First fish in QT.

[Bent]

So, I found this guy at the lfs as I was looking for a single perc or osci for my new tank.

This is the first fish for my reef, the tank is not yet complete, but I figure that as soon as his QT time is over the system will be ready for him.

I made a small video, since I really don't know what I'm looking for, and I was hoping some trained eyes could spot a problem that I need to treat.
http://youtu.be/fw28GOVHtuw


A couple things I noticed:

1: he might have a mild case of fin rot, but I attribute that to poor water quality from the fish store.
2: he is breathing awfully fast, at first I chalked it up to stress, but since this is day 2, I'm starting to figure there might be another issue.
A: possibly need more oxygen, the tank has become increasingly cloudy
since I put him in, so I could be in the midst of a bacterial bloom that's
eating up all the O2.
B: it's also possible he has some kind of gill parasite.


So my plan today is to grab an air stone and pump and try to get more O2 in there, and start some prophylactic carbon treatment.

How does that sound? Any other suggestions/comments?

Food wise I have some freeze dried blood worms I was planning on feeding.

 

[nvladik]

Honestly if you can, I would take him back to the store. Osci's are cheap enough where you might quickly spend more on meds then on the fish itself, unless you felt bad for him and want to cure him.

Air won't do any harm. Blood worms - I don't know, that's usually FW food. But any SW flakes should do the trick.

 

[Bent]

Honestly if you can, I would take him back to the store. Osci's are cheap enough where you might quickly spend more on meds then on the fish itself, unless you felt bad for him and want to cure him.

Air won't do any harm. Blood worms - I don't know, that's usually FW food. But any SW flakes should do the trick.

Does he look sick? Or am I over reacting?

 

[Deinonych]

He does seem to be breathing pretty rapidly. A couple of questions come to mind:

1. How did you acclimate? What was the salinity of the LFS vs. salinity of the QT?
2. Is the QT cycled? Any ammonia present?
3. What kind of flow do you have in the tank? Are you providing anything right now to increase gas exchange?
4. Is the fish eating?

 

[Bent]

He does seem to be breathing pretty rapidly. A couple of questions come to mind:

1. How did you acclimate? What was the salinity of the LFS vs. salinity of the QT?
2. Is the QT cycled? Any ammonia present?
3. What kind of flow do you have in the tank? Are you providing anything right now to increase gas exchange?
4. Is the fish eating?

1: I floated for 15min, the SG in the bag was 1.024, I adjusted the QT to 1.023 and dripped him over 15min. Total time in opened bag was ~18min.

2: the QT is cycled. Zero ammonia

3: I have a HOB filter with charcoal removed, a seperate bag of charcoal (so I can remove it if needed), and a medium sized air stone that I just added.

4: no the fish has not eaten as of yet. (2100 tonight will be 24hrs)

 

[Deinonych]

OK, you can rule out osmotic shock and ammonia poisoning...that's good. You should have enough aeration, so I don't think low oxygen is a factor. That leaves a possible disease vector. Unfortunately, rapid breathing is a symptom for just about every fish ailment. You might start with a regimen of Prazipro in case it's flukes. It's one of the gentlest meds we have at our disposal. Remove the carbon before dosing.

As far as the food goes, I would try frozen mysis. Blood worms are more appropriate for freshwater fish.

 

[Bent]

OK, you can rule out osmotic shock and ammonia poisoning...that's good. You should have enough aeration, so I don't think low oxygen is a factor. That leaves a possible disease vector. Unfortunately, rapid breathing is a symptom for just about every fish ailment. You might start with a regimen of Prazipro in case it's flukes. It's one of the gentlest meds we have at our disposal. Remove the carbon before dosing.

As far as the food goes, I would try frozen mysis. Blood worms are more appropriate for freshwater fish.

I tried some flaked food and he didn't seem interested. But it's not even been 24hrs yet.

I'll give the frozen Mysis a shot tommorrow.

 

[Bent]

Well after looking at him harder under the light...I think he has brooklynella.

Opinions?

 

[Bent]

Well the saga is over. I returned him today. We looked him over and he even had a small fungal infection. The lfs said they would treat him.

So now my next question is...

How do I sanitize the QT after this? I thought about putting some bleach in the tank and throwing away the carbon bag, but I know certain types of pseudomonas can still survive in bleach.

What's the suggestion?

 

[Deinonych]

Looks like it could be the beginning stages of brook. Personally, I would completely sanitize everything with bleach and allow all equipment to completely dry for at least 24 hours.

 

[Bent]

Looks like it could be the beginning stages of brook. Personally, I would completely sanitize everything with bleach and allow all equipment to completely dry for at least 24 hours.

That's exactly what I'm doing now. Spraying everything down with bleach.

Throw the media in the trash? The carbon pouch and filter floss too? Or just bleach them?

 

[Deinonych]

I'd get rid of the media altogether. Not worth the risk. Brooklynella is nasty.

 

[Bent]

I did. In the trash.

I bleached the crap out of everything and I have it cycling again.