, and anything above around 1.0 can cause fish loss. Then, if that doesn't fix the issue, you have to try and identify if there is a disease issue. You say the fish had ich, how severe was it, are you certain of your diagnosis? Could the fish have flukes? Flukes are a common cause of rapid breathing and cloudy eyes in fish. Velvet causes rapid breathing, but the eyes are usually clear. Bacterial infections cause cloudy eyes but rarely rapid breathing. Of course, to compound things, fish can have more than one issue at a time.

Jay

since adding aeration overnight breathing has gotten better. I am certain it is ich as i was doing ich management which was going amazing until i upgraded tanks which sparked an outbreak. There infection was very severe. There would have been 40+ white spots on them. Currently i cant see any on them. As for flukes neither of them are scratching or showing any other signs. The puffers eyes are getting worse and look they are starting to disintegrate. I am fairly certain it’s bacterial. Thinking of switching to tetracycline in the next transfer I do as i read thats better for eyes. The puffers big white fungus patch on his fin still hasn't gotten any better either.

 

[Lil Puff]

Bump! The puffers eyes are disappearing! Ammonia shouldn’t be a problem as we are transferring them every 48 hours and have ammonia absorbers in there. On a positive note the tusk is looking better

 

[Lil Puff]

Would tetracycline or melafix work better for this?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Would tetracycline or melafix work better for this?

Neither - tetracycline is inactivated by calcium in the sea water and melafix is just a herbal tonic, not an antibiotic. Neomycin or Kanamycin would be two better choices.

 

[Lil Puff]

Neither - tetracycline is inactivated by calcium in the sea water and melafix is just a herbal tonic, not an antibiotic. Neomycin or Kanamycin would be two better choices.

I can't find either of those in Australia unfortunately. Do you have any other recommendations? I have still been dosing tri-sulfa as I can't find any of those.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I can't find either of those in Australia unfortunately. Do you have any other recommendations? I have still been dosing tri-sulfa as I can't find any of those.

Any broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic (except the tetracycline family) would work, but you need a product designed for aquariums so that you have a dosage to work from. Tri-sulfa is a decent one. Antibiotics take 5+ days to work.