Help - Aquarium Disaster

[_FishFreak_724]

Hello,
I have a 120 gal (soon to be upgraded) saltwater fish only aquarium. And i have ran into a bit of a problem !!!

Well, i lost my pride and joy (8in Red Sea Clown Trigger) to some rare symptoms, first he lost some color, than i noticed some white specks on him, the he stopped eating, then his eyes clouded, and then he died ......

And i have also lost the following :
Picasso Trigger
Bursa Trigger
Juv. Clown Trigger
Green Scat

Now InFected:
Juv. Clown Trigger
Niger Trigger

Still Have and Diesease Free :
Stars and stripes puffer
manilla puffer
purple pseduo
javanse damsel
mono
silver scat
snowflake eels (2)

Was Infected Now cured :
Ruby Scat

- I know my tank was filled to the MAX and it needed to be upgraded and i am/was in the process of finding a 300gal or so.

The tank was filled with a lot of aggressive fish, but there was only minimul (if any) agression.

How come this is only mainly infecting my triggers ??

------------------------------------------

I have "Copper Power" in my main tank at a level of 4.0 ( i have always had copper in the tank at a level of 2.5 - 3 but i raised it because of diesease )

Ammonia- 0
Nitrate- 0
Nitrite- 0
PH- 8.0
Sg- 1.021
Temp- 78.8

Everyting seems fine to me .....

Just now i have noticed some small white "bugs" crawling around on the tank glass and on the lid. I have never saw anything like this before ..... they are really small but noticiable. Obviously they are some sort off invert and my copper should of taken care of it .... correct ???

Could these be a what are killing my fish ???

Over all what the **** are they ?!?!?!

The copper i am using is made by - EndIch Inc. and says it is to be used for ich, oodium, fungus, and external parisites.

PLEASE HELP ME ~~~~

 

[ndas2976]

The white bugs you see crawling on your glass are probably copepods. They are harmless, and very doubtful that they are killing your fish.

You should not keep copper in your tank all the time. While copper is a good treatment when needed, it is also a immune suppressant. Copper will inhibit the fish's natural immune system from fighting off parasites or infections on their own.

I would remove the 2 triggers that are infected now, if at all possible into a Qt/Hospital tank and treat with hyposalinity. Continue to feed good quality foods and dose the food with a vitamin (selcon, garlic extreme).

If you don't have a Qt tank, continue to add vitamins to the food and give the infected fish a fresh water dip. You might have to give several dips with a 1 day break in between not to stress out the fish to much. Be sure the fw temp. and ph matches the same as your show tank, and the dip should last between 5-10 minutes. Monitor the fish while giving the dip, and if the fish starts to show any sign of distress (lying on his side, rapid gill movement) place the fish back into the show tank right away. Don't dip all the fish in the same fw either, and when removing the fish from the fw dip, scoop the fish out with a gloved hand and hold the fish in your hand gently in the display until you start to feel it move then release him back into the tank.

Hope this helps, and I hope your guys recover.

 

[kevin2000]

Since you have using copper in your show tank for some time I would suggest that keeping all the fish in the show tank makes sense.

Copper is 100% effective against ich .. however its only effective if kept at the proper concentration which often requires one or more test per day .. especially in the presence of calcium carbonate substrates. I have never heard of "copper power" but since it apparently hasn't done the job you might consider switching products .. cupramine is considered the least harsh copper product but make sure you have a test kit which can measure Cupramine (red sea, cupramine, and salifert).

 

[_FishFreak_724]

Thanks for the heads up .... i never knew that fish could become "immune" to the copper ....
Once i see the diesease is completely gone , i throw in some carbon and do a waterchange. But, as for the ill juv. clown trigger, i gave him a FW dip earlier today , and he immediately laid on his side, even when the ph & temp were equalized, so i let him sit for about 2-3 minuetes and then scooped back into the main. he was a little stressed and he went and hid, but then he came out as i droped in a chunck of garlic guard soaked table shrimp, and he ate a chunk . maybe ill dip again tomorrow ....

As for the bugs .... i wont worry.

Thanks !!

 

[kevin2000]

I suggest you slow down and read the ick sticky posts at the top of the forum. Pay particular attention to the life cycle of the ich parasite outlined in one of the links.

Ich doesn't become immune to copper ... the fish's immune system can become impaired because of copper usage.

Ich naturally falls off the fish within a week ... common for aquarist to think there "treatment" has been effective when there "treatment " hasn't done squat and its just the ich's normally life cycle which allow the ich to leave the fish and fall to the substrate to produce more ich.

Ich treatments often take at least 3 weeks .. that includes copper.