Possible velvet?

[saltcats]

I feel like the poor little guy is struggling with the flow in this tank... I have the return turned down as low as it can go (IM MightyJet desktop).
Is there anything else I can add to a hospital tank for decor/shelter? I have 3 pieces of PVC I had already, do I just have to let him figure out he can take shelter in that?

Would just the airstone be enough flow for tonight? I'm worried he'll exhaust himself. Or do I just trust that he's an ocean fish and can handle the flow.

Thanks so much to everyone for your help, I feel awful about these little guys

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Okay, did some approximate math for Fritz dose, let me know if this sounds reasonable:

5ml in 4 gallons -> 12.89 ml in my 10.3 gallons, for ~2.0ppm.
Recommended level is 2.25 ppm reached in 2 doses 12 hours apart, so -
14.5 ml in 10.3 gallons gives 2.25 ppm, dose 8 ml to start with? Or go straight for the 12ml dose and then verify levels on Friday?

Sorry - I just woke up.

I would add the 12.89 ml now, hen fine tune it once you get the checker. Can you measure small volumes accurately, like with a pipette?

 

[saltcats]

Sorry - I just woke up.

I would add the 12.89 ml now, hen fine tune it once you get the checker. Can you measure small volumes accurately, like with a pipette?

Thanks so much for all of your help, I really appreciate it!

I used a medicine syringe that was spare from the vet last time my cat needed meds to measure, should be accurate enough I imagine?

I really can't say how he's doing, haven't seen much of him today. He's found the pipes at least and is hiding surprisingly effectively. Don't think he ate today but I can't blame him, between the new environment, being sick, and the meds.

Do you have any thoughts on when I might expect to see improvement, either way?
My checker isn't arriving till evening tomorrow but I hope this dose of copper is at least inhibiting the infection for now if it is velvet.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks so much for all of your help, I really appreciate it!

I used a medicine syringe that was spare from the vet last time my cat needed meds to measure, should be accurate enough I imagine?

I really can't say how he's doing, haven't seen much of him today. He's found the pipes at least and is hiding surprisingly effectively. Don't think he ate today but I can't blame him, between the new environment, being sick, and the meds.

Do you have any thoughts on when I might expect to see improvement, either way?
My checker isn't arriving till evening tomorrow but I hope this dose of copper is at least inhibiting the infection for now if it is velvet.

The syringe should be accurate enough.

It can take up to 3 days before you see any improvement in the fish. Of course, a really sick fish might not have three days left.

Sometimes though, just moving the fish to a new tank can give temporary relief because it partially breaks the life cycle of the parasite.

 

[saltcats]

Hanna checker arrived! I don't think I did half bad for calculating a dose on the fly after all. I'm hoping 1.9 was close enough to 2 to at least have helped fight the infection for the last 24 hours, even if it can't count as one of my official 30 days.

So I have added 2ml more which should raise it by 0.3ppm, will recheck in an hour.

He still hasn't eaten, he's hanging out behind the return at the very top of the water. I don't think that's a great sign but I guess it's better than lying on the bottom? Going to add an extra air stone just in case and try putting the pump in feed mode when I feed tonight in case he's just trying to find lower flow.

Really appreciate everyone in this forum who offers help, it's such a great resource and very kind.
I think I'm going to go pre-quarantined at least for my next fish (not any time soon though) and see where we go from there; very burned out by the amount of disease issues I've had
Hoping against hope for this little guy even if the odds are slim

 

[saltcats]

He ate tonight 3 good size pieces of mysis. Stay strong little guy!!

Copper is at 2.29 now.

 

[saltcats]

Checked copper every day so far and stayed above 2.

He's been eating consistently but not as enthusiastically as he was before; which makes sense. I am currently feeding just frozen mysis chopped up; he eats 1-3 pieces each probably about the size of a larger grain of sand 3-4x daily right now. He's probably about 1.5" long, very small.

Noticed his stomach looks quite full this evening; I'll try to get a picture in the morning but wondered if I should be worrying about constipation/overfeeding or if that's maybe just normal? Should I back off on feeding or rotate in some brine shrimp?
Trying to keep him well fed so he can recover but I don't want to overdo it and give him a new problem!

Also my copper has decreased a little each day, from 2.29 to 2.20 to 2.15... I'm guessing it's from the water level getting changed a little (had to add a barricade to the overflow as he demonstrated to me that he can fit through that ) but is there anything else that I should check out? I only have PVC hides in there. I'll top the copper off but I'd like to know why it's decreasing!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Checked copper every day so far and stayed above 2.

He's been eating consistently but not as enthusiastically as he was before; which makes sense. I am currently feeding just frozen mysis chopped up; he eats 1-3 pieces each probably about the size of a larger grain of sand 3-4x daily right now. He's probably about 1.5" long, very small.

Noticed his stomach looks quite full this evening; I'll try to get a picture in the morning but wondered if I should be worrying about constipation/overfeeding or if that's maybe just normal? Should I back off on feeding or rotate in some brine shrimp?
Trying to keep him well fed so he can recover but I don't want to overdo it and give him a new problem!

Also my copper has decreased a little each day, from 2.29 to 2.20 to 2.15... I'm guessing it's from the water level getting changed a little (had to add a barricade to the overflow as he demonstrated to me that he can fit through that ) but is there anything else that I should check out? I only have PVC hides in there. I'll top the copper off but I'd like to know why it's decreasing!

Copper does tend to drop over time, even if there isn’t calcium based substrate in the tank. I’m not sure why. With ionic copper, it can bind with calcium in the water. You just want to monitor it and keep it above 2.0

Overfeeding shouldn’t be an issue, fish will self regulate. Constipation is rare and the fish will look bloated the next day and likely not eat, or not eat very much.