Thought it was ich

[mikey5290]

So a couple days ago my domino clownfish showed signs of what I thought was ich (white spots all Over the body) . I went and purchased cupramine and a test kit and took them out of the frag tank, into a separate tank and did the first dose of the cupramine as per the instructions. The following morning one of the pair is dead and the other looks like it’s eyes are ready to burst off her head.

It doesn’t look like she is going to make it through the day.

Does this sound like ich or maybe a reaction to the copper?

Should I break down and sanitize the frag tank they were in? Or will leaving it fallow for a few months be enough?

Thanks
Mike

 

[Louis Z]

Copper sometimes is better if dosed slowly up rather than all at once . It is harsh so if the fish was in poor shape to begin with , just the shock of moving and then copper may have been too much. Or simply the copper was too late . How long did you have them? Are they new acquisitions? Did you qt or treat them prior? Did u purchase locally and if so any fish in the surrounding (plumbed together ) tanks have similar issues ? As for the tank I would start anew and disinfect and dry. As for the corals , I would dip and put them in a clean tank and keep them isolated for the 72days or more to be sure nothing passes onto your DT . Hopefully the other one is strong enough to survive. There are other parasites as in amyloodinium or Brooklynella that are similar and deadly . But they don’t present with the clearly defined white dots . All of them could present with cloudy eyes . As for the Popeyes ,possibly a secondary infection that still needs to be addressed . I would look to kanamycin and hopefully not to harsh on the kidneys of the fish

 

[JumboShrimp]

Killing so fast, do you think it was ‘Ich-to-the-10th-power’... Marine Velvet? ;Drowning

 

[mikey5290]

JumboShrimp
Could it be marine velvet? I have no clue. I just want to make sure I get rid of whatever it is.

 

[mikey5290]

Copper sometimes is better if dosed slowly up rather than all at once . It is harsh so if the fish was in poor shape to begin with , just the shock of moving and then copper may have been too much. Or simply the copper was too late . How long did you have them? Are they new acquisitions? Did you qt or treat them prior? Did u purchase locally and if so any fish in the surrounding (plumbed together ) tanks have similar issues ? As for the tank I would start anew and disinfect and dry. As for the corals , I would dip and put them in a clean tank and keep them isolated for the 72days or more to be sure nothing passes onto your DT . Hopefully the other one is strong enough to survive. There are other parasites as in amyloodinium or Brooklynella that are similar and deadly . But they don’t present with the clearly defined white dots . All of them could present with cloudy eyes . As for the Popeyes ,possibly a secondary infection that still needs to be addressed . I would look to kanamycin and hopefully not to harsh on the kidneys of the fish

I have had them over a year, did quarantine but no meds or copper. Just observed. Since then
they have resided in my fragtank so no new fish only coral frags.
I will see if I can find the meds online as I know my LFS carries almost no meds.

I will break the tank down this weekend, assume I have to sanitize all equipment, sump, and toss all the refugium contents including the deep sand bed?

Dipping corals will not kill bacteria will it? I have Revive coral dip.

Mike

 

[sfin52]

Coral could host part of the life stage of ich velvet Brook and other stuff . With it killing so fast my suspect would be velvet.

 

[JumboShrimp]

A Clown Fish wouldn’t really need more than a 5-gallon QT (2 shown above, side by side), if you use an ammonia badge and keep an eye on things. Both medication doses and water changes would be small. Brand new the items were about $15 each— tank, pre-set heater, cheapo filter, cheapo air pump and stone. Egg crate type lid. $3 PVC hiding spot. Best wishes!

 

[Big G]

Velvet is rampant in the system these days as well as a very nasty bacterial infection. So the current thinking is to treat all incoming fish as if they have active velvet and bacterial infection (both of these could have come in with your coral frags). So quickly ramping up copper to therapeutic levels (prefer Copper Power) and dosing at same time with Spectrogram (its a mix of Kanaplex + Furan2). This treatment seems to be working for several of us currently QTing incoming fish. Sorry for your loss. :(
Treating incoming frags with Bayer works with most pest. Yet, still recommend QTing incoming corals for 76 days in a fallow tank. Same 76 days for incoming inverts.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bayer-insecticide-as-a-coral-dip.100496/#post-1112051

 

[Louis Z]

Yes as big g stated it could have come in with the coral frags . Not to say they are the only possible source but the water they came n could have carried the parasite . So many LFS house fish with the corals . Unfortunately space for them is premium so they drop in new acquisitions into existing coral tanks. So by adding infected fish or cross contamination with nets/ Hands/ proximity, the parasites are spread . Right now I have noticed a huge amt of infected fish coming in with velvet . I actually stopped purchasing to let this pass me by . I recently had to deal with velvet and did loose a fish . . Now about your setup I have a coral Qt system seperate from a fish QT system . i Have several tanks for The TTM so that you can have a tank ready inadvance for the transfer . After the fish pass prophylactic/active treatment, I move them to a 40 breeder with biofiltration . Here they stay for more than a month under watch . I also treat the corals the same way , again several tanks . They get dipped in coral rx to begin with and set in a tank for observation. I do move them to another tank with either coralrx or bayer depending upon what I observe. Finally after all treatments they to move into a observation tank for several months. Again this is the tank that has active biofitration . It is also in this tank, I have fish and inverts to clean the corals of unwanted algae or pests that I have missed . So your system looks good but I would invert the tanks . Have the initial treatment tanks on the bottom and the final observation tank on top . There has been documented reports of parasites being transferred when tanks are in close proximity . This is why I say to invert the tanks . Water splashes/drips downward and less likely to be spread if the final observation tank is above . I would also keep coral setups seperate from fish setups so as not to cross contaminate .

 

[Louis Z]

Sorry I confused Jumboshrimps nice qt setup as yours .

 

[mikey5290]

Thanks all for the help, Unfortunately she passed last night.

So I am going to take this negative and try to turn it into an opportunity for future positive successes. I am going to set up a designated QT tank and grab a couple extra 10 gallons for TTM.

For now the frag tank will remain fallow for at least 76 days and I will start to source out some of the meds needed for future fish purchases.

I will also plan on catching the fish out of my 75g DT once I have the QT set up done and put them through a full Qt process and leave my DT fallow for the full 76 days as well. It will be a bunch of work and a few dollars but losing fish sucks!

Once all this is done I can then start shopping for fish again.

Again thank you for all the help here as well as the thousands of others posts I read on this site.

 

[JumboShrimp]

December 7th will be my 76th day. “Liberation!!” (But then I have to reintroduce the fish slowly, spaced about a week apart.) I feel your pain.