Royal Gramma dead

[fishfreak0114]

I got a royal gramma back in august. It got ich after a little while and I tried treating with paraguard which odd not work so I stopped and switched to hypo. Hypo has been in full swing for nearly to weeks, and the gramma and blenny being treated were both responding well. Up until yesterday they were both fine. The royal gramma has been eating well and active, but today when I fed it didn't come out so I poked around and found it dead. I took it out and looked up close and it had ich. I thought the ich couldn't survive hypo? Phosphates were 0.1, I'm lowering it now, but I don't think that effected it because the blenny is ok. Does anyone know what happened to my fish? Thanks in advance.

[Tamberav]

Hypo works, however... it is difficult to keep the salinity absolutely perfect. The refractometer could be wrong or perhaps not calibrated, or calibrated the wrong way since different factories use different methods... or it could be one for salt water/brine and not 'ocean water' which may make it slightly off.... ect ect... or evaporation could have played a part.

 

Basically it is hard to know if the salinity is 100% exactly right and you need to combat evaporation constantly.

 

I have used cupramine in a QT with success before and have used the tank transfer method a few times with success.

[fishfreak0114]

I recalibrate the refractometer every time I use it, it a Vertex one. It said the salinity was dead on 1.009. I have been checking it frequently too. The phosphates weren't too high were they?

[Tamberav]

I recalibrate the refractometer every time I use it, it a Vertex one. It said the salinity was dead on 1.009. I have been checking it frequently too. The phosphates weren't too high were they?

 

Well one thing is refractometer are most accurate at the point where you calibrate them. So if you calibrated it to 35ppt... it would be most accurate at 35ppt but slightly more off the farther you moved away from that salinity.

 

This article explains pretty much everything: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/rhf/index.php

 

 

Phosphates aren't a problem for fish.

 

I have never personally done hypo though, so I am not sure how fast it kills ich. Perhaps 2 weeks is not long enough, the treatment is for 4 weeks afterall.

 

A quick google shows:

 

Hyposalinity is largely ineffective on mature ich parasites that are well protected in the gills surrounded by thick mucus produced by an infected fish, when embedded deep in the tissues of their host, and during the final encrusted cyst stage of life. It is primarily during the free-swimming phase of life when newborn organisms are released from a mature cyst, and before they have the chance to fully attach and develop into mature parasites that they are most vulnerable and can be eliminated with hyposalinity.

[fishfreak0114]

Thank you, that article was very informative. The fish definitely had some full size cysts on it that hypo couldn't kill, bummer. I'm just hoping my blenny is doing ok.