medicating in reef...

Liz

Liz

AC Members
Mar 25, 2005
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I would have posted this in my angler fish thread but I don't think I would have gotten replies quick enough...

Ever since I got my angler fish on Friday, every day he'll go swimming and from time to time while swimming he'll gulp air at the surface, which I know isn't a good sign... the last day or two I'm noticing patches of tiny white specks on him, doesn't look like color changes it looks more like a film or something (velvet?). I don't have a quarantine tank, and I'd like to medicate the whole tank if possible. The only reefy things in there with him are mushroom coral and a sponge. Is there any medication to help which won't kill my mushrooms or sponge? I have formalin 3 on hand... If that is reef safe I was thinking of doing the whole tank in addition to stronger "dips" for him.
 
I was sold Ich-Attack for my tank/fish, I guess it's an all natural broad range thingy that's supposedly effective against "ich, fungus, protozoans and dinoflagellites".... Which it seems would be effective against parasitic and fungal infections/infestations, but not bacterial?

So now I want to make sure that what my fish has is not bacterial... here's a picture of him:

sickpoop2.jpg


You can see the big white spots that are part of his coloration, and then you can see a sort of a white film (made up of tiny specks) in patches on his body... will ich-attack be effective against this, or is it bacterial?
 
Can't say about the fish but I can tell you that ickattack will NOT hurt your reef so I hope that helps.
 
Hey, liz it sounds like ich or velvet to me to hard to tell from the pic. I think that I just give it a f.w. dip before I treated my whole tank with anything. Just make sure you buffer the water to the same ph as your tank and don't keep it in there for more than about 3 mins.
hth
Max
 
I was thinking of doing a dip in addition to the tank... not sure I can catch him though? I'll try that today, thanks for the tip about the pH I wouldn't of figured that one out myself. Do I just use a pH buffer or do I have to add an alkalinity thing as well?
 
My temperature is around 81 F, maybe that's doing it? Are anglers used to cooler waters? I can't find anything about angler fish temperature preference.
 
Do you know which angler it is? It wouldn't hurt anything at all if you dropped your temps by 2 or 3 degrees. Just use the ph buffer don't worry about the alk for the 2 or 3 mins it will be in there. I'd really try the dip before I treated my whole tank with anything, the less you have to do the better off you are.
hth
Max.
P.S.
I'm not sure which angler you have I don't know a lot about them. This is just general process of elim for s.w. fish treatments so, someone else might know more about this fish than i do.
hth
Max
 
i would seriously recomend a hospital tank. it wouldnt cost a lot to set up. 10 bucks for a heater, 10 bucks for a filter for water movement, 10 bucks for a tank, and about 5 bucks in PVC piping (in hospital tanks, it is best to use PVC as a plave for fish to hide instead of live rock because the live rock will absorb a lot of the medication and basicaly escrete it slowly. this is also why sand is not recomended). all these reef safe ich cures are pretty much garbage IMO. i think they will help definatly, but arent made to dose your entire tank and if you have a ksimmer, itll go NUTS. I have used Prevent-ich to help with very mild cases and that seemed to work okay. however, if it is a bad case, id buy a hospital tank and treat with copper or hyposalinity (hyposalinity is definatly prefered. also, you can have live rock because there arent any harmful medications for it to absorb, but be warned that all your pods and such will die. and for treating ich, i still wouldnt ahve a substrate in the hospital tank because the larval stages of ich is dormant in the subtrate). A freshwater dip could help, but unless you put the fish in a new environment, IMO, are 100% ineffective because you are just putting the fish back in an environment with the ich. and now it is even more stressed out than it was previously due to chasing it around with a net for 10 minutes, and then plopping it in freshwater. i would take it out, possibly do a dip, and then treat with hypo. over the series of 2-4 days with many small water changes with fresh water, lower your SG to as low as 1.009. Leave it there for as long as 2-3 weeks and then slowly raise it back up. leave the fish in the hospital tank for at least 6 weeks before returning it to the tank (the life cycle of ich. no fish=no ich)
btw, this assums that what you have is ich, however, i really cant tall from the picture.
but your angler is going up for air... it makes me hypothesize that you have low DO levels. what are you using as far as filtration and especialy water movement? are you running a protein skimmer? do you have something covering the tank or is it open? what is your pH?
other levels?
 
Max said:
Do you know which angler it is? It wouldn't hurt anything at all if you dropped your temps by 2 or 3 degrees. Just use the ph buffer don't worry about the alk for the 2 or 3 mins it will be in there. I'd really try the dip before I treated my whole tank with anything, the less you have to do the better off you are.
hth
Max.
P.S.
I'm not sure which angler you have I don't know a lot about them. This is just general process of elim for s.w. fish treatments so, someone else might know more about this fish than i do.
hth
Max
Click to expand...

I think it's either antennarius multiocellatus or the leopard one. My tank would normally be around 76 but the PC lights heat it up, I have it lowered to like 79.6 right now but I think that's the lowest I'll be able to get it with the lights on, atleast until fall sets in more and the air is cooler (It's still in the 80s here most days).

I tried doing a dip but I couldn't catch the little bugger without dislodging my rock (which I ended up doing a bit anyway). Seems like it'd be easy but maybe I am bad at it. I'll just do the ich-attack for a week or two and see if things improve.
 
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fishieness said:
i would seriously recomend a hospital tank. it wouldnt cost a lot to set up. 10 bucks for a heater, 10 bucks for a filter for water movement, 10 bucks for a tank, and about 5 bucks in PVC piping (in hospital tanks, it is best to use PVC as a plave for fish to hide instead of live rock because the live rock will absorb a lot of the medication and basicaly escrete it slowly. this is also why sand is not recomended). all these reef safe ich cures are pretty much garbage IMO. i think they will help definatly, but arent made to dose your entire tank and if you have a ksimmer, itll go NUTS. I have used Prevent-ich to help with very mild cases and that seemed to work okay. however, if it is a bad case, id buy a hospital tank and treat with copper or hyposalinity (hyposalinity is definatly prefered. also, you can have live rock because there arent any harmful medications for it to absorb, but be warned that all your pods and such will die. and for treating ich, i still wouldnt ahve a substrate in the hospital tank because the larval stages of ich is dormant in the subtrate). A freshwater dip could help, but unless you put the fish in a new environment, IMO, are 100% ineffective because you are just putting the fish back in an environment with the ich. and now it is even more stressed out than it was previously due to chasing it around with a net for 10 minutes, and then plopping it in freshwater. i would take it out, possibly do a dip, and then treat with hypo. over the series of 2-4 days with many small water changes with fresh water, lower your SG to as low as 1.009. Leave it there for as long as 2-3 weeks and then slowly raise it back up. leave the fish in the hospital tank for at least 6 weeks before returning it to the tank (the life cycle of ich. no fish=no ich)
btw, this assums that what you have is ich, however, i really cant tall from the picture.
but your angler is going up for air... it makes me hypothesize that you have low DO levels. what are you using as far as filtration and especialy water movement? are you running a protein skimmer? do you have something covering the tank or is it open? what is your pH?
other levels?
Click to expand...

I don't have the space or money for a hospital tank right now. I work 6 hours a week, ha. I only have $10 right now.

I don't think it's oxygen levels, my one other fish I have in there is fine. For filtration I use a powerhead with LR and I have a wet/dry sump with bioballs removed, I have a protein skimmer yes it was running but I unplugged it for ich-attack. I am thinking it is velvet or one of the other gill-attacking ones? He doesn't constantly do it. but he does breathe heavily when swimming which is maybe once or twice a day, and when swimming he periodically gulps air. But most of the time he just chills on the rocks.

I have a glass cover for my tank that is opened during the day when the lights are on to cool the tank off. pH=8.2, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrates ~10, alkalinity or whatever is between 400-450
 
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