How to acclimate a pair?

[riley290]

meq/l

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

Do you know the signs of brook? Do they have a thickened slime coat? Do they have a grayish cast to their color?

 

[riley290]

no, the color looks fine and there isn't heavier slime coat. They seem to be doing a little better right now. I'll have to keep my eye out for a definitive sign of what's going on, but I may do a fresh water dip.

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

IMHO you need to stop doing dips. The fish are severly stressed out right now. Give them a week or two to settle in. Just try to feed them once in the morning and once at night and if they won't eat, don't put any more into the tank. Cleaning out the tank after every feeding is stressing them out as well as is constantly adding new water. I can tell you from first hand experience that changing water that often is very upsetting to new inhabitants. If they get a greyish color to them, use Formalin as a dip. But do not combine any medications or any Freshwater dips with that. If it comes to a formalin dip, I can tell you exactly how to go about it. Also, you need to have as much water movement at the surface as possible. I achieve this by having a small powerhead at the surface or using an airstone.

 

[riley290]

ok, I will suspend all action for a while. My biggest concern is the very rapid breathing, probably around 100-120/min and not eating, but we'll see how things progress in the next few days.

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

OK well here are a few things that can cause that rapid breathing... ammonia, nitrites, temp too high, low oxygen levels. Add an air stone to the tank. Check the temp. If it is above 80 degrees, lower it by 1 to 2 degrees per 24 hours. What type of test kits are you using and when do/did they expire?

 

[riley290]

I'm using Red Sea test kits. The temperature did rise to around 81 yesterday/last night.

I have a Aquaclear 30 in the qt tank and I have opened the venturi a little more to get some more O2 in there.

Tomorrow when I go to work I will test the water there (reagent grade probes and Sigma ISO 9000 test kits) to make sure my numbers are on.

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

81 is perfectly fine. Now 90 would be a major issue, LOL. I prefer Salifert test kits myself. You're lucky, you can go use some good stuff to test the water.

The reason why I said over 80 was too high in quarantine is because cooler water is easier to saturate with oxygen.

Hope they do well Can not wait to see those pictures.

 

[riley290]

after really checking them out and comparing photos from yesterday and today I'd say that they are starting to lose color. I'm goin to do another ammonia test and see what it says. If it reads anything should I water change?

 

[riley290]

Let's see if these work...

 

[riley290]

so my next question is where do I pick up some formalin in case I need it. There are no LFS here and petco/petsmart do not carry it. Any other places that regularly carry it? I can probably find some at work but it will probably be in granular form instead of in solution.

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

Hm I am not sure where you can find it then. You could ask a vet near you maybe.

Anywho, if you detect ammonia, you can either do a small water change, or dose with Prime or Amquel. Both of them detoxify ammonia. If ammonia is 1.0 ppm or under, I normally just dose Prime.

Very pretty little fish

 

[riley290]

thank you for the help! They still don't look very good today and in the little time I had before work I could see that they still seem to be breathing very rapidly/gill flashing. I plan on waiting it out and see if anything is getting better. Today at noon I will flip the lights on and then try to offer some food.

My question now is for continued care. If they keep losing color or develop a heavy slime coat I'm guessing brook. If so should I start to slowly lower my salinity?

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

Yes IMO. Do it slowly as to not shock them and get them down to 1.019

I do hope they get better for you. I am not saying that they have brook, but I have seen a bunch of WC and TR fish lately that have come down with it.

 

[riley290]

yes, the more I have been looking the more I've seen of some sort of outbreak of brook. These guys were TR at ORA and shipped through saltwaterfish.com. I'm assuming this is where they became infected as they keep WC fish as well although I'm not sure of the tank arrangement.

Noon update:

small one: yesterday did not eat. Today accepted selcon soaked frozen brine shrimp and flake formula 1. Stringy white poop observed 25 min later. Breathing very rapidly and now looks laboring. Swimming movement has increased but no erratic behavior. dorsal fin is clamped down, all other fins look normal. small discoloration at the tail just behind most caudal stripe. Swimming w/in .5" of the bottom.

large one: still not taking food. breathing seems normal, no erratic behavior. has same discoloration at the tail. Swimming higher in water column than small one (3" off bottom)

I will continue to monitor this spot on both of their tails. I can't tell if there is mechanical damage or if it is the beginning of a disease sign.

params as of noon
78.7F
NH3 .25
NO2 .05
pH 8.3
alk 3 meq/L

no other tests performed, will take sample of water to work for accurate testing (we're talking ppt, its nice to work at a research facility).

Thank you so much pipedream for following along and offering advice, I know this is old hat to many of you but as a newb I'd like to thank you all and you are such a valuable resource to us all. Keep up the good work!

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

I do sincerely hope that it is not brook. I bought a rather expensive large female cinnamon wild caught from the Solomon Islands a couple of months ago that I lost to brook. Formalin seems to be the best to use on brook after hours upon hours of painstaking research. There is a website called rare clownfish that I am also on that has some very good threads about brook and the proper treatment. I have now decided to use Formalin on nearly every new clown that I get. It seems as soon as theY start breating heavily, declining food, and acting strange that they are on the way out the door. Brook acts fairly fast so if you can call around, try to get Formalin as fast as possible. I know that it would cost more, but you could always order it and have it shipped overnight. I am very partial to drsfosterandsmith.

It must be nice to work at a research facility. Are you at A&M?

Also, I greatly appreciate the thank you. It is no problem.

 

[riley290]

yeah, I'm trying to get some formalin right now. We are lucky to have one of the best vet schools in the world along with two aquatic vets who do some consulting for free so I have emailed them.

I don't work at A&M but with some of the professors. Most of the work I do is for NIH, CDC and the DOD.

Yeah, I'm afriad that its brook, but I'm also happy I decided to order from a place with a 15 day guarantee. We'll see how this turns out as I'm not too hopeful at this point, but I'll continue to monitor and do what I can.

 

[xxpipedreamxx]

That is all that you can do really. Just be glad that you got them with a guarantee I would gladly trade ya jobs

 

[riley290]

On one of my projects I had to deal with zebrafish (breeding, rearing, then experiment) so I've become accustomed to the reality of how well aquatic species due under stress and capture. I went through about 9,000 fry to select 100 viable specimens for my study.

And you think you're careful with your tank but you've never been more diligent than when there is a multi-million dollar grant on the line and executives breathing down your neck about getting it done.

 

[riley290]

also, pipedream

can you spell out the protocol for formalin baths that you used? I don't know that I can do much to help now but the practice and reference is always needed.