Hypo Failure?

[barjam]

I moved all of my fish to a hospital tank 8 weeks ago to treat for ich. The ich vanished (visible signs) after 3 days. I started to raise the salinity this week and all of a sudden I see white spots on the yellow tang (no other fish). This is somewhat odd since the tang has never shown any signs of ich since he was purchased. Even when other fish did have ich. During the treatment the salinity was at 1.09 (via a calibrated refract) and did not flucuate.

During the treatment the yellow tang had the red streak issue (and in general wasn't all that healthy) but that cleared up after three or four days (water changes). During treatment no fish showed any signs of ich.

In any case the hypo treatment is going to be over tomorrow and the fish are going back into the display tank. Yellow tang went from a completely healthy fish to a less than healthy specimen while in the hospital tank and I am going to give him a few months to get healthy again before I attempt any other treatments.

Any thoughts? Honestly I feel that hypo was a waste of time and money at this point.

 

[ronjeremy]

how long were the fish actually in hypo conditions???

 

[barjam]

Eight weeks and two days.

 

[ronjeremy]

does the yellow tang have any signs presently?? if so, are they coming and going???

 

[barjam]

The dots showed up as soon as I started raising salinity. These dots are small enough and few enough and are on a yellow fish so it is hard to say if they are coming and going. The tang has suffered a bit in the QT tank. At one point he had a red bacterial skin issue and after that he had a bit of skin swelling. He has had nearly constant attention from the gobby (who is fat fat I might add). I suppose it is possible that it is some other skin iritation. I really don't know.

On a side note I think the red bacterial skin issue and the swelling were due to water quality issues. I thought the tank was fully cycled and it appears that I may have had a mini cycle over Thanksgiving (I was out of town) and prior to that I didn't have measureable nitrites and now I do. I do large water changes daily to cut down the nitrites but they are still there. I have read from quite a few sources that nitrites are not toxic to saltwater fish but the fact that they are there would indicate to me that I have water quality issues in general. PH & Ammonia are both stable (8.2 and 0).

I think I am going to leave the salinity where it is right now and just observe. I have read that yellow tangs exposed to hypo too long may suffer from kidney issues so I think it is prudent to give them a bit of time at a closer to normal salinity.

 

[ronjeremy]

the fish can actually stay in hypo conditions longer than you think without suffering kidney damage...how many spots were on the tang?? it is very important to try to see if they are coming and going, or if they are just staying put.also, are they getting any bigger or smaller???.i know it is hard to tell.. i have treated yellows before..if they are not leaving, it could be a bacterial issue..where is the salinity at right now???