What is killing my fish?

[snorvich]

I was told that this was the way to do it? Unless QT tank should be at regular salinity?

Yes. SG should match.

 

[elweshomayor]

Yes. SG should match.

So.. Do the fresh water dip, then place fish back into container with fresh salt water that matches that of the tank. THEN do hypo salinity afterwards by lowering the salinity?

Im getting mixed comments here.

This is what I did. Correct the steps if necessary please.

1) Got two containers and filled them with around 20G of water. (both have air pump and power head while fish was in there)
2)Left one as fresh water, 0 saliniity and made the other at 1.015 salinity.
3) Warmed the water in both containers to around the same temp as that of the tank.
4) Matched PH, 8.2 ish 8.3
5) Grabbed yellow tang and placed directly into the fresh water container
6) Started the clock, and took him out at around minute 7. Tang went from swimming around in DT, to completely on its side as soon as it hit the water but I've read this is normal so I proceeded.
7) After the FW dip was done, I transferred to 1.015 container. Tang perked up a bit but after a few mins he went side ways. Died within the hour.

I was planning to go to Petco and grab a 40G breeder and place tang there after the formalin dip for a month or until healed. In the mean time, I was either going to monitor the fish in the DT and see if they need QT as well.
If they were all ok after a month I was going to place tang back in.

After reading I thought of maybe buying more containers and just empty tank and leave fishless. However, there are still 10 fish in DT, all of which require more than 10-20 gallon containers. Wouldn't this stress them out even further and Ill end up losing everything? They have to stay in these containers for a month... all of which are not cycled, in addition to the super frequent water changes to deal with the ammonia, and the like..

 

[elweshomayor]

I also just had a wild idea. Maybe since the LFS knows me well, he can take all my fish for the required time (2months) so that I can rid of everything. Meanwhile, I can set up QT tank(s) to introduce them later.

Meanwhile though, is it possible to add things like Snails, Crabs and the like? If there arent any fish, even if they are carriers, the parasites would die within the allotted time correct?
That way, at least I would have something to look at, the tank water would be pristine by the time the fish come back, and I would have a way to re introduce everyone without risking re infection.

 

[Salty150]

Any update?

 

[Naraku]

+1 I've had too many fish die instantly after fresh water dip. I've had a lot of fish die over 2 days in hypo. Needless to say hypo will no longer be in my treatment protocol.

Butterflyfish, tangs, and clownfish are the only fish tolerant of hypo and fw dips in my experience.

No fish has died from formalin dips.

Whoever told you this is most certainly not an expert in this regard. There is nothing fish need to adjust to when going to a lower salinity. In fact you actually take a major stressor and energy drain away since the fish's kidneys and glands no longer have to pump salt out.
And even the salinity ramp-up doesn't have to be slow if the fish was at low salinity for only a few days. Only if the fish was at therapeutic hyposalinity for a couple of weeks its kidneys need time to gradually readjust to the increased workload.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Naraku]

If you can't find formalin, you can try metronidazole or chloroquine.

 

[ThRoewer]

+1 I've had too many fish die instantly after fresh water dip. I've had a lot of fish die over 2 days in hypo. Needless to say hypo will no longer be in my treatment protocol.

Butterflyfish, tangs, and clownfish are the only fish tolerant of hypo and fw dips in my experience.

No fish has died from formalin dips.

Freshwater dips and hyposalinity treatment are two very different things. Full freshwater dips are extremely stressful for saltwater fish, hyposalinity is not.

I have treated a lot of different fish against ich with hyposalinity and none died of that. If you have fish dying in hyposalinity you either have the salinity below or above the safe treatment window, or more likely, you are dealing not dealing with ich but rather with velvet or another infection that isn't treatable with hyposalinity.

 

[microlady]

+1 I've had too many fish die instantly after fresh water dip. I've had a lot of fish die over 2 days in hypo. Needless to say hypo will no longer be in my treatment protocol.

Butterflyfish, tangs, and clownfish are the only fish tolerant of hypo and fw dips in my experience.

No fish has died from formalin dips.

I concur. My wrasses have died sometimes from freshwater dips and the survivors also showed extreme stress with hyposaline conditions. This time I'm only trying formalin with these guys.