What do I do???

[tassod]

Are my hands tied here or is there anything i can do to figure out why my Purple tang wont eat anymore?

Picked him up in May this year and QT him for 30 days using hypo (i know.. i know...). Introduced to DT and few weeks later has white spots pretty much all over. This however did not affect him, always ate like a pig and never scratched or showed any of the symptoms associated with crypto.

Got him and all fish out and put back in QT and started treating with CP. During the whole CP treatment (lasted 25 days) he ate well and was totally clear of the parasite visibly. He was always first to eat food and nobody got in his way when i would put Nori out. Was planning to do 30 days of CP but going into the last week...he stopped eating along with my blue hippo which died yesterday. For the record, the blue hippo stopped eating way before he did..at least 2 weeks before and it was skin and bone when it died. My PT is quite fat and he's big to.

So due to this, ended the CP treatment a bit early..started running lights, added skimmer to QT and also started carbon. Did a 20 gallon water change last week and within last 24 hrs changed out another 45g of water (its a 75g QT). During the whole treatment, i thought maybe i had ammonia issues, Salifert says I don't and Seachem ammonia badge says I do. Even now after a 50+% water change, the seachem badge still shows green and I have confirmed it is not lighting that is causing it to show green. I actually setup a separate 10g tank with freshly mixed saltwater and put my ammonia badge in there and within minutes it turned to yellow. Put it back in the 75g and its back to green again. So now, in fear of this I have transferred my PT to another established tank at a friends house. Could still be early but its been over 24hrs now and he's still not eating. What else could I do?? sorry for the long post..don't want to lose any more fish...my casualty count is already to high at 8 now from this whole parasite outbreak.:headwally:

 

[wooden_reefer]

How did you cycle the medium intended for the qt or how did you cycle your qt so to speak?

Were you convinced that your qt can handle the bioload?

Do you know rather well that cp does not impact nitrification bacteria?

 

[tassod]

How did you cycle the medium intended for the qt or how did you cycle your qt so to speak?

Were you convinced that your qt can handle the bioload?

Do you know rather well that cp does not impact nitrification bacteria?

I'm using an AC110 HOB filter filled with ceramic rings (3 bags) and that filter was cycled back in October of last year. It has been running this 75g QT since then. This QT also doubled as a holding tank for when i upgraded my DT to a bigger size. It held all my livestock for 4 months. Now mind you, it did so with 150lbs of live rock also...Right now, there is no live rock in the QT...BUT....the filter was cycled originally with only the ceramic rings and no LR.

As far as CP and its impact, i dont know..all the stickies and threads on it say it does not impact it. Do antibiotics impact though? I did use some in the middle of the treatment because I thought that some of my fish where developing some bacterial infections.

 

[wooden_reefer]

Most antibiotics will impact nitrification significantly.

Gentamicin one of the least so.

Many will not kill nitrification bacteria outright but will impact the nitrification process seriously

 

[wooden_reefer]

Quantitatively the qt filter may not handle the bioload because it may have reached equilibrium with a low bioload for too long.

I always recharge a nitrification filter with a pulse of ammonia in advance if it had not processed high enough level of ammina recently

 

[HumbleFish]

If he's out of medication and in an established tank where ammonia isn't a concern, all you can do is keep trying to feed a varied selection. Have you tried soaking his food in garlic (as an appetite stimulant)?

If he was exposed to ammonia for too long, the damage may already be done. I have had a couple of experiences where a fish starts to act a little weird during the last week of CP (including appetite suppression). But in both cases the fish bounced back 100% after being removed from the medication.

 

[tassod]

I guess time will tell...I still have 7 fish in that QT and they are all acting fine and eating as well. Why wouldn't a large water change though not change the reading on the ammonia badge?

 

[HumbleFish]

I thought with you (from the CP thread) the problem was the badge was looking green under ambient light, but you saw yellow once you turned on the tank lights?

 

[tassod]

I thought with you (from the CP thread) the problem was the badge was looking green under ambient light, but you saw yellow once you turned on the tank lights?

Yeah thats what i thought...but now it looks green any way and with whatever light you look at it with. Plus the fact with the strange behavior of fish got me to put it to the test. Thats when i setup another tank with new water and put the badge in there and it turned yellow. I'm pretty sure there is some low level of ammonia in this tank, 2 badges cant be wrong. Even the salifert test is kind of looking on the light yellowish side..but very light. The thing i'm not getting is why aren't my water changes knocking it down? If i used Prime before the water changes, will that bind the ammonia and give me a false positive?

 

[HumbleFish]

If i used Prime before the water changes, will that bind the ammonia and give me a false positive?

Liquid test kit - yes

Ammonia alert badge - no

 

[tassod]

Ok, what are my options here...Fish will not be going into DT until at least end of November...how do i re-establish my bio filter? Does the tank need to be re-cycled? Will adding bacteria from a bottle help?

 

[HumbleFish]

Personally, I would ditch those ceramic rings, use the sponge that came with the Aquaclear HOB to house your bacteria, and pour some Bio-spira over it. I've been using a "seeded" sponge in either an AC 50 or 70 for years now, and have not once ever seen ammonia in QT. MrTusk was right... those sponges must be able to hold a ton of bacteria.