Please Help! Fish are very sick.

[LukFox]

Did you see anything fall off the fish about the size of a sesame seed?

Prazipro kills some kinds of parasites, one being flukes. Not all flukes can be seen, but it seems the more common ones will look like opaque sesame seeds when they fall off a fish after a fw dip. By the way, I wouldn't dip the eel. Three minutes of being dipped should be enough to get -some- flukes off if there are any, and if they are the sort you can see.

Your lion has popeye (probably can't see well, hence the "drunk" movement) which is bacterial.

 

[Beandawg]

3 minutes is not enough. The flukes on the eyes hang on the longest. 10 minutes is not a long time, it is the length of time the average eyeball fluke takes to fall off. It is so important because they do serious irreversible damage to the eyes. Here's a fun little story. A kid I work with was doing FW dips. Got side tracked, forgot a Koran angel in the FW. The kid went home, and nobody knew about the angel. Someone ended up seeing the angel......FOUR HOURS AFTER he left for the day. Who knows how long it was actually in there. The angel was fine, and actually began eating again that day!

 

[RBU1]

Just for the record. I am not a fan of fw dips.

 

[Chris27]

Just for the record. I am not a fan of fw dips.

Neither am I....

I am however a big fan of very large water changes though - especially in QT.

The lion and eel are a bit sensitive, and require a different treatment then most other fish.

What exactly is the copper powder? Is it chelated or ionic copper? Knowing this would be particularly helpful since they each require different test kits. Chelated copper requires a much stronger dose, and it isn't able to be accurately tested with some test kits, and ionic copper requires a much lower dose, and again requires a kit designed specifically for ionic.

The most important thing to be concerned with right now is identifying what's really going on and getting the fish to eat. Perhaps after the water change, throw some live brine in there to entice them to eat, if they are eating the brine, start dumping some garlic soaked mysis in there in hopes they mistake them for brine. The brine is basically worthless from a nutrition standpoint, but many times it helps coax a fish to eat, so mixing some better food in there with the brine increases chances of it getting eaten.

At this point, if unsure of whether or not there is a bacterial issue, I wouldn't blast the tank with antibiotics, they could decimate what bio-filter is left causing some really unhealthy water conditions.

 

[LukFox]

Gotta ask. Is there a reason you guys don't like fw dips?

I'm not sure how big fish with cloudy eyes are supposed to see and eat live brine? I've never even had luck getting bigger fish with clear eyes eating food that small.

Maracyn 2 and Bifuran+ are safe for biofilters I believe. I've used Furan 2 (same active ingredients as Bifuran+) in QT and have not had any problems with ammonia or other water quality issues. If you're really worried you can use it as a dip treatment.

 

[RBU1]

Just a personal preference thats all.......

 

[Jbackphx]

I have been adding copper after water changes. Just did another smaller one today... The lionfish is getting some color back, but the tusk still looks really bad. The puffer died... Just before I added the prazipro. After that, the lion looks much better! Also installed a UV steralizer. We'll see. Thanks again for all your support. Oh, and after a FW dip (heated to 80 and buffered to proper pH), they look much better temporarily. With that being said, I'll continue with them to at least give them temporary relief... The copper power was chelated and is supposed to never dissipate, so you never have to add more...

 

[Beandawg]

gotta ask. Is there a reason you guys don't like fw dips?

I'm not sure how big fish with cloudy eyes are supposed to see and eat live brine? I've never even had luck getting bigger fish with clear eyes eating food that small.

Maracyn 2 and bifuran+ are safe for biofilters i believe. I've used furan 2 (same active ingredients as bifuran+) in qt and have not had any problems with ammonia or other water quality issues. If you're really worried you can use it as a dip treatment.

+1

 

[guitarteacher]

I think two of my fishes have fin rot. Any advice?

 

[Jbackphx]

Unfortunately, the tusk died last night . All I have left now is my lionfish (which was my first). He is definately looking better and ate a small meal last night. His eyes are getting much better but I feel he still has a long way to go. I do feel that I did everything I could, but am very sad for my loss. If I could just save the lionfish, I'll feel all the hard work was worth it. I did another 75% water change yesterday also... Water quality is very good and I added the proper amount of copper and prazipro. Thanks for all your advice. I'm sorry guitarteacher, I don't know what fin rot is, but I'm sure someone here can help you out. They are very knowledgeable! What I would do if I were you, is put them into a quarantine tank ASAP and monitor them/medicate them that way. I can't recommend a medication as I don't know...

 

[rrrrob]

sorry if i missed it, but how long has this tank been set up?

Also, I have to wonder about the quality of the water in your area if you are using tap water....my tanks did horribly (even the freshwater ones) when I moved because of poor quality water in the city I moved to, even though the ammonia, nitrite/nitrate, etc all were good...i basically stopped the hobby altogether until we were finally switched to the water supply I had before I moved....water quality always seems to be the root of these problems...copper treatments and hyposalinity always seem to end the same way...catastrophic loss.

 

[Jbackphx]

Water quality here is horrible!! That's why I have always used RO/Di mix with salt. I have never added tap water... I buy most of my RO/Di for large water changes, and for smaller ones and top offs, I use my own RO/Di system (2 months old). The tank itself has been up and running for about 2 months with the first fish added about a month and a half ago.

 

[rrrrob]

sounds like you have it covered then (water quality), but i wonder about whether RO/Di addresses water hardness.

Perhaps you should consider another source for the water you purchase...where do you get it?

It may be that you put too many things in at once into a newish tank even though your ammonia and nitrites are at 0 (are they ALWAYS at 0?)...I always started new tanks with some hardy inverts first to get the biological filters primed.

One other thing--hopefully your heater is working...but on more than one occasion I have had people tell me their heaters are fine--that the water feels like bathwater...bathwater would be in excess of 98.6 F! Verify with another thermometer if you have one.