Hello
I picked up 2 scribbled boxfish in Feb (drove 3.5hrs one way to get them), on arrival I saw one likely had ich (I wasnt impressed I must say!), which meant they both did, so bought them both home and put them in the invert qt system, 12 hrs later, yup they have ich!
Waited for the few visible cysts to fall off (2 days) and moved them into a hospital tank and treated for 20+ days with paraguard and they didnt seem to get any more spots so thought this was successful so far and moved them into my empty fish qt system 1, where the fish that were in this tank have now moved into the dt. Continued to treat with paraguard of course, but both got more dots over a week or so (there wasnt ich in this system previously, so they obvs still had it - not sure if they had spots all along now and just the lighting wasnt great in the HT...)
Any way, I was loathed to treat with cupramine as they are sensitive species, and cant source CP in the UK, I have some copperpower on its way from the USA but due to coronovirus it is taking a lot longer than normal...so continued with paraguard in the meantime as they were happy, eating, active, until day before yesterday, both fine in the morning, by lunch time one had taken to hovering under a ledge, she seemed to be constipated so kept an eye, a few hours later she was sat on the bottom, so moved her into an acclimation box, dosed a small amount of epsom salts added airstone and covered it with a towel, she was very still, eventually went on a wonder and got stuck over the airstone for a few seconds, ingested some air and then couldnt keep her tail down, it was very minor buoyancy issue but far far from ideal. I moved her into fresh tank water, removing the epsom salts and airstone (which I will NEVER use again, I will just put the air tubing in) and she lasted another few hours before passing away(I will note shortly after death her slime coat began lifting - is this normal, could it indicate velvet although she wasnt like that when alive or possibly her releasing her toxin?). I dont know if she was over come by ich, or if constipation was an issue or if I ultimately killed her with the airstone, it was a sad day
On the bright side the other one has remained totally normal, except lots more spots in the morning, so i am going to do the tank transfer method.
Yesterday I moved her into a HT with brand new equipment (including cycled sponges from my dt) and she is still with us today (over 24hrs since losing the other) so I assume safe to say its not velvet (although having had her for a month and a half I doubt it could be?). Noticed a lot of the wrasses in qt2 are also flashing so as I am going to the effort of ttm, I will involve everyone! Will add all the fish from qt2 today, and everyone will move on Friday in the first tank transfer (less than 72hrs from when Beryl the boxfish was originally moved).
My questions are, I want to use the pump filter, sponge filter and heater from 1 of the qt systems in the second tank transfer tank (all 3 qt systems have ich in them, I dont have any more equipment and frankly cant afford to buy a 5th version of something!) - can i scrub/soak with vingear and allow to dry until Friday, will this work? On sponges and all? Will it cause issues with die off/ammonia spikes when I put them back in the water as already going to be 10 fish in the HT (3 are very very small gobies)? I also have some marine pure/fake rock in the qt system, is it possible to remove, soak in vinegar and then allow to dry out over weeks and it will then be reusable? Dont want to chuck out £50+ worth of media if I can avoid it...
I will be making use of paraguard initially as I have been, and Prime given the qty of fish in 90ltr HT, I also have stability and atm colony on hand, but if I am to sterilise the sponges is there any point adding these? I assume there is nothing wrong with partial water changes during the 3 days if required?
Thanks!
I picked up 2 scribbled boxfish in Feb (drove 3.5hrs one way to get them), on arrival I saw one likely had ich (I wasnt impressed I must say!), which meant they both did, so bought them both home and put them in the invert qt system, 12 hrs later, yup they have ich!
Waited for the few visible cysts to fall off (2 days) and moved them into a hospital tank and treated for 20+ days with paraguard and they didnt seem to get any more spots so thought this was successful so far and moved them into my empty fish qt system 1, where the fish that were in this tank have now moved into the dt. Continued to treat with paraguard of course, but both got more dots over a week or so (there wasnt ich in this system previously, so they obvs still had it - not sure if they had spots all along now and just the lighting wasnt great in the HT...)
Any way, I was loathed to treat with cupramine as they are sensitive species, and cant source CP in the UK, I have some copperpower on its way from the USA but due to coronovirus it is taking a lot longer than normal...so continued with paraguard in the meantime as they were happy, eating, active, until day before yesterday, both fine in the morning, by lunch time one had taken to hovering under a ledge, she seemed to be constipated so kept an eye, a few hours later she was sat on the bottom, so moved her into an acclimation box, dosed a small amount of epsom salts added airstone and covered it with a towel, she was very still, eventually went on a wonder and got stuck over the airstone for a few seconds, ingested some air and then couldnt keep her tail down, it was very minor buoyancy issue but far far from ideal. I moved her into fresh tank water, removing the epsom salts and airstone (which I will NEVER use again, I will just put the air tubing in) and she lasted another few hours before passing away(I will note shortly after death her slime coat began lifting - is this normal, could it indicate velvet although she wasnt like that when alive or possibly her releasing her toxin?). I dont know if she was over come by ich, or if constipation was an issue or if I ultimately killed her with the airstone, it was a sad day
On the bright side the other one has remained totally normal, except lots more spots in the morning, so i am going to do the tank transfer method.
Yesterday I moved her into a HT with brand new equipment (including cycled sponges from my dt) and she is still with us today (over 24hrs since losing the other) so I assume safe to say its not velvet (although having had her for a month and a half I doubt it could be?). Noticed a lot of the wrasses in qt2 are also flashing so as I am going to the effort of ttm, I will involve everyone! Will add all the fish from qt2 today, and everyone will move on Friday in the first tank transfer (less than 72hrs from when Beryl the boxfish was originally moved).
My questions are, I want to use the pump filter, sponge filter and heater from 1 of the qt systems in the second tank transfer tank (all 3 qt systems have ich in them, I dont have any more equipment and frankly cant afford to buy a 5th version of something!) - can i scrub/soak with vingear and allow to dry until Friday, will this work? On sponges and all? Will it cause issues with die off/ammonia spikes when I put them back in the water as already going to be 10 fish in the HT (3 are very very small gobies)? I also have some marine pure/fake rock in the qt system, is it possible to remove, soak in vinegar and then allow to dry out over weeks and it will then be reusable? Dont want to chuck out £50+ worth of media if I can avoid it...
I will be making use of paraguard initially as I have been, and Prime given the qty of fish in 90ltr HT, I also have stability and atm colony on hand, but if I am to sterilise the sponges is there any point adding these? I assume there is nothing wrong with partial water changes during the 3 days if required?
Thanks!
