Clownfish Eggs

[xAyanex]

I'm sorry to hear about your fish having ich!  Hope they get better soon!

[debbeach13]

Did you have problems with a heater? Any ideas how the ich was introduced? I remember a member on here did this while bringing the temp up to 80 degrees and it worked! They had removed inverts and corals from the tank and did mention that bringing the SG back up very slow was key to not stressing out the fish. I hope you have success. This tank is very much loved for many of us following.

 

[seabass]

No heater problems.  The Ich came in on the angelfish that I recently introduced.  Unfortunately, I wasn't comfortable about putting her in quarantine.  I figured she'd do much better in a peaceful, low stocked, well established, larger tank with a lid (and she has acclimated to her new tank and is eating well).  It was a risk that I was uncomfortable about, but was still willing to take.

 

I got the fish from Live Aquaria (but not Diver's Den).  Generally they have healthy livestock, but don't guarantee their fish to be free of Ich, and they recommend quarantining new fish.  When not using a QT, I prefer to order from Diver's Den, but I was buying some other inverts from Live Aquaria and didn't want to pay for two air shipments ($59.98 versus free shipping).  Not to mention that Diver's Den's fish a a little more expensive, so I saved about $100.

 

I feel pretty hopeful about treating with hyposalinity.  It should be pretty easy on the fish.  I still have to calibrate my refractometer with RO/DI (versus calibration fluid) and setup an auto top off.

[seabass]

OK, so it was weird pumping 30 gallons of heated RO/DI water into my tank.  The specific gravity is now 1.017.  I'm heating some more water for another round.  I'm not sure what I expected, but the fish show no sign of any change (and almost seem to like it).

 

First I removed the inverts 22 snails and 2 crabs.  Then I cleaned the tank walls and siphoned the sand bed (removing a bunch of saltwater in the process).  Then I added the heated RO/DI water.  Here I'm removing some more water so I can replace it with freshwater:

I'm adding freshwater to the sump while I siphon it out of the overflow.

 

All the fish are still eating well and currently seem unaffected by the Cryptocaryon irritans.  It looks like there are about 10 white spots on the angelfish (mostly her tail).

[seabass]

I got it down to 1.015 on my refractometer (1.012 on my hydrometer).  I'm heating up some more water; however, I'll probably wait until tomorrow morning to dial it in at just below 1.010.

[xAyanex]

5 minutes ago, seabass said:

I got it down to 1.015 on my refractometer (1.012 on my hydrometer).  I'm heating up some more water; however, I'll probably wait until tomorrow morning to dial it in at just below 1.010.

Mr. scientific owns a hydrometer?

[seabass]

Haha, I often use my swing arm hydrometer.  However, it's especially important to be accurate during hyposalinity treatment.

[seabass]

3/3/17

 

I finally got the specific gravity down to 1.010.  In total, it must have taken close to 100 gallons of freshwater.  Towards the end, it seemed like I had to add a lot of water to drop it by 0.001.  The fish all seem fine.  I still haven't hooked up an ATO.  I'll try to set one up this weekend.

[debbeach13]

As always you are hard at work. Hope it continues to go well

 

[seabass]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

As always you are hard at work. Hope it continues to go well

Thanks.

 

I was thinking today, what if I had to use distilled water.  Wouldn't that be fun, hauling 100 jugs home from the store.  Luckily, I have a 200 gallon water storage tank for times like this.  I can't imagine not having it.

[Christopher Marks]

How's the angelfish doing today?

[seabass]

She's good.  It's still a couple of hours away from lights on, but when I turn the room lights on, she makes her way out of her PVC refuge (where she sleeps).  Yesterday, she still had multiple white spots, but other than that you would have no way of knowing she was infected.

Edit: After lights on, I can see only three spots on her now.

 

The more I've read about hyposalinity treatments, the more I see 1.009 being used.  So I've dropped the sg a bit more.  However, I read an older article which said that clownfish don't do well with freshwater dips and cautioned using lower specific gravity when using hyposalinity treatments (as you would with seahorses).  I don't see that caution being echoed in other posts, so I hope this won't be a problem for my clownfish.

 

I've read a couple of threads which report the Ich came back after raising the specific gravity.  This might have been from contamination (like from rocks removed and placed back into the tank), or improperly performing the treatment (fluctuating sg, sg too high, or not treating long enough).   I've also read a couple of threads which suggest there are some hypo resistant strains of Cryptocaryon.  Some theorize that this might be due to the practice of keeping fish only tanks at lower sg (like 1.017).  While I'm not sure about this, I hope this treatment works.  If not, I haven't risked the fish, rock, or biofilter, and I won't be out anything except the salt required to raise sg to normal levels.

 

Many years ago I made the mistake of believing some forum posts that healthy fish can fight off Ich.  While true in the wild, the confines of our tanks makes them easy prey for these parasites.  By the time I realized that, my fish were already too weak and I lost them.  I believe prompt action, whether Cupramine or hypo (while they are still strong) is key.  I'm thinking that for any new fish, QT with hypo should be used whenever possible.

[seabass]

There's only a couple of spots on her now.

 

Although I'm pretty confident that hypo on its own would be successful, I've purchased some insurance (Seachem ParaGuard) just to make sure it doesn't come back.  I was hoping to avoid medication, but ParaGuard is easier to use and easier on fish than Cupramine.  Plus, I'd rather treat with ParaGuard than have it return.

 

One cool thing about hypo is that any bit of cyano or algae coating the sand and rocks seems to be gone.  Which is nice.

[xAyanex]

I am battling cyano in my tank right now (BC29). From what I've read, people say everyone gets it and you basically just do water changes and siphon it out the best you can, along with reducing light and feeding lighter. Well, I don't have a long light schedule and my feeding is very light, so I am at a loss. Someone suggested chemi-clean, so I'm looking into it.

 

Glad the fish is recovering! Hopefully you get rid of that stuff completely!

[seabass]

Thanks xAyanex.  Yeah Chemiclean should knock out cyano.  It's relatively safe too, just remove what you can prior to treatment and follow the instructions.  Good luck!

[xAyanex]

"Remove what you can" makes me nervous! I thought it was fish/invert/coral safe, I just need to remove chemi-pure elite and purigen.

[seabass]

Oh no, I just meant that you need to remove as much cyano as you can prior to treating your tank with chemiclean.

[Christopher Marks]

That's good to see some progress with the angelfish! Would you be interested in writing an article for our library section discussing different ich treatment options? That would be a great resource for members!

[xAyanex]

9 minutes ago, seabass said:

Oh no, I just meant that you need to remove as much cyano as you can prior to treating your tank with chemiclean.

I feel like a goofball.

 

It's so hard to remove from the sand. I guess the easiest thing to do would just be to vacuum out some sand, and if the sand gets too sparse I'll just order some more sand to put in the tank. I could use a pvc pipe and pour the sand in that way. I'm sure it would still cloud up, but hopefully not as bad.

 

I'm not sure what to do about it being on the corals either.

[seabass]

11 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

That's good to see some progress with the angelfish! Would you be interested in writing an article for our library section discussing different ich treatment options? That would be a great resource for members!

Sure. I'd be up for that.

[Christopher Marks]

Awesome! I'll PM you

[seabass]

8 minutes ago, xAyanex said:

It's so hard to remove from the sand. I guess the easiest thing to do would just be to vacuum out some sand, and if the sand gets too sparse I'll just order some more sand to put in the tank. I could use a pvc pipe and pour the sand in that way. I'm sure it would still cloud up, but hopefully not as bad.  I'm not sure what to do about it being on the corals either.

I'd probably take a turkey baster and blow as much off the coral as possible.  Then vacuum up as much as you can.  If you suck up a bunch of sand, just wash it good and return it.

[xAyanex]

1 minute ago, seabass said:

I'd probably take a turkey baster and blow as much off the coral as possible.  Then vacuum up as much as you can.  If you suck up a bunch of sand, just wash it good and return it.

Will do! Sorry for the mini-hijacking of your thread.

[seabass]

The angelfish is looking good, all visibly clear of Ich.  The other fish have been good... at least up to yesterday, when the female clownfish stopped eating (however, the male seems fine).  My guess is that it's a reaction to the hyposalinity treatment.

 

On that topic, I finished the Ich article.  It mentions that clownfish might not do well at a specific gravity of 1.009, and that you should treat them at 1.011.  Currently, the specific gravity is 1.010, so I'm going to slowly raise it in hopes that the female will get her appetite back.  I will start ParaGuard treatments soon.

 

I'll keep you all updated on the female's condition.

[teenyreef]

Nice job on the article!