Anthony Calfo

Anthony Calfo (1/10/2006)

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Cheers

The environment is friendly and relaxed... do feel at home. Assuming your home is friendly and relaxed We aspire to keep the climate very polite and productive and appreciate your efforts to achieve this goal.

With mutual respect for one another and the charges we take into our care, we will all enjoy great fellowship, education and success in the hobby and in life at large.

Well put Anthony. Its going to be nice to have all the experts here!

The beatings will continue until morale improves!75g mixed with 55g sump/fuge. 2-175 W 10k XM 2 Act. 110VHO Predator 1s skimmer.

Yes, the fish have remained in the display tank throughout, purely for logistical reasons.  The 6'W X 3'H tank is in a wall between two rooms, and the top of the tank is 6' off the floor with light bars and ceiling closely above.  There is live rock in the tank, a trigger fish which would be difficult to catch, and the cowfish would need his own tank if moved out.  (I learned this to my cost. My first fish shopping purchases consisted of the cowfish and 4 other fish which were found dead in the QT next morning.  Apparently the cowfish had released his toxin.  The big tank would seem to have enough water to dilute the toxin if he becomes frightened.  He's a great personality fish, though!) 

There is a protein skimmer, a bioball tower, and I have added a UV sterilizer and a cleaner wrasse this week.

Nov 23/05  Ich appeared in tank after introduction of a new fish (my second fish shopping trip...sigh)  All fish had ich (the trigger had only a slight infestation) and the tomato clown had ?velvet.  New fish (juvenile emperor angel) died. 

Dec 14-19  Secondary infections apparent.  Apollo lying on tank bottom, green-brown in colour, fins eroded, "skin tags" hanging off, eyes coated with ich, not eating.  Tangs have some red streaking.    Maracyn commenced Dec 14, Maracyn 2 commenced Dec 15  (this was freshwater Maracyn, which was all that was available locally--the LFS were told that it could be used for S/W as well.  I later discovered that this is incorrect and the Mardel tech told me Maracyn F/W had never been tested in S/W.)  The infections cleared up (still some red on the tangs, however) and the fish started to improve.  Large white spots still visible on Apollo's eyes.  Carbon filtration added.  Ammonia starting to show on testing.

Dec 20  Hyposalinity 1.008 established.  Tested with refractometer.

Dec 20-31  Nitrogen cycle re-established with some fish stress but no losses, thank goodness.

Present:  all fish improving, tangs and cowfish have small amount of ich, but behaving normally and eating well.  The large white spots are still on the cowfish's eyes from the initial ich infestation.  I intend to start increasing the salinity again this week, as the hyposalinity has served the purpose of making the fish more comfortable while they were ill, but has not controlled the ich infestation.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Anne

Please visit the disease, health & wellness forum & read the thread "ich".

First suggestion - do not raise your salinity.  It needs to remain at 1.009 for a minimum of 4 weeks preferably 8 weeks in your case.  There is still ich in your tank and as soon as you raise it back, your fish, especially the cowfish will become very infested. Is there substrate in your tank?

Do you check salinity and pH daily.  Fluctuations in both are expected and must be avoided at all costs.  One must keep up with daily top offs and buffer as needed to stabilize the pH.  Since the live rock's microfauna has died off due to the hyposalinity and the biological filtration has been affected by the antibiotics, the water parameters will be marginal at this time. I would also suggest monitoring/checking water parameters daily and doing water changes to stabilize.  Decreasing stress is a big factor in disease management.

I would remove the cleaner wrasse immediately.  They are not compatible with cow fish.  They will cause damage to his shell/skin and will cause him undue stress.

A UV sterilizer can help decrease the number of parasites but will not irradicate the parasite.  Make sure you are prefiltering the water going through the sterilizer to get the best benefit of its use.

Another suggestion would be to add beta glucan, garlic and vitamins to the diet of the fish.  There is a thread on the disease, health & wellness forum as well.  These additives will help boost the fish's immune system so it can fight the parasite and any other opportunistic pathogen in the tank.

Best of luck,

Kelly