Hippo Tang issue?

[himynameis]

Not sure this is sworn issue but rather skin irritation and mysis mixed with ich if I recall
Coppersafe would address that however you can do a water change and one more prazi treatment if fish is responding to treatment
I assume you added air stone as prazi will reduce oxygen and even appetite

Yes I added an air pump and running the skimmer without collecting. Increased tank surface agitation with the return pump and Wavemaker as well. I’ll do one more treatment of prazipro on Wednesday (7 days between treatments).

If ich is present, wouldn’t it manifest in the other fish in the tank as well?

 

[himynameis]

Observing this evening, noticed that my bicolor blenny was acting a bit odd. Perched on the usual spot, but looked to be twitching every so often and then trying to reach back to scratch its tail or something. At times swimming in the open into high flow, which is unusual for him. Then I noticed the light colored spots on top of the head and dorsal. Ich?

 

[LAReefer4Life]

That looks more like ich IMO.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Observing this evening, noticed that my bicolor blenny was acting a bit odd. Perched on the usual spot, but looked to be twitching every so often and then trying to reach back to scratch its tail or something. At times swimming in the open into high flow, which is unusual for him. Then I noticed the light colored spots on top of the head and dorsal. Ich?

The spots could be ich, but the scratching is more a sign of flukes. I'd say there is a good chance that the fish has both ich and flukes.

There are a couple of ways to deal with this, but neither can be done in a tank with invertebrates present. Your two options would be to treat all of the fish with either hyposalinity or copper/praziquantel. Which way to go depends on your specific circumstances. If you have just a few invertebrates in the tank, you could move them out for 60 days while you run hyposalinity in your display for 30 days. If you have lots of coral, then it is usually easier to move all of the fish to a treatment tank and dose them with coppersafe at 2.5 ppm plus praziquantel for the flukes.

 

[himynameis]

The spots could be ich, but the scratching is more a sign of flukes. I'd say there is a good chance that the fish has both ich and flukes.

There are a couple of ways to deal with this, but neither can be done in a tank with invertebrates present. Your two options would be to treat all of the fish with either hyposalinity or copper/praziquantel. Which way to go depends on your specific circumstances. If you have just a few invertebrates in the tank, you could move them out for 60 days while you run hyposalinity in your display for 30 days. If you have lots of coral, then it is usually easier to move all of the fish to a treatment tank and dose them with coppersafe at 2.5 ppm plus praziquantel for the flukes.

Current display just has live sand and rock with a few inverts. All coral are in a holding tank at the moment and I could leave them in there if needed. What is the process to run hyposalinity in the display?

Thanks for all the help on this, it’s been quite the effort lately with this new tank, trying to stay positive here.

 

[himynameis]

I assume I can reference this thread? For my tank running at 1.026, how quick would you recommend getting down to 1.009?

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I assume I can reference this thread? For my tank running at 1.026, how quick would you recommend getting down to 1.009?

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

I generally take two days in six steps to go from 1.022 to 1.009. If you are at 1.025 or higher, add an extra day and two more steps. Coming out of hypo, you need to go slower.

 

[himynameis]

I generally take two days in six steps to go from 1.022 to 1.009. If you are at 1.025 or higher, add an extra day and two more steps. Coming out of hypo, you need to go slower.

Sounds good, thanks for the tips. I’ll get started tonight since I have to partially drain and move the DT after some home remodel anyway.

 

[himynameis]

Hyposalinity process started, the plan is to do a salinity drop of .002 every 6-8 hours, for 8 rounds. With the final drop at .003, that should get me to 1.009 within 48-64 hours. Does that seem reasonable @Jay Hemdal ?

All inverts were removed, except for a pencil urchin which is lodged in a pretty tight space so hoping it makes its way out at some point.

Keeping temp stable at 79F. I’ll be monitoring salinity with a veegee stx3 refractometer. I have Hanna checker for alkalinity, and Red Sea test kit for ammonia. All to be checked daily.

Still running skimmer and air stone. I do have a UV that isn’t installed though, worth installing?

Anything else I may be missing? Keeping in mind this hyposalinity is for the DT which I have deconstructed to be FOWLR and Sand at the moment, all coral and inverts in a separate holding bin.

Again, thanks for keeping up on this with me, it’s helped me stay sane and hopefully keeping everything alive. Only 1.5yrs in the hobby, and learning A LOT daily.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hyposalinity process started, the plan is to do a salinity drop of .002 every 6-8 hours, for 8 rounds. With the final drop at .003, that should get me to 1.009 within 48-64 hours. Does that seem reasonable @Jay Hemdal ?

All inverts were removed, except for a pencil urchin which is lodged in a pretty tight space so hoping it makes its way out at some point.

Keeping temp stable at 79F. I’ll be monitoring salinity with a veegee stx3 refractometer. I have Hanna checker for alkalinity, and Red Sea test kit for ammonia. All to be checked daily.

Still running skimmer and air stone. I do have a UV that isn’t installed though, worth installing?

Anything else I may be missing? Keeping in mind this hyposalinity is for the DT which I have deconstructed to be FOWLR and Sand at the moment, all coral and inverts in a separate holding bin.

Again, thanks for keeping up on this with me, it’s helped me stay sane and hopefully keeping everything alive. Only 1.5yrs in the hobby, and learning A LOT daily.

Ugh, that pencil urchin is going to die. You'll need to stay on top of that and remove it as soon as you can.

I wouldn't worry about the UV.

Everything else sounds good.

 

[himynameis]

@Jay Hemdal got to 1.015 this morning. Is it normal to see more evidence of shaking/scratching/white dots on fish as salinity drops? Seeing a bit more dashing around the tank as well lately. Does this just mean it’s working?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal got to 1.015 this morning. Is it normal to see more evidence of shaking/scratching/white dots on fish as salinity drops? Seeing a bit more dashing around the tank as well lately. Does this just mean it’s working?

Yes, it is pretty common if there are flukes, as you start to drop the salinity, the flukes start to move around and some drop off. That seems to irritate the fish and can cause increased distress for a time. However, you need to get a bit lower - 1.012 for flukes and 1.009 for ich.

 

[himynameis]

Yes, it is pretty common if there are flukes, as you start to drop the salinity, the flukes start to move around and some drop off. That seems to irritate the fish and can cause increased distress for a time. However, you need to get a bit lower - 1.012 for flukes and 1.009 for ich.

OK thank you, I will be at 1.012 tonight and 1.009 tomorrow morning.

Still was not able to get the urchin out but somehow it’s still alive! Will see how long it lasts but not keeping my hopes up. I got him with the live rock and he’s grown a lot since then, will probably replace later. Great part of the cuc.

 

[himynameis]

Got the urchin out and it’s still moving in the hold over tank. Hopefully it’ll survive!

 

[himynameis]

1.009 this morning, fish looking good so far. Dkh a little low so dosing.

 

[himynameis]

Not seeing any further signs of stress, scratching, or dots like before. Fish are very active and eating well. I think now is the time to start the 30 day countdown.

When I start raising salinity again, would a reasonable rate be .002 every 24 hours until I reach 1.026 again?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Not seeing any further signs of stress, scratching, or dots like before. Fish are very active and eating well. I think now is the time to start the 30 day countdown.

When I start raising salinity again, would a reasonable rate be .002 every 24 hours until I reach 1.026 again?

You can likely go .003 SG units in 24 hours (with two or 3 steps each day). If you are going with just one step per day, yes, I'd limit the rise to .002 SG units/day.

 

[himynameis]

Not seeing any further signs of stress, scratching, or dots like before. Fish are very active and eating well. I think now is the time to start the 30 day countdown.

When I start raising salinity again, would a reasonable rate be .002 every 24 hours until I reach 1.026 again?

May have spoke too soon, bicolor blenny looks a bit rough, but acting ok swimming and hiding as he usually does. He has what appears to be the remnants of the white dots which now seem to have turned bumpy/raised. I guess it may just need to run through. How long could it take before I see zero sign @Jay Hemdal ?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

May have spoke too soon, bicolor blenny looks a bit rough, but acting ok swimming and hiding as he usually does. He has what appears to be the remnants of the white dots which now seem to have turned bumpy/raised. I guess it may just need to run through. How long could it take before I see zero sign @Jay Hemdal ?

Generally, hyposalinity produces results in 5 days or so after reaching the full treatment level. There can be residual skin infections, as well as other infections that can cause skin changes.. Is the fish still eating well? Can you post a picture of it?

Jay

 

[himynameis]

Fish is eating well. I’ll try to provide a photo later tonight.