Clowns With Whitespot

[seffieuk]

Hi mate,
My LFS is pretty good and I think they keep the fish in a lower SG than the corals anyway, as this too helps with keeping whitespot at bay. It does mean though that livestock can suffer a bit more of osmotic shock due to water conditions.

IMO LFs isn't pretty good for keeping the sg that low, they only do it so they don't have to deal with the problems! Will also mean you have to acclimatise for a long time to avoid osmotic shock! My lfs keeps the fish the same as my own tank 1.026 and quarantines the fish - they are always happy to keep a fish, in fact they insist if the fish looks anything other than 100%

Seffie x

 

[jtnova13]

I don't have any corals in my tank. I did lower the temp to about 81.5F though.

I read that putting it in the mid 80s really speeds up the life cycle.

 

[SkiFletch]

So, does this mean they haven't gotten rid of the ich? Should I wait it out before quarantining since they are the only fish in the tank? If it returns that means they went through the cycle, if it doesn't that means they beat it without treatment?

I am thinking the best course of action is to qt the clowns, bump my tank temperature to like 85 to speed the ich lifecycle up and dose the clowns with some meds while they are in qt.

All correct. Whether the parasite is marine ich or brooknella it's still a parasite and should be treated with EITHER sg down to 1.009 OR copper kept at a concentration of 0.20-0.30ppm, NOT both.

Best way to setup a QT tank is with a sponge filter tbh and water at the appropriate salinity. Just be ready to do LOTS of waterchanges if ammonia becomes a problem because you don't have time to cycle the tank. You might put a TINY bit of LR rubble (say thumb-sized piece) on top of the sponge filter to seed the tank, but put too much rock in and you'll have problems. Make sure you use plastic decorations and/or pvc tubes to give the fish some kind of substrate for it's sanity

 

[jtnova13]

Ski, I run filter floss on the drain from the DT, so I cut a piece to fit in a HOB filter and am running that. Testing 0 across the board for everything including copper.

I don't believe Ridich uses copper. Either that or my salifert test blows.

I slowly bumped the ph back up to 1.026 on your advice for not doing BOTH hyposalinity and meds.

 

[TigerIssey]

This may be slightly pedantic but anyone reading this for research will be give the wrong idea.

You are not lowering and raising the pH of your tank, you are raising and lowering the SG = Specific Gravity, two completely different measurements.

You are not testing any copper because Ridich does not contain copper. Rid ich is salts of Malachite green and formalin. You may be better to stop treating with this medication as it is known not to work for particularly virulent strains of saltwater ich and remove the med with carbon.

I would then use lower SG to treat as Ski said earlier. Copper is highly toxic and can be extremely harsh on fish. Often fish that have been treated with copper can get hole in the head disease. It will likely clear up in your display tank, but do you want to go down this very harsh route.

I am always on the look out for kinder treatments and those that cause less stress to the fish, but you have been mis sold that product really.

 

[jtnova13]

but but, they work at the holy grail of fish stores (hidden reef).

that's a typo in my last post, i meant to say SG.. i don't know why i said pH.

I don't want to keep messing with the SG in my qt... but I will stop dosing ridich. The fish seem to not have any signs of ich for 3 days now, and I caught them very early and with minor signs of ich.

I know formalin is good for clearing bacterial infections though. I will throw some carbon in the HOB filter to neutralize the meds anyhow.

Back to hyposalinity i guess.

 

[TigerIssey]

The active ingredient of rid ich is choride salts of malachite green, because the salts are used, lower concentrations of formalin are use.

The rid ich is not recommended for treating bacterial or fungal infections as the concentration of formalin is not high enough for bacteria and fungus to be susceptible to it.

Treating with concentrations that are not high enough, is one mechanism by which bacteria and fungus become resistant to know treatments.

 

[SkiFletch]

Agree with TI on this one. Why formalin/malachite green is considered such a be-all end-all treatment here in the States is beyond me. REAL old salties who have tried it a lot, all seem to tell me that it rarely works for most infections. It's real only benefit is that you can "see" the treatment in the water turning it green and know when it needs to be added.

Because fish can deal with changing sg better than most people think/assume, you can feel free to drop it again if you want. Or, you can go out and get some copper and a test kit and start dosing that way. Then again since the fish are showing no signs of ich, I'd lean towards slowly lowering the sg as it's in general a less stressful treatment.

 

[jtnova13]

yah, i've decided to go the lowering SG route. I bought a test kit for 17 to test for copper and didn't even need it since ridich doesn't have copper in it...

I'm running carbon in the hob filter, but one of the clowns was struggling and died last night. The other one is doing questionable.

So in your guys' experience... when you quarantine fish, do you drop the SG during that time? or just let them be in the qt tank?

 

[AK77]

I just quarantine with water that is the same SG as the display tank. Leave the fish in the QT for a minimum of a week and observe for physical signs of parasitic infections or unusual behaviour. By that time, if whitespot is present, it will show itself on the fish or if the fish is sick from some other ailment, it will probably show other signs through its behaviour.

No point treating and stressing a healthy fish.

 

[jtnova13]

good point.

I was thinking it would make sense to hyposalinate (is that a word) them to destroy any ich so there would be NO chance of it flaring up in the future if they get stressed from a new addition or something.