I recently purchased longnose hawkfish, cleaner wrasse, yellow tang and powder brown tang from my local LFS. All fish but the powder brown have been in his system for more than several weeks. Only the powder brown was just received from Vietnam. All fish were in great condition, active and eating well. I placed them in a 30g tank and I started to lower the salinity. Fish arrived on the 23rd of march, by the 31st salinity was 1.008. I measure it with a NSW solution calibrated refractometer. Shortly before hitting the 1.008 i saw some white spots on my PBT, which disappeared a day after that. Since then,I see zero white spots on either of the fish. However i noticed some fast breathing and thought it could also be flukes. I dosed prazi pro at the recommended dose - once for 3 days, then 40% water change and then dosing again leaving it for like 5 days. I reduced the PP treatement cause my longnoose stopped eating while in prazi pro. So for the past 5 days fish are quite letargic, especially the two tangs. They are both scrathing and heavy breathing, some shredded fins. Today however the breathing is a bit better and all are eating more, however still scrathing.
Then I start to scratch my head - why is hyposalinity not working as desired. What comes in mind is the following:
1. My NSW calibrating solution is bad and my refractometer readings are wrong. But then I use RedSea Coral pro salt and the refractometer reads exactly 35ppm when new salt is mixed as adviced on the bucket. So I suppose my reading should be about right.
2. There is a hyposalinity-resistant strain of ich that is still infecting the gills, even though no visible white spots. However I've never heard of such low salinity thriving ich strain. And why only in the gills and not showing on the body?
3. It needs time for hyposalinity to work. Yes but fish have been in hypo for more than 10 days now, shouldn't that clean all visible and non visible (gill) infections?
4. I did not eradicate all the flukes and they got even more active after removing the therapeutic dose of Prazi. Yes but I would see at least some improvement after the prazi treatement and not the opposite, right? Also from what I read, fish do not scratch from fluke infection alone, when it's flukes only head-shaking and flashing is what people see.
5. It is Velvet as hyposalinity doesn't seem to help much. I really notice some discoloration on tangs, however I think it is due to the permanent lights off during the hypo. But then my eyes could be fooling me and not see the goldish velvet on the skin. And again if it were velvet wouldn't it kill all fish by now and why today I see some imporvents in feeding behaviour? Doesn't it look like ich cycle or velvet also has similar cycles where fish is a bit released? Any good picture of velvet infected tang with no so severe symptoms would help a lot if someone could provide one. Most of the photos on the net is of severe velvet infections, where fish is massively discolored.
What I must decide is whether to:
1. Keep this course of hyposalinity treatement and wait for improvements.
2. Wait some days till my longnose eats and gains some more weight and dose Prazi Pro again in case it's flukes that survived the previous 10 days of Prazi.
3. Quit hyposalinity, raise salinity to ~1.017-1.020 and dose Chloroquine Phosphate based med *with hopes* it will kill whatever my fish have (it's said to kill flukes as well)
4. Find fresh formalin and do some formalin baths on the tangs, although my yellow tang have few bruises from the PBT bites on the fins and formalin could be dangerous.
5. Quit hyposalinity, raise salinity to 1.026 & dose copper. However my cupramine is 3 years old and last time i didn't have much success with it, even testing daily. Not to mention it is said to permanently damage fish's liver.
Any advice will be greatly greatly appreciated. Anyone who has some experience with hyposalinity treatement will be of great help as well. Thanks in advance.
Then I start to scratch my head - why is hyposalinity not working as desired. What comes in mind is the following:
1. My NSW calibrating solution is bad and my refractometer readings are wrong. But then I use RedSea Coral pro salt and the refractometer reads exactly 35ppm when new salt is mixed as adviced on the bucket. So I suppose my reading should be about right.
2. There is a hyposalinity-resistant strain of ich that is still infecting the gills, even though no visible white spots. However I've never heard of such low salinity thriving ich strain. And why only in the gills and not showing on the body?
3. It needs time for hyposalinity to work. Yes but fish have been in hypo for more than 10 days now, shouldn't that clean all visible and non visible (gill) infections?
4. I did not eradicate all the flukes and they got even more active after removing the therapeutic dose of Prazi. Yes but I would see at least some improvement after the prazi treatement and not the opposite, right? Also from what I read, fish do not scratch from fluke infection alone, when it's flukes only head-shaking and flashing is what people see.
5. It is Velvet as hyposalinity doesn't seem to help much. I really notice some discoloration on tangs, however I think it is due to the permanent lights off during the hypo. But then my eyes could be fooling me and not see the goldish velvet on the skin. And again if it were velvet wouldn't it kill all fish by now and why today I see some imporvents in feeding behaviour? Doesn't it look like ich cycle or velvet also has similar cycles where fish is a bit released? Any good picture of velvet infected tang with no so severe symptoms would help a lot if someone could provide one. Most of the photos on the net is of severe velvet infections, where fish is massively discolored.
What I must decide is whether to:
1. Keep this course of hyposalinity treatement and wait for improvements.
2. Wait some days till my longnose eats and gains some more weight and dose Prazi Pro again in case it's flukes that survived the previous 10 days of Prazi.
3. Quit hyposalinity, raise salinity to ~1.017-1.020 and dose Chloroquine Phosphate based med *with hopes* it will kill whatever my fish have (it's said to kill flukes as well)
4. Find fresh formalin and do some formalin baths on the tangs, although my yellow tang have few bruises from the PBT bites on the fins and formalin could be dangerous.
5. Quit hyposalinity, raise salinity to 1.026 & dose copper. However my cupramine is 3 years old and last time i didn't have much success with it, even testing daily. Not to mention it is said to permanently damage fish's liver.
Any advice will be greatly greatly appreciated. Anyone who has some experience with hyposalinity treatement will be of great help as well. Thanks in advance.
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