Background. A couple of years ago I bought an imperor angel that looked perfectly healthy. By passed QT and acclimated it and placed it in the display. I no I shouldn't have. The fish came from a tank that had a salinity of 1.015. Two days after adding the angel the tank broke out with velvet. The angel was the only new addition in almost a year. I no longer buy fish there.
Fast forward. A little over a week ago I bought a powder brown tang and an orchid dottyback. I've been buying fish at this store for a while. Salinity was always at least over 1.020. We'll when I got home and checked the salinity was 1.017. Did acclimation and placed the fish in QT. I slowly over a few days ramped up the salinity to 1.024 and began ramping up copper. 2 days after reaching 1.024 salinity fish are covered in ich. I got copper up to 2.1 (tested with Hanna) over 2 days and this morning both fish are dead and covered in what appears to be severe ich. Tank was an instant cycle using live rock and seeded sponges from a spare system I keep running. No presence of ammonia. No heavy breathing. Plenty of oxygenation from a air powered sponge filter and a hob that had the water falling a few inches before reaching the water and also a nano power head in the tank. There are even asterina stars on the glass.
Vendors say they run low salinity to prevent disease. I'm wondering is it possible that these lower salinity levels actually just hide the disease which then rears it's ugly head when salinity is increased to normal levels?
Fast forward. A little over a week ago I bought a powder brown tang and an orchid dottyback. I've been buying fish at this store for a while. Salinity was always at least over 1.020. We'll when I got home and checked the salinity was 1.017. Did acclimation and placed the fish in QT. I slowly over a few days ramped up the salinity to 1.024 and began ramping up copper. 2 days after reaching 1.024 salinity fish are covered in ich. I got copper up to 2.1 (tested with Hanna) over 2 days and this morning both fish are dead and covered in what appears to be severe ich. Tank was an instant cycle using live rock and seeded sponges from a spare system I keep running. No presence of ammonia. No heavy breathing. Plenty of oxygenation from a air powered sponge filter and a hob that had the water falling a few inches before reaching the water and also a nano power head in the tank. There are even asterina stars on the glass.
Vendors say they run low salinity to prevent disease. I'm wondering is it possible that these lower salinity levels actually just hide the disease which then rears it's ugly head when salinity is increased to normal levels?