Lost fish during hyposalinity treatment

[janakaybravo]

I have lost two fish since beginning hyposalinity treatment for ich. The other ones seem to be doing good. I've got two weeks to go. Is the minimum 40 days? My fish have been in hypo since Dec. 20. One other one is now not eating, little yellow clown goby, one of a pair. They all did fine at first, eating, etc. Don't know why they died unless there was a secondary infection I didn't see.

My question is is 30 days enough? I don't want to lose any other fish.
I'm tempted to go ahead and raise salinity and put fish back in display to save the little goby. I don't know why this is happening.


Parameters: 40 gal. quarantine, 1.009, 81 temp, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20-30 nitrates, 8.1 ph, and I regularly check ph and nitrates and do water changes if necessary and buffer when needed. The display tank has been fishless since December 20 also.

Thank you,

Jana

 

[TerryB]

It is unlikely that hypo is killing the fish. Three weeks at the correct salinity for treatment is usually enough. For the sake of safety most people treat for 30 days to 6 weeks. If you have not seen any signs of ich for a couple of weeks then it is probably safe to start raising the salinity a few points a day. Have you checked the expiration date on your pH and other reagents? It will take you a week or so to bring the salinity back up to NSW. 30 days is usually long enough to keep your display without any fish, but its not totally foolproof. Most people go 6 to 8 weeks before they put the fish back into the display tank.

Terry B

 

[janakaybravo]

TerryB, thanks. I have a question from your article in Advanced Aquarist.
Am I to understand that you advocate putting a new fish in qt tank at 1.009 from the bag water if the ph and temp is the same? That's what I understood when I read it. Then leave there for a few weeks to do automatically hypo treatment without waiting to see if the fish has ich? It seems like a good idea to me, but wanted to make sure if I understood you right.

Jana

 

[TerryB]

Yes, I do recommend acclimating newly acquired (or just shipped) marine teleost fish (not sharks or rayfish) with hyposalinity. The critical parameters to match closely are pH and temperature. Acclimation to large changes in pH and temperature should take days rather than minutes or hours. Acclimating fish to captivity in hyposaline conditions helps them to recover from stress and to regain normal homeostasis more quickly. Hyposalinity is also a proactive approach to dealing with external parasites.

For more information, check out the November 2004 issue of Advanced Aquarist Online magazine for the article ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œQuarantine of Marine Fish (Teleost) Using Hyposalinity.ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ It talks about how hyposalinity is used by a public aquarium on all new marine teleost fish during quarantine.

You can try this link: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/index/

Terry B

 

[Angela Short]

You are not saying put the fish directly in 1.009 straight from the shipping bag are you? Thats just the way the postings read. Match PH and temp from the bag as well as SG "then" start dropping the SG? Or just match PH and temp in the 1.009 QT water and put them in? It just read a little confusing in the post.

 

[janakaybravo]

My understanding is Terry is saying match ph and temperature exactly, then just drop them into 1.009. I read the article he posted. Makes good sense to me.

 

[TerryB]

Yes, the fish can be placed directly into low salinity. Part two of the article below will appear next month. I will go into more detail as to the advantages of this method.

Here is part one in Advanced Aquarist Online magazine:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/1/aafeature2

For more information check out the link below. It is about a public aquarium that is using this method.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2004/short.htm

Terry B

 

[Angela Short]

Thanks Terry

 

[kevin2000]

I don't see the upside or logic in dropping a fish directly into a hypo envirornment .. as compared to lowering the salinity over 12 or 24 hrs ... evaluating stress in fish is pretty difficult and the fact that a fish can survive that does not necessarily mean its good for the fish.

 

[TerryB]

Hi Kevin,

I assume that you read my article and the other article in the November 2004 issue of Advanced Aquarist about quarantine in hyposalinity.

The "upside" of placing fish directly into hyposalinity is in helping them recover osmotic balance and regain normal homeostasis more quickly. I also suspect that fish will regain feeding behaviors more quickly. Osmoregulatory dysfuncton is an inherent part of stress in fish. Stress, at least acute or prolonged stress, equals osmoregulatory difficulties. Osmotic dysfunction is believed to play a part in Delayed Mortality Syndrome. Hyposaline conditions have shown to help fish recover from the effects of stress. Fish use 25 to 50% of their metabolic energy for osmoregulation. Reduced salinity is also thought to conserve energy that would otherwise be expended in osmoregulation. I will be going into more detail in part two of the article that is scheduled for the February issue.

Terry B

 

[peterl23454]

Hi Kevin,

I assume that you read my article and the other article in the November 2004 issue of Advanced Aquarist about quarantine in hyposalinity.

The "upside" of placing fish directly into hyposalinity is in helping them recover osmotic balance and regain normal homeostasis more quickly. I also suspect that fish will regain feeding behaviors more quickly. Osmoregulatory dysfuncton is an inherent part of stress in fish. Stress, at least acute or prolonged stress, equals osmoregulatory difficulties. Osmotic dysfunction is believed to play a part in Delayed Mortality Syndrome. Hyposaline conditions have shown to help fish recover from the effects of stress. Fish use 25 to 50% of their metabolic energy for osmoregulation. Reduced salinity is also thought to conserve energy that would otherwise be expended in osmoregulation. I will be going into more detail in part two of the article that is scheduled for the February issue.

Terry B

Hello Terry. Hope you are still following.
In regards to hypo and acclimation back to 1.025 1.026. In your opinion Should hypo be used as short term treatment or long term? I see you mention short term in one of the articles... Can you define the difference, timeframe?

If I was to open a fish store could I keep my SW fish only tanks in constant hypo? Most would be short term I imagine but what about fish that don't sell right away. Any adverse effects from too long in hypo? And what about when a customer finally buys the fish? Should I tell them to acclimate it back slower then the others that are more short term?

Any advise you could give me would be greatly appreciated.