help my lionfish!

[dmopar74]

my fish came down with ich, so i setup a 40g QT tank and placed them in it. ever since the lion went in he went down hill, breathing heavy, looks like swollen gills, today his tail is rotting, and all along the base of his spine has a red tinge, body seems to be rubbed raw, lethargic, also refuses to eat.

i have been battling .25ppm ammonia in the QT with daily 50% water changes, and i am treating the ich with quick cure per lfs advise due to lion being sensitive to copper.

fish are 6" volitan lion
2 clarkii clowns
decorated goby
coral beauty which also seems to have slightly ragged fins, was the worst with ich.

its been 3 days and he's just getting worse. could this be due to the ammonia? ive even been overdosing stability, but it seems to do nothing for the ammonia.

 

[fishyness]

What is quick cure? Either copper or hyposalinity is the only way to cure ich. Do you know anyone who has seeded media filtration you could use? You are not treating the ich at all, I'm sorry to say, and they are dying from ich and ammonia poisoning. If you want to save them, get some seeded filtration now, and start to lower your salinity. There are many articles about how to do it, I've done it, never lost a fish due to that, and am still ich free.

 

[namxas]

The NH3 is likely burning the fish's gills, which is one reason it's gilling hard. The other rreason my be that there is crypto in its gills. If it takes 100% WC's, ya gotta do it OR you need to neutralize the NH3 with a buffered neutralizer (Ultimate, Amquel Plus, etc). Methylene blue may help soothe the burned gills.

You CAN use copper on a lion if it's a chelated preparation such as Copper Safe.

The "rotting tail" and red areas around its dorsal spines suggest a secondary bacterial infection, so you may need to add a broad-spectrum antibiotic if it doesn't clear up.

As a minimum, I'd get the NH3 under control, drop an airline into the tank to increase O2 saturation, and treat the fish with copper. Hopefully, this will improve the fish's condition.

 

[dmopar74]

i just added prime to detox the ammonia for now, and will do another WC tonight and add an airstone.

quick cure is formalin and malchite green, is this helping anything i got going on?

 

[DoubleM 10]

when my fish had te same issue you are explaining. i used seachem cupremine( i think thats how its spelled) cleared up in 1.5 days. its better for lions. mine was a fuzzy dwarf lion

 

[Mitch5]

that odd the lion got ich out of all of them in my experinse vlitions are very hardy

 

[RBU1]

Becareful mixing ammonia binding agents with copper.....They turn copper deadly. If you can keep the water quality good and get the fish eating again then I would try a treatment. The less stress the better.....Doing several different things at once can be worse on the fish then doing nothing at all. Do a 100% water change and keep a good eye on the ammonia. Hopefully the removal of the ammonia will get the fish eating again...

 

[pavelow360]

my fish came down with ich, so i setup a 40g QT tank and placed them in it. ever since the lion went in he went down hill, breathing heavy, looks like swollen gills, today his tail is rotting, and all along the base of his spine has a red tinge, body seems to be rubbed raw, lethargic, also refuses to eat.

i have been battling .25ppm ammonia in the QT with daily 50% water changes, and i am treating the ich with quick cure per lfs advise due to lion being sensitive to copper.

fish are 6" volitan lion
2 clarkii clowns
decorated goby
coral beauty which also seems to have slightly ragged fins, was the worst with ich.

its been 3 days and he's just getting worse. could this be due to the ammonia? ive even been overdosing stability, but it seems to do nothing for the ammonia.

The ammonia neutralizer may be working; you will still get readings of ammonia on your test kits.

 

[namxas]

Any word on your fish?