Hi everyone,
This is actually my first post in RC. I bought a gramma loreto July 1 and have had him in QT since. I had planned on transfering him to the display tank after the standard 3-weeks quarantine, but just a fews days ago, he developed ich. I first noticed that he was not out during the day checking out his surroundings and eating as usual. He hid the whole day. When he did come out the second day, he was lethargic, staying at the bottom of the QT in the corner and sometimes scratching himself against the PVC that is his refuge. He had white, salt like spots throughout his body, so I assumed he had ich. I immediately gave him a FW dip for 5 minutes, using some of my prepared top-off water (adjusted for temperature & pH). He was severely stressed by the capture & dip, and when I returned him to the QT he was hanging upside down in the PVC breathing hard. He looked like he wouldn't survive overnight. A day passed. This morning he was outside the PVC swimming around the tank as he used to do before the ich outbreak! He even ate the Formula-Two pellets I fed him this morning. The white spots are gone, but now it seems he had developed a secondary infection--fin rot. His left pectoral fin and caudal fin shows signs of slight deterioration.
Now I know the ich isn't gone at all. Most were probably dislodged by the FW dip and the rest had dropped off to encyst at the bottom of the QT. I think a copper treatment is requisite, but I also want to treat the fin rot. So my question is, can I treat the gramma with both copper for the ich and an anti-bacterial medication for the fin rot simultaneously? I'm afraid of poisoning him with too much medication, and I don't know the effect the two medications would have on each other. Would either one reduce each other's efficacy if used concurrently? Which medications would you recommend?
I have another related question, but I'm not so sure it belongs here. I'm almost certain the cause of the gramma's illness is the wide temperature swings (sometimes 9 degrees in less than 1 day) due to a cheap, unreliable heater I used for my QT. So my question is, which heaters would you recommend? I need it to be adjustable in temperature from 76F to 85F and fully submersible.
BTW, my QT consists of the following:
-10 gal glass tank, covered (no light other than ambient room light), backside darkened black
-HOB power filter with a "seeded" filter pad from the display tank for biological filtration (100 gph circulation)
-two PVC pipes (the gramma uses only the black S-cuved PVC pipe)
-Aquatic Gardens 50W submersible heater (this is totally unreliable)
-thermometer (in-tank)
-20% weekly water changes
-diet: formula one (frozen), squid (frozen), mysid shrimp (frozen), formula two (pellet)
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
~tjrxtn
This is actually my first post in RC. I bought a gramma loreto July 1 and have had him in QT since. I had planned on transfering him to the display tank after the standard 3-weeks quarantine, but just a fews days ago, he developed ich. I first noticed that he was not out during the day checking out his surroundings and eating as usual. He hid the whole day. When he did come out the second day, he was lethargic, staying at the bottom of the QT in the corner and sometimes scratching himself against the PVC that is his refuge. He had white, salt like spots throughout his body, so I assumed he had ich. I immediately gave him a FW dip for 5 minutes, using some of my prepared top-off water (adjusted for temperature & pH). He was severely stressed by the capture & dip, and when I returned him to the QT he was hanging upside down in the PVC breathing hard. He looked like he wouldn't survive overnight. A day passed. This morning he was outside the PVC swimming around the tank as he used to do before the ich outbreak! He even ate the Formula-Two pellets I fed him this morning. The white spots are gone, but now it seems he had developed a secondary infection--fin rot. His left pectoral fin and caudal fin shows signs of slight deterioration.
Now I know the ich isn't gone at all. Most were probably dislodged by the FW dip and the rest had dropped off to encyst at the bottom of the QT. I think a copper treatment is requisite, but I also want to treat the fin rot. So my question is, can I treat the gramma with both copper for the ich and an anti-bacterial medication for the fin rot simultaneously? I'm afraid of poisoning him with too much medication, and I don't know the effect the two medications would have on each other. Would either one reduce each other's efficacy if used concurrently? Which medications would you recommend?
I have another related question, but I'm not so sure it belongs here. I'm almost certain the cause of the gramma's illness is the wide temperature swings (sometimes 9 degrees in less than 1 day) due to a cheap, unreliable heater I used for my QT. So my question is, which heaters would you recommend? I need it to be adjustable in temperature from 76F to 85F and fully submersible.
BTW, my QT consists of the following:
-10 gal glass tank, covered (no light other than ambient room light), backside darkened black
-HOB power filter with a "seeded" filter pad from the display tank for biological filtration (100 gph circulation)
-two PVC pipes (the gramma uses only the black S-cuved PVC pipe)
-Aquatic Gardens 50W submersible heater (this is totally unreliable)
-thermometer (in-tank)
-20% weekly water changes
-diet: formula one (frozen), squid (frozen), mysid shrimp (frozen), formula two (pellet)
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
~tjrxtn
