Help! My powder blue tang has a bubble in one eye!

[ReeFreak1]

The sight should not be effected.. This assuming that the rest of the cornea or eye is clear.

Good news:dance:the bubble had completely went away. I am still a bit worried because the eye is still cloudy. Do you think that the cloudiness will go away? Also there is a small dot in the center of the good eye. Do you think this is a start of another pop-eye?

 

[slief]

Good news:dance:the bubble had completely went away. I am still a bit worried because the eye is still cloudy. Do you think that the cloudiness will go away? Also there is a small dot in the center of the good eye. Do you think this is a start of another pop-eye?

No telling on either account. The cloudiness should go away on it's own. Their could be a bubble forming in the other eye as the gases may not have left the fishes body completely yet and the eye is the easiest place for the bubbles to form. Just be patient.

 

[ReeFreak1]

No telling on either account. The cloudiness should go away on it's own. Their could be a bubble forming in the other eye as the gases may not have left the fishes body completely yet and the eye is the easiest place for the bubbles to form. Just be patient.

Patience is a virtue. Thanx.

 

[ReeFreak1]

No telling on either account. The cloudiness should go away on it's own. Their could be a bubble forming in the other eye as the gases may not have left the fishes body completely yet and the eye is the easiest place for the bubbles to form. Just be patient.

You were absolutely right Slief. Wow; everything you said was entirely correct. The second eye formed another gas bubble. I think part of it is my fault. The white dot in the center of the eye extended like a white thread about 2mm out. I did a FW dip for fear it was flukes again. Well, it remained so it was not flukes. The next day, the bubble formed and it is steadily growing. Of course my fresh water was overly saturated with oxygen, which could have contributed to the problem. Bummer! :headwally:

Are PBTs sensitive to FW dips???

 

[Subsea]

For Ich cure in an established reef tank, Paul B and I have the same attitude. Provide a healthy enviroment and encourage a good slime coat to optomize the fishes immune system. Garlic should encourage appetite. Feed your tank inhabitants differrent healthy foods. Neither Paul nor I quarantine. Last Christmas, I got my second ich outbreak in 45 years on a newly introduced Hippo Tang. I used garlic to encourage appetite and added Prime to encourage slime coat. I also added a 70W UV sterilizer to the 75G tank which has been set up for 12 years. I can assure you that any ich that went thru that sterilizer was dead when it came out. However, the life cycle of the ich parasite has several stages that does not include free swimming in the water column. When the parasite is imbedded in the fishes slime coat it is immune to treatment, including cooper. Also, when the parasite leaves its host, it can lay dormat in its cocoon for quite some time. Most literature says 28-56 days. I disagree with this. My first ich outbreak was in a large system that saw no introduction of inhabitants for 18 months. Following a power loss that stressed the system, ich was every where.

Recently on this forum, Paul B wrote a thread on healthy slime coat and fish immune system. Feed your fish a healthy varied diet including as much live food as possible.
Good luck with your ich.
Patrick

 

[DamonG]

Do you have the link to his article? I would love to read it?

 

[Subsea]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2448010

Paul and I have been reefing for the same amount of time. Both of us starting after returning from the Vietnam War in 1970. Paul got my attention when he put obvious ich infested fish into his 100G established reef tank with the subsecant cure of the ich on the infected fish.
Patrick

 

[ReeFreak1]

For Ich cure in an established reef tank, Paul B and I have the same attitude. Provide a healthy enviroment and encourage a good slime coat to optomize the fishes immune system. Garlic should encourage appetite. Feed your tank inhabitants differrent healthy foods. Neither Paul nor I quarantine. Last Christmas, I got my second ich outbreak in 45 years on a newly introduced Hippo Tang. I used garlic to encourage appetite and added Prime to encourage slime coat. I also added a 70W UV sterilizer to the 75G tank which has been set up for 12 years. I can assure you that any ich that went thru that sterilizer was dead when it came out. However, the life cycle of the ich parasite has several stages that does not include free swimming in the water column. When the parasite is imbedded in the fishes slime coat it is immune to treatment, including cooper. Also, when the parasite leaves its host, it can lay dormat in its cocoon for quite some time. Most literature says 28-56 days. I disagree with this. My first ich outbreak was in a large system that saw no introduction of inhabitants for 18 months. Following a power loss that stressed the system, ich was every where.

Recently on this forum, Paul B wrote a thread on healthy slime coat and fish immune system. Feed your fish a healthy varied diet including as much live food as possible.
Good luck with your ich.
Patrick

I totally agree to that. I have been using Garlic for a few months and Ginger extracts for three weeks now. My fish's appetite has been very good, but I think ich was intensified lately upon the introduction of a Caulerpa in the sump a month ago. Oops, I woke up the sleeping giant! There has been no sign of ich for the past 3 days so hope it stays that way. Its too soon to say ich is over yet, but I have to say that I have witnessed great improvement in using both homemade Garlic and Ginger extracts over using Garlic alone in my constant battle against ich. Will keep you updated.

On a side note: I am amazed that you used a 70W UV for 75 G tank, which is over sized IMO. Do you think that 70 W UV has advantage over using a 10W for the same size tank?

 

[Subsea]

My mistake. The sterilizer was 40W. The only issue with such a large sterilizer was added heat to the water. For certain, free swimming ich that went thru the sterilizer were killed. You could not be assured of that with a 10W sterilizer unless you slowed the flow down a lot. The price per watt of the 40W sterilizer in 1/3 of the cost of the 10W unit. I left the sterilizer on the tank for 6 months before I removed it this past August. It certainly kept the water sparkling clear.
I am presently experimenting with using it in conjunction with skimmerless operation and carbon dosing on a 135G sumpless lagoon setup. A pHd micro biologist friend tells me that the UV will rupture bacteria membrance and turn the available bacteria nutrients into gumbo for the tank filter feeders. I have been doing this for a little over a month now with an abundent increase of micro feather duster and spaghetti worms.
Patrick

 

[ReeFreak1]

My mistake. The sterilizer was 40W. The only issue with such a large sterilizer was added heat to the water. For certain, free swimming ich that went thru the sterilizer were killed. You could not be assured of that with a 10W sterilizer unless you slowed the flow down a lot. The price per watt of the 40W sterilizer in 1/3 of the cost of the 10W unit. I left the sterilizer on the tank for 6 months before I removed it this past August. It certainly kept the water sparkling clear.
I am presently experimenting with using it in conjunction with skimmerless operation and carbon dosing on a 135G sumpless lagoon setup. A pHd micro biologist friend tells me that the UV will rupture bacteria membrance and turn the available bacteria nutrients into gumbo for the tank filter feeders. I have been doing this for a little over a month now with an abundent increase of micro feather duster and spaghetti worms.
Patrick

Interesting experiment.:bounce1: What do you use as a carbon source and what is your current Nitrate level? Did your nitrate change up or down during the past month?

 

[slief]

You were absolutely right Slief. Wow; everything you said was entirely correct. The second eye formed another gas bubble. I think part of it is my fault. The white dot in the center of the eye extended like a white thread about 2mm out. I did a FW dip for fear it was flukes again. Well, it remained so it was not flukes. The next day, the bubble formed and it is steadily growing. Of course my fresh water was overly saturated with oxygen, which could have contributed to the problem. Bummer! :headwally:

Are PBTs sensitive to FW dips???

If you keep messing with this fish, you will kill it from the stress. Stop with the dips and everything else because at this point you are doing nothing but stressing this fish out. Just let it heal on it's own. By the way, the sudden salinity changes are doing nothing but making it's eyes worse as that is one of the causes of GBD. I think I mentioned that previously.

FWIW, garlic and ginger do NOTHING for ich. What you read in that ginger thread is nothing more than coincidence and assumptions. Ich has been around for as long as people have been keeping fish and there are only a few proven methods for resolving it. Garlic and ginger are not among those methods. It may give you piece of mind but too much garlic can be harmful to the fish although when used with moderation it may be an appetite stimulant and feeding may help the fish fight off the parasite. Hippo's are notorious for carrying ich. They are also fairly tolerant of it. It will come and go like the tides on them and a little bit of stress or a temp swing is all it takes for them to break out. I won't keep hippos in my tank because of that regardless of the QT procedure. They may be tolerant of ich but the rest of the tanks inhabitants aren't necessarily.

 

[Subsea]

Interesting experiment.:bounce1: What do you use as a carbon source and what is your current Nitrate level? Did your nitrate change up or down during the past month?

With respect to your fish situation, you should chill out and let nature take its course. Of course fresh water dips stress fish. Stress weakens fish immune systems and weakened immune systems bring on ich.

The carbon dosing and skimmerless thread is on this forum. My carbon source is 5% vinegar. I am not carbon dosing to lower nitrate or phosphate, which are undetectable. I am carbon dosing to increase productivity in a reef tank. Everything on planet Earth is carbon based. Acetic acid is a clean source of carbon compared to feeding the tank heavily.
Patrick

 

[neonpoke]

I've been in the hobby for about 27 years now and learned of lot of lessons over that time...

Well put, Slief. A lot of my friends that have been in the hobby for years have expressed the same opinion on Ich.

 

[ReeFreak1]

If you keep messing with this fish, you will kill it from the stress. Stop with the dips and everything else because at this point you are doing nothing but stressing this fish out. Just let it heal on it's own. By the way, the sudden salinity changes are doing nothing but making it's eyes worse as that is one of the causes of GBD. I think I mentioned that previously.

FWIW, garlic and ginger do NOTHING for ich. What you read in that ginger thread is nothing more than coincidence and assumptions. Ich has been around for as long as people have been keeping fish and there are only a few proven methods for resolving it. Garlic and ginger are not among those methods. It may give you piece of mind but too much garlic can be harmful to the fish although when used with moderation it may be an appetite stimulant and feeding may help the fish fight off the parasite. Hippo's are notorious for carrying ich. They are also fairly tolerant of it. It will come and go like the tides on them and a little bit of stress or a temp swing is all it takes for them to break out. I won't keep hippos in my tank because of that regardless of the QT procedure. They may be tolerant of ich but the rest of the tanks inhabitants aren't necessarily.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Today, however, both fish eyes have recovered from bubble disease. There is still a bit of cloudiness in the recently affected eye, but it is recovering nicely. The fish is very healthy and show no signs of disease. With the help of everyone in this thread, I did a wonderful job saving this fish, which was not going to make it based on it's initial health condition and the many diseases it encountered. So many thanks everyone. I will try to post a video later. I am still keeping it in the QT as I don't dare risking adding it to the DT with the hippo in it. I'm thinking about upgrading to a larger tank.

 

[ReeFreak1]

With respect to your fish situation, you should chill out and let nature take its course. Of course fresh water dips stress fish. Stress weakens fish immune systems and weakened immune systems bring on ich.

The carbon dosing and skimmerless thread is on this forum. My carbon source is 5% vinegar. I am not carbon dosing to lower nitrate or phosphate, which are undetectable. I am carbon dosing to increase productivity in a reef tank. Everything on planet Earth is carbon based. Acetic acid is a clean source of carbon compared to feeding the tank heavily.
Patrick

couldn't agree more Subsea. Interesting thread.

 

[ReeFreak1]

All right all. All is well with the powder blue tang now. It is in perfect condition. It is still in my QT tank as I am afraid to move it to the DT for fear of Ich. I don't know what to do yet. Ich is controlled with the Hippo Tang, but I think if I add the PBT to DT, it would be overwhelming and the Ich would spread uncontrollably as there would be two sensitive fishes in the DT. I had a heck of a time with the PBT, but to me it is well worth it! I posted a short video as an update.:bounce3:

 

[Paul B]

Patrick, first of all, Welcome home Brother

Paul and I have been reefing for the same amount of time. Both of us starting after returning from the Vietnam War in 1970. Paul got my attention when he put obvious ich infested fish into his 100G established reef tank with the subsecant cure of the ich on the infected fish.
Patrick

How did I get involved in an Ich thread? I don't do ich threads as I swore off them along with a few other topics because I am often mis quoted, mis understood, mis diagnosed, and mis interpreted. But never mis leading, mis taken, missing, or called Miss. as that would be a mistimenor :fun5:

 

[ReeFreak1]

Lol. That's really funny.