Hyposalinity

[TWallace]

I found a product called Rid Ich+ that contains formaldehyde (4.6%) and formalin (11.5%), so I got that. It also contains malachite green, I'm not sure if that's beneficial or not. It's the only product the local PetCo had that even listed formalin as an ingredient. So I gave my clown a 40 minute dip in a mixture of the quarantine tank water and the Rid Ich+. Should I repeat this daily, or every few days?

My coral beauty is looking fantastic, no more white spots and behaves like a perfectly healthy fish. His eyes are still a little cloudy, I don't know if that's related to ich, though.

 

[White Tiger]

If the fish is stressed out by the dip, do it only once every 2-3 days. However, it the fish does not stress out, do it every day.

 

[Luis A M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7082476#post7082476 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TWallace
I found a product called Rid Ich+ that contains formaldehyde (4.6%) and formalin (11.5%),

It's the same thing.Pure formalin is a 38%solution of formaldehyde in water.
I"ve tried baths every 48hrs,and it was effective against Brook,much more than copper or hyposalinity.

 

[TWallace]

I think it might be too late for the percula clown. She didn't move at all today, though she's still breathing. At one point I thought she was dead and moved some rocks near her to check. She started twitching when she noticed that, so I left her alone. I'm tempted to just take her out and put her out of her misery, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, my coral beauty was found in a similar condition a few days ago and has recovered now. Thanks everyone for the help so far.

 

[TWallace]

Well the percula didn't make it. She must have died overnight. I'm thinking it must have been brooklynella and I didn't recognize it soon enough. At least I'll be more prepared for next time.

The coral beauty still looks great and I'm starting the 4 week timer now, and then he goes into the main tank.

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Sorry about your Clown I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you Angel!

 

[TWallace]

Thanks for the help so far BTTRFLYGRL. I'm pretty confident the coral beauty is going to make it. He's looked great several days in a row now. His eyes look clearer now, too. Just need to sit through the four weeks of hypo now.

 

[TWallace]

Update on the CB. He's still looking and eating good in the QT at 1.009 SG. However he's developed a large white spot (larger than an ich parasite) at the base of his dorsal fin. I noticed it last night and it was still there this morning. Should I be worried?

 

[TWallace]

Another update. The CB is developing more white spots. All of them look a little bit bigger than the typical ich spots that he previously had. Here he is a couple weeks ago in QT after the hypo (seemingly) eradicated the ich.

And here he is today:

In this pic, you can see what looks like possibly the beginning of HLLE:

I've never had a fish with HLLE before and have done very little research on it. I think I remember that it might be caused by lack of certain vitamins or nutrients in their diet. I've been feeding him frozen mysis shrimp, krill, Pygmy Angel Formula, Cyclop-eeze wafer and formula 2 pellets with garlic. Lately he's not been eating much. When I feed, he'll swim through the food, inspecting some, grabbing some and then just spitting it out. Often he's just hiding in the rocks in the QT now, which is unusual for him. He used to swim around constantly. His breathing appears normal and swimming motion looks fine as well. It's the spots and the feeding that I'm worried about.

The SG in the tank has been steady at 1.009 for almost a month now. I'm planning on doing a water change this evening. The tank is developing a rather serious hair algae problem. Not a big issue since it's just a QT. Once the fish is healty, I planned on raising the SG slowly and then adding some hermits and snails from my display tank to clean it up for me, though I'm not certain they'll eat hair algae, it's worth a shot.

I've got a Turbo Twist UV sterilizer on my display tank. Should I get this working instead on my QT for now? I've also got some Formalin, but I don't think that's appropriate for ich.

 

[TWallace]

I added carbon filtration to the nano QT which has helped clear up the water tremendously. I also took the UV sterilizer off my display and hooked it up to the nano to help kill off the free swimming stage of ich, if that is indeed what the fish still has. This morning he has noticably fewer spots (he only had about 8 anyway). He still shows signs of what may be HLLE (or possibly brooklynella as I think that causes some flesh to peel away in various parts). He was in the same tank as a percula clown that had brook, so I suppose it's possible he's contracted that. I dipped him in a formalin bath last night as a precautionary measure just in case it is brook. He's still not eating well. I fed some pellets this morning, he swam to them and took some in, but promptly spit them out. I tried mysis shrimp with the same results. In the past, mysis shrimp and krill were his favorite foods.

 

[danorth]

If this is a QT tank, bring back up the salinity and copper the water. Another good drug is acraflavine. The fish wants to live, but you need to use the right chems to help it.

I have a clown trigger that went from this:

To this in 5 days

with copper and acraflavine and garlic soaked shrimp, different diet I know than a CB, but your CB sounds like a fighter. This trigger had ick and what I think was velvet coming and the fish was oozing like a slime factory.

What I did was get a new 10 gallon tank, add a heater, a ceramic bowl for a home and hooked up an Emperor 280 with a biowheel from my other tank...

 

[TWallace]

Thanks for the advice Danorth. I'm trying to stay away from using copper, though. I find hypo much easier to maintain and there's less of a chance of "overdoing" the treatment and killing the fish than with copper.

I've also just read this article: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brooklynellosisart.htm and am becoming more convinced that the CB has Brooklynella, in which case neither hypo nor copper is effective. Luckily I already had some Formalin handy, which is effective against it. I'm considering slowly raising the salinity over the next few days and continuing with the formalin dips and seeing how that does. My understanding is that it should only take a few days to eradicate brooklynella using this treatment. The reasons I think this is brook and not ich are that the fish has been in hypo for around a month now with close monitoring of SG level to keep it at 1.009, this should have eradicated ich judging by everything I've read on it. Also, some of the white spots I've noticed on him lately are a little larger and more importantly oblong than ich parasites. Brooklynella fits that description, as well as the discoloration on the left side under the eye. Ich doesn't cause that. Plus the CB shared this QT with a clownfish that died of Brooklynella a couple weeks ago, so it's quite possible that he contracted it from the clown.

 

[TWallace]

The CB looks to be responding well to the Formalin dips (I did another last night). He ate quite a bit of krill last night. Hopefully I can get him eating some veggie type foods soon. His remaining spots look fewer and smaller and he's swimming around a bit more actively. I slightly raised the SG from 1.009 to 1.011 last night and plan to raise it tonight to around 1.013. I think the ich is eradicated and he's suffering from brook now, which is why I'm raising salinity.

During the formalin dips, the CB usually swims at the top of the water, frequently with his forehead poking out of the water. I know that formalin irritates them and is probably why he does that. I leave him in the dip for 30 minutes, but I worry that it's bothering him too much. Is that behavior normal in a formalin dip?