Cryptocaryon Irritans - tank transfer method

[Willistein]

willistein, are you cycling another holding system so your fish that are now in TTM have a place to go when they come out? I did that using the ammonia method and it cycled just in time to be done by the time the 12 days of TTM was up! whew!

No, I don't plan on doing that. I will observe during the TTM and then they will go to the DT. Should I keep them in a cycled tank after the TTM? When I had the DT fallow, I had all of the fish in a 30gal long, and did water changes.

 

[appellativo]

Willis, i guess your display is clean and has already been through its fallow period? Then u can just put them in the display when theyre done. Are these just new purchases?

 

[tmz]

I think the rabbit fish will be ok in the 20 g. I'd give him a few pieces of pvc to snuggle in and/ or between.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Yeah he has a large PVC elbow and a fake plant (I have two of each, one for each setup). Just have an airstone in with him, couldn't find any spare powerheads that didn't leak a couple volts. He was definitely more comfortable yesterday and ate a couple times throughout the afternoon/evening.

 

[tmz]

Sounds good.I also use airstones along with a bubble up sponge filter an hob filter. The extra evaporation form the misting gives me a little more room for upward sg adjustment too.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Rabbitfish has been eating well and the second transfer went much smoother this morning.

 

[Deinonych]

I'm clearly doing something wrong with TTM. A couple of months ago, I tried it with a Kole Tang (using 20g aquariums), and he died after the second transfer. I've been treating my five remaining fish for ich for the past 6 weeks, and I've had to suspend copper due to sensitivity from a couple of the fish. Decided to run them all through TTM yesterday.

I used an 18g Rubbermaid tub with heater and airstone. Filled with fresh saltwater yesterday morning and moved them over lunchtime. The all seemed to manage the transition well. This morning I awoke to find my foxface dead, and my McCosker's wrasse and firefish listless and breathing hard. My two ocellaris clownfish seemed unaffected. Decided to move them back to their original tank while I figured out a plan B. Unfortunately, the firefish didn't survive the move back despite best efforts to make the move stress-free (cupped him in a tupperware container and released him by hand). I thought the McCosker's was a goner too, but he perked up after 30 minutes and even ate a few mysis later in the day.

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong? Really scratching my head about this.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

How "freshly mixed" is the new saltwater you are putting them in?

 

[Deinonych]

It was mixed in a Brute container. Once I got it to the correct SG, I let it continue to mix (with a powerhead) for a couple days. I transferred it to sealed plastic jugs after that. It stayed in the plastic jugs for a little more than a day before I dumped it into the TT container. Should I have let it aerate further in the container before moving the fish in?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

No I think that sounds fine, I just wanted to make sure you didnt add salt mix to RODI, run a powerhead for an hour, then drop the fish in.

 

[appellativo]

I would leave ready made sw in a container with a loose fitting lid and a powerhead for aeration purposes.

always match the ph and sg and temp closely. You didn't say how badly the dead fish were affected by ich; it could have been they had too much gill damage already so couldn't manage.

Knock wood I've had really good success with TTM, done it four times and no deaths. One fish was very much covered with ich, and the other fish he was in with (both were new purchases from pet store) was ich free, and both made it through with no problem.

Just do your best. It's a good method if done conscientiously. you will win some and lose some despite your best efforts, just learn as much as you can and do your best.

However, your fish are all back in their original tank now?

How much ich do they show?

If you already put them back in the DT, and they've been previously in copper and TTM, and your DT was fallow for six weeks, I would think it isn't much, and that you could probably leave them in the DT safely. I would get some really good food (live blackworms), do weekly water changes and let them settle in. Bring me up to date if my understanding of the situation is incorrect.

 

[Deinonych]

Thank you appellativo. The surviving fish (two clowns, one wrasse) are back in their original tank doing well. I am now treating with CP at 80mg/g. The now-dead fish were not badly affected. The foxface had a few spots, but nothing extensive. They were all eating and behaving normally prior to transfer. SG and temp were an exact match, but I didn't check the pH. I'll bet that could have been the culprit, although I'm wondering why it didn't affect them immediately if so. Really kicking myself now - the foxface was my favorite fish.

But, it's as you say - chalk this up as a (harsh) learning experience and move forward.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I mix up my salt about 30g at a time in a brute container. What I did was set up one tank the night before and let it run overnight, and then move the fish over that morning. Running it overnight before putting the fish in let it get to temp and aerate before putting the fish in it.

 

[Deinonych]

Thanks very much. I think my mistake was not allowing the water to aerate in the container long enough. Oh well, my wife says I am "not allowed" to do TTM on my fish anymore.

 

[tmz]

I like to aerate newly mixed salt water overnight wit hclose atention to matching salinity or a little lower in the transfer tank. Ph is not usually a big deal at normal salinity levels. I'd bet on the infestation as the cause of death. Some fish succumb to an initial or secndary infestation. Another possibility is that another pathogen was in play like oodinium(velvet), flukes ,secondary bacterial infection, etc.

 

[NTP66]

Thanks very much. I think my mistake was not allowing the water to aerate in the container long enough. Oh well, my wife says I am "not allowed" to do TTM on my fish anymore.

lol, my wife said the same thing about 2 weeks into me using TTM on my fish (I had two 10g tanks and a 29g tank on the floor of our downstairs bathroom for nearly 2 months). I had to appease her by doing random chores around the house that I wanted no part of, so I guess we were even in the end.

FWIW, for smaller fish, I found that the 10g tanks were extremely easy to work with. I would make 32g of SW at a time and use that on the first 3 transfers. Easy to catch the fish in that size tank (using a colander made it quick and easy for the fish), and I didn't need a big heater or pump for the airstones (I ran two airstones on the same pump on the day before/of transfers). For reference, my Foxface was about 3.5-4" at the time, c.papua about 2.5", and rectangle trigger 2".

 

[daweedski]

please help http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21971195#post21971195

 

[ohana888]

hi steve,
thanks for the awesome info here! i have a 125 with 25 fish - mainly anthias & fairy wrasses. i have 2 fish that got ich for the past 2 days but none of the others. do i TTM all at the same time or separate the fish that show vs the ones that don't? can i combine low dose copper & TTM treatments? thanks again!

 

[stlcards14]

How is everyone controlling PH using this method?

 

[NTP66]

I don't do anything special for PH or anything else, outside of using Prime. Unless you have a ridiculously overstocked tank for the transfers, I don't know that you'd actually need to do anything because you're moving the fish to fresh SW every 3 days.