lost 3 sturgeonfish - one left in the QT

[Pokerman11]

A little more than two months ago I got a few sturgenfish, kole tang, sailfin tang, hippo tang and a power brown tang.
I held them in my QT tank for 4 weeks. My QT I run copper and Prazipro. After that moved to my DT.

After 3 weeks in the DT started to notice what looks like Brooklynella or Ich "“ a white sheen on some of the scales, tiny white dots on the eyes, perhaps some on the fins. It's difficult to tell as the fish are moving pretty tough.


I lost the powder brown, sailfin and the kole tang. Fish were doing very well "“ eating, acting normal "“ but then within a 3 day period all 3 died (I was traveling and not home at the time). The hippo still alive.

I trapped the hippo and moved to a QT with copper(cupramine) as well as Acriflavine. It's been 7 days now and while he is eating okay. However, the white parasite is still there and not retreating.

I'm going to start bringing down the specific gravity and do a low salinity treatment.

Anything else I should do? In the DT all that's left is 6 chromis and 4 clownfish. They are not showing any signs, but perhaps it's brook and I need to get all fish out of there and treat for brook.

 

[snorvich]

Does it look like the skin is peeling? Fish behavior? Sounds more like velvet to me. Was the copper level at a therapeutic level?

 

[Pokerman11]

Good call on the copper level. I had mis read the instructions on the Seachem cupramine and was running at only .25 mg/L

Picked up a copper test kit so I can get this dialed in properly. My guess is at .25 it masked the parasite while in the QT, but then when moved to DT it bloomed.

I've upped the level to .5mg/L and will keep the tang in there for another 6 weeks.

Mostly worried about my DT. My best guess is now this is ick, not brook or velvet.

Think I should clear out the DT and move everything to QT? I know for sure the DT had a parasite. Nobody else is showing signs of anything, but will monitor closely.

 

[.Chris.]

Good call on the copper level. I had mis read the instructions on the Seachem cupramine and was running at only .25 mg/L

Picked up a copper test kit so I can get this dialed in properly. My guess is at .25 it masked the parasite while in the QT, but then when moved to DT it bloomed.

I've upped the level to .5mg/L and will keep the tang in there for another 6 weeks.

Mostly worried about my DT. My best guess is now this is ick, not brook or velvet.

Think I should clear out the DT and move everything to QT? I know for sure the DT had a parasite. Nobody else is showing signs of anything, but will monitor closely.

I would definitely move everything to QT, and treat for ich if you believe ich to be the culprit. Let the DT remain fallow for 72 days to ensure you're rid of it in the DT.