Coral Beauty Hyposalinity Tragedy !

[Paradi]

hi friends, so I got this new coral beauty and she looked perfect, i put her in a quarantine tank and second day i saw 2 spots ( cysts ) on her fin, i knew its Ich, so I set the sg to 1.009, and next day she was all covered in smaller spots, now all the spots are gone, 4rth day, but her fins look terrible, shredded .

she didnt eat since i got her, its 5th day today, she nips on the glass , donno whats there, i offered her nori, and a fresh scallop, flake food, and lettuce, shrimp too, she didnt eat any, but she looks fat still, iam kinda worried, when will she eat ??? and when can i remove her ? i know it should stay 6 weeks, but i cant see any spots now, iam scared that she will lose her health, her colors faded and fins shreded, not eating, what can i offer her now ? or should i take her to the display ???? thank you for your help.

 

[jnc914]

How quickly did you lower the salinity? Or was your QT already set up at 1.009? If not done slowly it will stress out the fish or even cause it to die. The symptoms you describe though sound like flukes or some other parasite. You could try the freshwater dip, but it is imperative that the temp. and PH are the same as the QT. I did this with an Angel I had and he was full of gill flukes, which he quickly shed while dipped in the FW. However he was too far gone and wound up dying anyway. Good Luck.

 

[Paradi]

i dropped the salinity over 2 days, and he is not stressed or so , pH is the same, and temp too, i did a freshwater dip and its ok, the only problem now is its not eating, what can i offer as food ?? and how long do i keep it in the hyposalinity, its the 5th day and the spots are gone. thank you for your reply

 

[luke33]

I wouldn't do any more FW dips as there not effective on ick and do more bad then good imo. I'd try flakes and frozen brime, mysis, anything to get him to eat, the frozed angel food works well. If he's picking on the glass it sounds like he's going to eat. Some angels i've hypo'd have done the shredded fin thing and had lymph, but once i put them back into the main tank it always clears up. Just make sure your water is pristine, no Amm, or trites period, angels are very sensitive(not this one as much though, there pretty tough)

 

[Paradi]

Luke, thank you , very helpful , ill try shrimp and angel food again, hope he's hungry by now, but again, when can i take him to the display ? its the 5th day in hypo, all water parameters are fine, he's swimming normally and active, no more spots on him, donno if there's still inside in the gills or not, but seems all spots are gone, is it ok to tak ehim to the display now ? thank you

 

[kevin2000]

Try some live brine shrimp should help jump start the fish back into feeding mode. I have never had a dwarf angel that made nori a significant part of its diet .. yes they do nip at tank algae but not like some of other prominent algae eaters.

 

[Paradi]

thank you Kevin, i put a fresh scallop and some live brine, hope it will eat, i still dont know when to take it out of QT, its almost 6th day now, and no spots on the body....

 

[kevin2000]

Most people would recommend keeping the fish in QT for about 4 weeks after the last sign of ich. The fact that you don't see ich on the fish doesn't mean anything and remember that the trophont stage of ich only stays on the fish for about a week at any rate.

 

[luke33]

I'd wait another 4 weeks myself to take him out. Just be happy that you QT'd him. And once you add him to your display, i'm sure he'll start to nip on rocks right off the bat, this is always how i pick out my angels at pet stores. If they are picking on LR from the get go, they usually eat right off teh bat as well.

 

[Paradi]

great but will it survive the 4 weeks in hyposalinity with no food ???

 

[luke33]

No, it will die.

 

[oct2274]

fish can live upto 30 days sometimes without food, you have to wait a minimum of 4 weeks to ensure that the ich cycle is dead in hypo QT. Angels can be picky eaters when you first get them. Mine didn't eat for a week, now they eat everything. Mine liked cyclop-eeze first, they didn't really take to mysis.

 

[luke33]

I would agree with you oct, but unfortunately a coral beauty cannot live 30 days without food. Most carnivore's and picevor(sp) can, but not a coral beauty, and not one i'm guessing is around 3" or so. The only other thing you could try is if after a week of not eating with alot of trying you could raise the sg and add a piece of LR in there to make it feel more at home. The LR will have to be QT'd before added to your main tank again, but this it totally up to you.

 

[willhoward]

I'm with luke and the others - you can raise the salinity over a few days and add some LR, BUT keep the fish in QT. I had a Yellow Longnose Butterfly in QT for 10 days. It had white spot and I treated it and it went away, but after 10 days without eating, I got worried and put the fish in the main display. I still didn't eat and got nervous about the other fish. It died 3 or 4 days later, again covered in ich/white spot, but this time because I put it into my display, I had troubles coz I saw the other fish showing signs of illness and I had to treat them all - and THAT is something you don't want to do.

 

[Paradi]

thank you all for your great help, very informative, ok here's what i did, i took her to another old cycled tank which i used to keep seahorses, its full of LR, and macro algae, pods too, her fins are really in bad shape, but she appears to be doing ''better'' here, she nips all the time on the LR, i food again but she didn't eat, but she's active and nipping on LR, no signs of ich ''for now'' , but her fins are almost gone, the weird thing is that she still looks FAT, she's 3 inches , and i really want to see her healthy again. here's a pic....

 

[Paradi]

 

[luke33]

WOW, she has some serious probs besides ick....i'm sorry, but more than likely in that shape survival isn't an option. When you got it did it look perfect or was it kinda beat up a bit? Well, i'd suggest if you get another to make sure its picking at rock and even ask them to feed it before you buy it, if they refuse, don't buy it.

 

[Paradi]

when i got it it was perfect, second day , 2 white spots showed up, 3rd day was covered all in smaller spots, i got a cleaner wrasse today, and once shes in , the corl beauty came to her begging for cleaning, and she cleaned her, she looks healthy, swimming and breathing wise, but those fins need to grow back, she nipped at a mollusk today, ill update you with anything new, thank you so much, i hope its not an un identified pathogen or whatever.....

 

[luke33]

i wish ya luck, you may want to get some sort of metafix type bacteria killer as it looks like it has secondary infections. The wrasse may help as i love mine even though many people say you shouldn't keep tehm. Ive had angels develop lymph on there fins a bit in hypo but never to this level, looks like fin rot which could take maracyn 2 to fix.