Ich/velvet blue kole tang quarantine

[alexkowalik]

Hello, I’ve been treating my display with polyp lab medic due to a possible ich/velvet outbreak. I was told it is more than likely ich so I didn’t panic and quarantine all my fish. This morning I came in to see my kole tang sucked against the overflow and barely hanging on to life. I immediately did a freshwater dip followed by putting him in a quarantine tank and dosed general cure and ich-x as well as raised the temp to 82 and ran an air stone. Currently he is swimming on the surface upright but sometime sideways and looks externally weak. His gills are moving rapidly and his skin is a pale color and has marks from being in the overflow possibly all night. I don’t want him to die and would like to do everything possible to help him survive this. Any help is appreciated! Here are some photos.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes, appears to be ich and MEDIC takes alot longer to be an effective treatment. In addition it seems to have Hlle and quite thin.
You if possible need to utilize quarantine with use of coppersafe at 2.25-2.5ppm level and have a reliable test kit to monitor such.
Also increase oxygen during treatment. Is fish eating ?
If so, what are you feeding it?
What is ammonia-ph-tem--nitrate and salinity levels in current display and what test kits are you using?
Age of tank ?

 

[alexkowalik]

Yes, appears to be ich and MEDIC takes alot longer to be an effective treatment. In addition it seems to have Hlle and quite thin.
You if possible need to utilize quarantine with use of coppersafe at 2.25-2.5ppm level and have a reliable test kit to monitor such.
Also increase oxygen during treatment. Is fish eating ?
If so, what are you feeding it?
What is ammonia-ph-tem--nitrate and salinity levels in current display and what test kits are you using?
Age of tank ?

Thank you for the quick response,
I do not have copper on hand and my lfs is closed for the holidays. He was eating yesterday and didn’t appear so thin or have any marking on his body either. I’ve been feeding rods frozen as well as nori sheets and have watched him graze all day and eat normally just last night. The water parameters are all in check and no ammonia, ph8.2, salinity 1.026SG and all others are in good limits as I test frequently with Hannah checkers and redsea mag tests. The tank has recently been upgraded from a 25g to a 75g and all old live rock was swapped over and new reef saver rock was cycled and cured. Special grade sand was added after a rinse and everything had been fine for the last few months in the 75G no increase in bio load or any other causes for swings in parameters. The old tank was running for a couple years so it’s well established. Currently I have him in a 15G qt tank as it’s all I currently have for a hospital tank and am not running any media as I just set it up a half hour ago.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you for the quick response,
I do not have copper on hand and my lfs is closed for the holidays. He was eating yesterday and didn’t appear so thin or have any marking on his body either. I’ve been feeding rods frozen as well as nori sheets and have watched him graze all day and eat normally just last night. The water parameters are all in check and no ammonia, ph8.2, salinity 1.026SG and all others are in good limits as I test frequently with Hannah checkers and redsea mag tests. The tank has recently been upgraded from a 25g to a 75g and all old live rock was swapped over and new reef saver rock was cycled and cured. Special grade sand was added after a rinse and everything had been fine for the last few months in the 75G no increase in bio load or any other causes for swings in parameters. The old tank was running for a couple years so it’s well established. Currently I have him in a 15G qt tank as it’s all I currently have for a hospital tank and am not running any media as I just set it up a half hour ago.

LFS closed does not help.
Any reefer friends or local clubs where member can lend you copper ? FW dip may offer further relief but can or may also stress the fish further

 

[alexkowalik]

LFS closed does not help.
Any reefer friends or local clubs where member can lend you copper ? FW dip may offer further relief but can or may also stress the fish further

Unfortunately I do not, all I can do is use what I have. I can attempt to overnight some copper but it might be too late by then. I only did the one fw dip immediately after removing him from the overflow to hopefully give some relief. He does appear to be getting better and swimming around more however still at the surface.

 

[alexkowalik]

Unfortunately I do not, all I can do is use what I have. I can attempt to overnight some copper but it might be too late by then. I only did the one fw dip immediately after removing him from the overflow to hopefully give some relief. He does appear to be getting better and swimming around more however still at the surface.

Unfortunately I do not, all I can do is use what I have. I can attempt to overnight some copper but it might be too late by then. I only did the one fw dip immediately after removing him from the overflow to hopefully give some relief. He does appear to be getting better and swimming around more however still at the surface.

Actually I just called my lfs and it turns out they are open until 4 today they just couldn’t get to the phone earlier so I’m on my way to get copper right now so I will be able to treat in about an hour or two. Any recommendations on using copper? I’ve never medicated either it before.

 

[aggrofish]

Maybe I'm blind but I'm not seeing rich spots. Kole tangs will turn white when stressed. I've never had mines win at the top of the tank ever. not enough oxygen?

 

[aggrofish]

Actually I just called my lfs and it turns out they are open until 4 today they just couldn’t get to the phone earlier so I’m on my way to get copper right now so I will be able to treat in about an hour or two. Any recommendations on using copper? I’ve never medicated either it before.

See if they have a hanna copper checker as well

 

[aggrofish]

see if they have prazipro also just in case

 

[alexkowalik]

Maybe I'm blind but I'm not seeing rich spots. Kole tangs will turn white when stressed. I've never had mines win at the top of the tank ever. not enough oxygen?

They were there before this happened when I started the polyplab medic. All my fish currently have it so I’m almost positive it’s ich. There is plenty of surface agitation as well as an airstone so oxygen should be ok.

 

[alexkowalik]

They were there before this happened when I started the polyplab medic. All my fish currently have it so I’m almost positive it’s ich. There is plenty of surface agitation as well as an airstone so oxygen should be

Hello, I’ve been treating my display with polyp lab medic due to a possible ich/velvet outbreak. I was told it is more than likely ich so I didn’t panic and quarantine all my fish. This morning I came in to see my kole tang sucked against the overflow and barely hanging on to life. I immediately did a freshwater dip followed by putting him in a quarantine tank and dosed general cure and ich-x as well as raised the temp to 82 and ran an air stone. Currently he is swimming on the surface upright but sometime sideways and looks externally weak. His gills are moving rapidly and his skin is a pale color and has marks from being in the overflow possibly all night. I don’t want him to die and would like to do everything possible to help him survive this. Any help is appreciated! Here are some photos.

 

[alexkowalik]

Update:
He just passed suddenly before I even got a chance to treat with copper. Thank you all for the responses! At least I have copper and a Hanna copper checker for future issues.

Merry Christmas.

 

[aggrofish]

bummer

 

[richscorze]

Is it possible that with your treatment, you affected the biological filter? Sudden change in gill rates usually ammonia....ones fill membranes are burned from ammonia, all you can do is pump oxygen through airstones and pray

 

[vetteguy53081]

Is it possible that with your treatment, you affected the biological filter? Sudden change in gill rates usually ammonia....ones fill membranes are burned from ammonia, all you can do is pump oxygen through airstones and pray

He never got a chance to treat do likely not. Once velvet has covered a fish, time is of essence to administer treatment if it’s not already too late

 

[alexkowalik]

He never got a chance to treat do likely not. Once velvet has covered a fish, time is of essence to administer treatment if it’s not already too late

Your absolutely right, by the time I got home with the copper he was gone, however I am still dealing with the aftermath of the velvet outbreak. (At least I’m 99% sure it’s velvet.) I currently have two fish left in the tank, a yellow coris wrasse and a firefish. They have been the only fish to remain unaffected by this outbreak. Once I manage to safely catch them and get the tank fallow I am going to start a 76 day fallow period and slowly reintroduce fish again after I’m sure the velvet is no longer. (Which I know isn’t guaranteed after the 76 days but I’m not sure what else I can do besides a total take tear down. Any suggestions or recommendations to help rid the tank of the remaining velvet parasites?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Your absolutely right, by the time I got home with the copper he was gone, however I am still dealing with the aftermath of the velvet outbreak. (At least I’m 99% sure it’s velvet.) I currently have two fish left in the tank, a yellow coris wrasse and a firefish. They have been the only fish to remain unaffected by this outbreak. Once I manage to safely catch them and get the tank fallow I am going to start a 76 day fallow period and slowly reintroduce fish again after I’m sure the velvet is no longer. (Which I know isn’t guaranteed after the 76 days but I’m not sure what else I can do besides a total take tear down. Any suggestions or recommendations to help rid the tank of the remaining velvet parasites?

Treatment still warranted
Just make sure the medication you choose says “treats oodinum “

 

[VermontReefs]

Your absolutely right, by the time I got home with the copper he was gone, however I am still dealing with the aftermath of the velvet outbreak. (At least I’m 99% sure it’s velvet.) I currently have two fish left in the tank, a yellow coris wrasse and a firefish. They have been the only fish to remain unaffected by this outbreak. Once I manage to safely catch them and get the tank fallow I am going to start a 76 day fallow period and slowly reintroduce fish again after I’m sure the velvet is no longer. (Which I know isn’t guaranteed after the 76 days but I’m not sure what else I can do besides a total take tear down. Any suggestions or recommendations to help rid the tank of the remaining velvet parasites?

Sorry to hear about your loss. Did you prior add any fish inverts to the tank prior to this guy getting velvet? In other words do you know where the outbreak came from?

 

[alexkowalik]

Treatment still warranted
Just make sure the medication you choose says “treats oodinum “

Are you referring to treating the two remaining fish in a qt tank? Or the display tank? I’ve been weary of medicating my display tank due to the corals and inverts that will remain in the tank.

 

[alexkowalik]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Did you prior add any fish inverts to the tank prior to this guy getting velvet? In other words do you know where the outbreak came from?

Thank you, I did add a few fish at the same time around when it all started, I think the suspect is the kole tang I added with them. My lfs had their system on qt due to a suspected ich outbreak and they treated they’re system with copper and currently still are running copper and a month or so after they came off qt I picked up the kole tang and a couple other fish from that same system so I suspect that whatever they had did not completely get wiped out and found it’s way into my tank. Unfortunate I did not follow proper qt protocol introducing these guys as I haven’t before and had to learn the hard way..