Grrrr

[colby]

Help me please...during my recent trip to NY my baby brother decided to put about $5 worth of assorted change into my broodstock tank!! I believe they were in there for around two days...they had mostly turned green..on top of that the tiles they called home were tipped over and there was an excess of uneaten bs on the floor...I immediately pulled all the coins out vacumedd the green residue off of the floor and did a large water change. I believe that the fish may have been poisoned. Is that possible? Also it appears that the stress of my terrorizing 2 year old brother put on my fish by no doubt pounding on the tank has caused my fish to fall back into the ich infection they had virtually overcome prior to my absence. Sooo...what do y'all recommend I do? The female seems ok..she has light patches on her skin that seem to me to be ish...she is not breathing fst and appears to be atleast partially interested in food. The male on the other hand is breathing fast, swimming funny and showing no interest in food. He however shows no visible signs of disease..Please help.
Colby:mad2:

 

[traveller7]

Waterchange, fresh carbon, polyfilter, are good places to start.

Not enough information to determine if you are dealing with water conditions or parasites at this point.

Good luck with the recovery efforts.

 

[stykthyn]

I dont think the coind themselves would have harmed the fish, by "bs" do you mean brine shrimp? If so the uneaten food could have caused a nitrate spike which could have caused the ich relapse

 

[colby]

thnx..yeah I did a large water change fresh carbon and polyfilter...yes I mean Brine Shrimp...my sister was kind enough to feed the fish for me and although I pre-portioned the food something happenedd and the were fed WAY to much...so ultimately I am thinking it was just combination of all the stressful things that happened that caused the ich relapse. Thanx for the advice. If anyone knows anything about coins and possible poisoning please let me know thanx.
Colby

 

[stykthyn]

the only problems with the coins is whatever oils,dirt,etc... they may have come in contact with before they went into the tank. the fish themselves would unlikely suffer from an oxidizing coin, but inverts are another matter altogether. they would be the first to show the effects of heavy metal in a tank. I wouldnt worry about the coins.
What are your water parameters?
Were they currently breeding?
How are you treating the ich?

 

[colby]

Stykthyn...the params are all good...now..the nitrite was kinda high as you suggested it may be but after I vacuumed all of the dead shrimp and junk out and did a large water change the water is all good...I am treating the fish with "rid-ich" the active ingredient being formalin...the fish were a breeding pair from ORA I just very recently acquired and as of the day I left for New York the female looked like a pot bellied pig, they had cleaned a nest off and were basically acting like my other pairs of clowns I have had breed in the past...but were they currently breeding,..no....so what do you think?
Colby

 

[stykthyn]

if they havnt established a breeding schedule with you yet then I would remove to a QT and treat with hyposalinity for 2 weeks. this does two things
1)you dont want to medicate fish unless you absolutely have to, and to me ich is not severe enough to warrant medications or chemicals.
2) never medicate or treat for illness in the display tank. by removing the fish and treating in a QT you will give the tank time to recover without the fish in it. Also when you medicate a tank the chemicals will often absorb into the glass and will leach out over time.

 

[colby]

ok...thanx for the advice...the problem is my parents wont let me set up another tank..even temporarily..also the tank they are in is virtually a quarantine tnak...all it has is a tile in it and a rick which they have cleaned off...thanx for the help.

Colby