Tank Medical dilemma

[Sean Norman]

I posted this last week.. a brief update and need some advice. I bought a Hippo Tang from a reputable dealer on line who has a solid medication QT process. The fish arrived, I drip acclimated it and placed it into an acclimation box in my tank. The tank had all long term fish, two Clowns, a White Tail Tang, a Yellow Tang, a Royal Gramma and a Melanurus Wrasse. I have a Fire Shrimp, 6 Snails and a Pin Cushion Urchin in the tank as well.
I put the Hippo Tang in the tank after two days in the acclimation box. Everything was good.. everyone getting along and eating. The next am I wake up and the White Tail is in bad shape.. pale almost dusky colored and breathing heavily. I catch it and put it into a bucket with an air stone. It died in about 1 hour. I found the HT in the rocks dead. It also had a dusky appearance with white almost dust. The RG was swimming in the PH and would not eat. I caught it and it died in about 24 hours. I set up a QT and caught the Clowns and they went in with Copper. I found the Wrasse the next day.. it went into the QT it was struggling to breathe and died within the hour. I cannot catch the Yellow Tang. I built extensive rock work to provide hides for the fish and the YT took advance of it. I set up a trap.. but it will not go near it.
The Clowns are fine in the QT.
I have been conversing with the company and they feel that the HT could have had “tufts” and a bacterial gill infection possibly from its time during the QT. I am guessing that bacterial infection spread to my other fish(?).
Because I could not catch the YT and I have inverts and rock in the DT I had to use Rally to try something( little scary to see the water turn green).
I know the instructions on the Rally state to turn off the UV and remove carbon. I did remove the carbon but kept the UV on. The YT started to lose its color around the day I caught the Wrasse. That was the day I turned the UV back on and now nearly 5 days after this all began the YT is fine. Eating, swimming and hiding from me when I go near the tank…
Clowns are fine in the QT.
The question is what to do now.
Managing a medicated QT is challenging to keep the ammonia out.. and Copper is a poison, but does its job well.
The supplier did cover the cost of the HT and suggested a peroxide dip for the remaining fish.
Do I finish the two week QT of the Clowns? There is a real chance that I will not catch the YT and the stress of trying will be detrimental. DO I move the Clowns back to reduce their stress?
Lesson learned by me… even when I buy a fish from that has come from a QT process.. it will go into an observation tank for two weeks.
Any advice is welcome…

 

[Lavey29]

Sounds like velvet to me but will defer to experts. Your DT will need to fallow for 45 to 76 days and all fish treated in QT.

 

[winxp_man]

You didn’t happen to get pics and videos before death?

Swimming in current, and breathing heavy is velvet in most cases. FW dip temp relief. Ruby in QT tank might help get ride of it.

And as stated above main tank needs to run with no fish for up to 76 days.

 

[Sean Norman]

I originally thought it was Velvet, but in talking with the supplier( well known and reputable) they felt it was not. In some research it is not uncommon for Hippo Tangs to come out of medication QT with a suppressed immune system. The sterile environment irritates the gills and then they are placed into a tank with existing bacteria and they get an infection.
What is perplexing is the YT is fine. Color good, swimming eating and not showing any symptoms.

 

[Lavey29]

I originally thought it was Velvet, but in talking with the supplier( well known and reputable) they felt it was not. In some research it is not uncommon for Hippo Tangs to come out of medication QT with a suppressed immune system. The sterile environment irritates the gills and then they are placed into a tank with existing bacteria and they get an infection.
What is perplexing is the YT is fine. Color good, swimming eating and not showing any symptoms.

If you lost multiple fish in rapid succession in a very short time period that means you have disease in your tank or a very unhealthy environment for them due to water chemistry, ammonia, 02, etc....

 

[Sean Norman]

I originally thought it was Velvet, but in talking with the supplier( well known and reputable) they felt it was not. In some research it is not uncommon for Hippo Tangs to come out of medication QT with a suppressed immune system. The sterile environment irritates the gills and then they are placed into a tank with existing bacteria and they get an infection.
What is perplexing is the YT is fine. Color good, swimming eating and not showing any symptoms.

If you lost multiple fish in rapid succession in a very short time period that means you have disease in your tank or a very unhealthy environment for them due to water chemistry, ammonia, 02, etc....

No ammonia, running a skimmer,UV, algae scrubber. Healthy Pod population, inverts all good. No problems until the HT went in.. all the other fish were fish I have had for 5 years or more.

 

[Lavey29]

No ammonia, running a skimmer UV, algae scrubber. Healthy Pod populating inverts all good. No problems until the HT went in.. all the other fish were fish I have had for 5 years or mor

So the new fish brought something into your tank that infected your established fish. Some died quick, a few seem to have strong enough immune systems to fend off the disease for awhile. Tank still needs to fallow or else you just roll the dice.

 

[Sean Norman]

That is what I am thinking, but I cannot catch the Tang….

 

[winxp_man]

That is what I am thinking, but I cannot catch the Tang….

Turn off the lights and use two nets. Might require a second person. My brother and I caught 22 fish in two tanks. Was is a 150gal. But at night with lights off and a phone for instant light.

 

[Lavey29]

Turn off the lights and use two nets. Might require a second person. My brother and I caught 22 fish in two tanks. Was is a 150gal. But at night with lights off and a phone for instant light.

Or go red because they can't see this in the dark

 

[Sean Norman]

My issue with catching the fish is two fold.. The tank is 29 inches tall so very deep. The second is that I built extensive rocks or with a lot of caves and in and outs. SO the fish can keep just darting to a new hide. The tank is 6 feet long so it had the ability to race to the other side. I used a piece of plastic to trap it to one side. I then used a piece of heavy gauge wire and balled it up on one end and used that to plug each cave. I left a small opening down low on the plastic up against the glass and had a fish trap in the opening. After 1 hour and three of us on step ladders we were able to herd the fish into the trap and I caught it. I moved it to the QT. It did not look good last night and I thought I would wake up to it being dead.. but it was actively swimming this am. So today begins its Copper treatment and the per my math June 18 I can add fish again after going fallow.
I got into the hobby to offer a relaxing outlet from my work…( ***).
I am going to focus on getting coral growing in the tank during the fallow period. I built the rock work to focus on SPS coral.
Just to add one more hurdle.. I leave on vacation for a week on 4/12. I am going to have to have two water changes worth of medicated water ready to go so the pet sitter can do water changes for me. Fortunately she has a salt water tank.. but of course this has to happen now.