Disease from untestable chemical in HT?

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bix

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jun 2, 2010
Messages
142
Hello,

I'm currently treating my dogface puffer in a HT for ich with hyposalinity.

I had him in a 35 gallon that sprung a leak due to the stand, so I quickly went out and bought a 30 gallon with a proper stand and moved him over. I cleaned the new tank out with vinegar and then rinsed out before putting the water/puffer in.

Ever since moving him over to the new tank he's barely been out from under the sponge filter, and when he does it looks like one of his fins are clamped. He swims around a little bit then looks like he is coughing/convulsing. Also when he is lying at the bottom I can tell he is having a hard time breathing and he is breathing pretty quickly.

He's usually up and around trying to get fed 3-4 times a day, but now he only comes up once every few days :(.

Water params are ammonia - 0 nitrite - 0 nitrate - 0 temp 79 salinity 1.012.

I noticed when I bought the new tank that the silicone sealant was stained a black colour. I asked the guy selling it and he said that he had black gravel so I just figured it was stained by that.

Any ideas? Is it possilble that the old tank owner was medicating his fish with something that is affecting my fish now? Maybe he cleaned the tank with something? I asked if he ever used copper and he said no..
 
Forgot to mention one important thing, I'm testing PH with APIs test kit and it comes out as 7.9 for salt and 8.0 for fresh, not sure which I should be using?

I'm going to try to get my PH pen calibrated this weekend to double check.
 
Is the silicone stained black, or is it black silicone? I have 2 tanks with black silicone that were manufactured that way. I've seen green from Ich treatment, but never black.
 
Hard to tell it definitly looks stained though. I will try to get some pictures up.
 
Black silicone is completely black, joints and all. Look at the silicone between the glass panes, where one panel meets the other. With clear silicone, this will not stain, and you should be able to see a greenish hue. If it is pitch black, then it's just black silicone.
 
Did you ask if he ever used any chemicals in the tank? Any redness or frayed fins on your puffer? Are you treating with anything else other than Hypo? When the tank sprung a leak did you transfer puffer elsewhere to hold or tranfer into the new tank with new water?
 
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Did you ask if he ever used any chemicals in the tank?

I asked if he used copper, he said no. I asked why the silicone showed as black and he said that it was from the gravel. I think I'm going to call him but at this point I think he might just lie to me...

Any redness or frayed fins on your puffer?

I have been looking for this. I don't see any redness, the fins look normal when he is swimming around. Sometimes he clamps one fin really close to his body though which he never did before.

Are tou treating with anything else other than Hypo?

No I am not, just hypo.

When the tank sprung a leak did you transfer puffer elsewhere to hold or tranfer into the new tank with new water?

I put him in a big tupperware container that I was using for water changes etc until I bought a big plastic garbage can. He was in there for about 2 hours tops while I went and bought the new tank/cleaned the new tank.
 
It is possible that during that two hours in the container, he may have been exposed to high levels of ammonia. Especially if the water volume in the container was small. Puffers produce alot of waste and when in a small volume of water, they can raise the ammonia level very fast.
 
The container was small but I used the water from the leaky tank and put the sponge filter in there with him as well.

Also that was a week ago and he's still acting sick, would that still be affecting him if that was the case?
 
Good news he's back to his old self now, ate 3 times tonight.

I noticed what I'm hoping is some damage on one of his fins (white blotches) from the ich. Can't see any spots like he had before.

Still seems to be breating kinda fast. Could he have been affected by the ich for the last time until they all dropped off, and now he should be ok? I didn't have it all the way down to 1.009 until today because I thought I might have been stressing him by dropping the salinity too quick (which in hindsight was probably a mistake.)
 
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