Hospital tank problems

Waters · Jan 20, 2014

Unfortunately when I first set up my DT about 4 months ago I didn't heed all the warnings about using a quarantine tank. I paid the price by introducing a Midas Blenny that was carrying Ich. I decided to move my three fish out (Midas Blenny, Eible Angle, Blue Chromis) into a hospital tank to treat for Ich with hyposalinity while my DT remained fishless. The fish weren't in bad shape at all....two of the three showed 1 or 2 spots at the most over several weeks with very little flashing. They were all eating fine. I was concerned about having Ich in the tank and introducing new "stressed" fish down the road.

Anyways, fast forward to last night. I set up the hospital tank using a HOB filter seeded with material from my sump. I used the same saltwater mixture I use to do water changes which was mixed with RO/DI water the day before. SG, PH, and temp all matched my DT. I caught all three fish (was as stress free as could be expected....I used a temporary glass partition to keep them all to one side of the tank which made removal relatively easy), put them in, and woke to find both the Angel and Blenny dead this morning. The Chromis is still alive but breathing heavily. I checked SG, PG, temp, and Ammonia again and everything was in check.

Any ideas what could have caused this? I know it is recommended to use water directly from your DT but I assumed my water change water would be fine? The TDS meter is reading 0 coming out of the unit that was used to mix the salt. The aquarium, filter, and heater were all new. The only thing in the hospital tank was some PVC for hiding places. Any ideas? I am concerned about added any fish to my quarantine tank in the future if I can't keep them alive overnight. :cry:

Dowtish · Jan 20, 2014

More than likely the stress from being caught and moved coupled with the fact they had ich can do this sometimes. More than likely it wasnt the hospital tank.

Sorry

sqcube4me · Jan 20, 2014

what dow said .. the more you mess with the fish the more you stress it out .. i dont think its your hos tank ..

Waters · Jan 20, 2014

Ok....I guess I will consider it back luck and a lesson learned :-( It is just weird that they both died that quick and the Chromis looks uncomfortable even breathing. Going forward, what is the normal procedure for using the quarantine tank for new fish? I assume there are a lot of different opinions on the subject but do you treat the new fish with an antibiotic or anything or just use the time sitting in the quarantine tank for observation?

rworegon · Jan 20, 2014

What was your acclimation procedure for moving them into the hospital tank? I have always used water from the DT to fill either a hospital or QT tank and used it as an opportunity to do a small water change. How long had the filter material been in your DT system? How big is your hospital tank? Are you sure it was ICH and not velvet? Velvet can kill much faster than ICH.

Waters · Jan 20, 2014

rworegon said:
What was your acclimation procedure for moving them into the hospital tank? I have always used water from the DT to fill either a hospital or QT tank and used it as an opportunity to do a small water change. How long had the filter material been in your DT system? How big is your hospital tank? Are you sure it was ICH and not velvet? Velvet can kill much faster than ICH.

I should have filled the hospital tank like you did but I used fresh saltwater that I normally use for water changes. It was mixed the day before. I did not acclimate the fish since the water parameters were identical to my DT tank (SG, PH, Temp). The filter media was in my DT sump for approximately 4 months....it was the foam that is normally used to capture bubbles. I cut it up and put it in my HOB filter. There was no ammonia in my hospital tank though...the fish died so quick that there wouldn't have been any time for it to build up even without a filter. The hospital tank was 10 gallons. It was a packaged kit that came with filter and lid. I am not 100% sure it wasn't Velvet but the fish had it off and on for several weeks only showing one or two spots at any one time. I think Velvet would have killed them must faster in the DT. The only thing that I didn't do now that I think about it was rinse out the new tank. Could there have been some residue in there that killed the fish? What about gas exchange? The lid covered the whole tank with only a cutout for the HOB filter. I needed to be able to control evaporation to maintain the correct SG. Could low oxygen levels build up in one day and kill the fish overnight?