estanoche
New Member
Hi Channel!
I'm digging deep for ideas on ways to address Amoebic Gill Disease in my 190 gallon display tank. Here is the story:
Tank type: Reef (Coral, Inverts, (fish have been removed)
Volume: 190 gallon + sump ~ 250 gallon total water volume
Filtration: Typical skimmer, chaeto reactor, currently also running a 40W UV sterilizer to address parasites which is fed by a MJ1200
Lighting: (shouldn't matter but its radions)
Established: Jan 1 (tank is new); this disease was introduced to the system on 2/27 with the addition of (I hypothesize) a clam that was not freshwater dipped that came from a mariculture environment (retained water in clam introduced the AGD)
Recent parameters (APEX monitoring and salifert testing)
Temp - 75-77 degress, PH - 8.0 - 8.15 daily, ALK - 8-9, CA - 420-440, Nitrate - 16, PO4 - .12
STORY:
The disease was first introduced to this system on 2/27 with the addition of some new livestock (likely contaminated water in an maricultured clam) - at the time, we diagnosed and approached this issue as marine velvet. Fish lost within 10 days of introduction of the source included: 1 Kole Tang (deceased Day 7 post intoduction), 1 Powder Brown tang (deceased day 9) ,1 oscellaris clownfish (deceased day 10). 3 fish showed little/no symptoms and were removed from the tank (1 scopas tang, 1 yellow halichoeres wrasse, and 1 watchman goby), and treated with a formallin bath (2 hours therapeutic) and immediate placement in hyposalinity hospital tank (where they currently remain and are happy and healthy, also novel fish introduced to this hospital system have not shown any distress of disease)
We did not biopsy the gills at the time of the losses (couldn't find our/were honestly too lazy to find our microscope). Plan was to run a fallow period, and to prove that we had MV, sent a water sample to Aquabiomics for disease DNA testing. This water sample was pulled while the 3 (now) surviving fish above were still in the tank to ensure that we captured the ailment. Test results were returned with no presence of MV, but instead AGD (results here - https://aquabiomics.com/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/reports/estanoche/1001635_tankDNA.html).
Good news, treating the fish like they had velvet appeared to be a good course of action. But, the disease remains in the display. (here are the surviving fish in hospital from today, just because its nice to see them!)
So, the question - how do you address AGD in a display with invertebrates in it? From what I've read, a FALLOW period is not the solution, as it is a ubiquitous parasite. In fisheries this is treated in pens using freshwater holding for say, a week at a time.
Current ideas:
- H2o2 full tank treatment, coupled with the current UV
- Run a DNA test again and see if 30 days of UV to this point has done the job
- Just start over / freshwater sanitize the entire system (of course preferably not)
Display (today, has been fishless since 3/16)
I'm digging deep for ideas on ways to address Amoebic Gill Disease in my 190 gallon display tank. Here is the story:
Tank type: Reef (Coral, Inverts, (fish have been removed)
Volume: 190 gallon + sump ~ 250 gallon total water volume
Filtration: Typical skimmer, chaeto reactor, currently also running a 40W UV sterilizer to address parasites which is fed by a MJ1200
Lighting: (shouldn't matter but its radions)
Established: Jan 1 (tank is new); this disease was introduced to the system on 2/27 with the addition of (I hypothesize) a clam that was not freshwater dipped that came from a mariculture environment (retained water in clam introduced the AGD)
Recent parameters (APEX monitoring and salifert testing)
Temp - 75-77 degress, PH - 8.0 - 8.15 daily, ALK - 8-9, CA - 420-440, Nitrate - 16, PO4 - .12
STORY:
The disease was first introduced to this system on 2/27 with the addition of some new livestock (likely contaminated water in an maricultured clam) - at the time, we diagnosed and approached this issue as marine velvet. Fish lost within 10 days of introduction of the source included: 1 Kole Tang (deceased Day 7 post intoduction), 1 Powder Brown tang (deceased day 9) ,1 oscellaris clownfish (deceased day 10). 3 fish showed little/no symptoms and were removed from the tank (1 scopas tang, 1 yellow halichoeres wrasse, and 1 watchman goby), and treated with a formallin bath (2 hours therapeutic) and immediate placement in hyposalinity hospital tank (where they currently remain and are happy and healthy, also novel fish introduced to this hospital system have not shown any distress of disease)
We did not biopsy the gills at the time of the losses (couldn't find our/were honestly too lazy to find our microscope). Plan was to run a fallow period, and to prove that we had MV, sent a water sample to Aquabiomics for disease DNA testing. This water sample was pulled while the 3 (now) surviving fish above were still in the tank to ensure that we captured the ailment. Test results were returned with no presence of MV, but instead AGD (results here - https://aquabiomics.com/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/reports/estanoche/1001635_tankDNA.html).
Good news, treating the fish like they had velvet appeared to be a good course of action. But, the disease remains in the display. (here are the surviving fish in hospital from today, just because its nice to see them!)
So, the question - how do you address AGD in a display with invertebrates in it? From what I've read, a FALLOW period is not the solution, as it is a ubiquitous parasite. In fisheries this is treated in pens using freshwater holding for say, a week at a time.
Current ideas:
- H2o2 full tank treatment, coupled with the current UV
- Run a DNA test again and see if 30 days of UV to this point has done the job
- Just start over / freshwater sanitize the entire system (of course preferably not)
Display (today, has been fishless since 3/16)
