Tuskfish is not looking good

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stresco

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Apr 19, 2003
Messages
1,386
Location
Beacon, New York
I moved my Tang and Tuskfish to a Hospital tank about 2 weeks ago in order to treat them for ick. I have been keeping the Cu level at about 4.8 and have been doing 25% water cahnges every other day to keep the amonia levels in check. Being so tunnelvisioned on keeping an eye on the Cu and amonial levels, i overlooked all the other basic sh*t like Alk and PH. Now my Tusk isnt eating and is hanging out vertically in the corner of the tank breathing heavy, and not eating. I checked the PH today and it was at 7.8, and the Alk was at 7.4. My salts say that they are supposed to raise the ph level to 8.4 so i never bothered to check. :oops: My fault...i know better. Never believe what is written on the outside of a box or bucket! :? So now I've done another 25% water cahnge and added 3ml of B-Ionic Alk buffer to the water. All i can do now is keep the water levels in check and hope for the best. :cry:
 
Whare did that come from,,,I would not think that is a good idea calling names...No prejudices on this board please.

I would try doing the water change in your main tank and using the water from it in your hospital tank... Raise the temp to 82-84* and try not to add anymore medicine. The temp alone will hopefully lessen the chance of the ICH reproducing and it will die off. I would also keep the lighting to a bare minimum. I hope your fish pull thorugh...KTIMP :(
 
I was not meaing to insult him/her in any way and hope it did not come over that way, if it did I am sorry. It was just some freindly humor. I have against him because of where he resides nor will I let that affect my advice for him. If anyone else feels this to be innapropriate I will edit my post but felt it was not being rude at all.
 
No offence taken here. I have been called much, much worse. :p Thanks for youre good wishes. The tusk has moved around the tank a little since the water change, but he is back to his corner. I've already raised the temp to 82 in both of my tanks (3 weeks ago in my main tank. Gonna keep it their for 6 weeks from the time i removed the sick fish. There are no fish in the tank now, just my eel). Unfortunately, ive already done a water change in my main tank today and dumped the water. I was trying ot clean out that redish brown stuff that cakes together on top of the sand...i forget wat its called. I will do another change next week and use the water then.
 
The reddish stuff sounds like Cyano, I think their is a product that works great to get rid of it. It sure sounds like you are doing a good job, keep up the good work
 
Well, to my suprise, the tuskfish is still with us this morning. I really didn't expect him to make it through the night. He is still breathing heavy, but he is not hanging verticall in the corner like he was. I took a real close look at him and i can still see the ick parasites on him, just not as much as before. He just has a couple of spots on his anal fin and tail. I've got my fingers crossed, i hope he makes it. :|
 
Here is an update. I moved my Tuskfish and Tang back into my main tank. I was having too much trouble trying to keep the water levels in check in the Hospital tank. I was in a rush and i set up a 10 gal to use as a Hospital tank, it hasnt had any time to establish itself, so i have been doing constant water changes, wich i think may be stressing the fish out as much as anything else.

Last night i added carbon to the Ehime filter on the Hospital tank to remove the Cu from the water. Today, I filled half a 5 gal bucket with RO/DI water, brought the salinity and the temp up to the same levels as the Hospital tank, and my Main tank. I added 2ml of Amquel and Novaqua to the bucket, hoping that that is enough to nutralize any residual Cu on the fish from the Hospital tank. I dipped the fish into the bucket for 1 min before i added them back into my main tank.

I left lights off in the main tank afer moving the fish for the rest of today. The tang is moving freely around the tank. It looks like he as happy to be home. The tusk hid behind some rocks for most of the day. He is out now at the top of the tank swimming into the current frome the water return from the sump. He doesnt look 100% yet but he looks a lot better than he did.

I spoke with the owner of my LFS today, he said that if after reintroducing the fish back to the main tank, they start showing signs of Ick agian, he wold house and treat my fish and eel in his QT in the store basement. I hope i dont have to take him up on this, but it's good to know that i have that option.
 
Well Tyson, my Tuskfish is still hanging in there. He still isnt looking too good. He is lathargic, breathing heavy and not eating yet. I can still see some white spots on him, so i don't think that he has kicked the ick. I can also see some white spots still on my Tang. I'm about to order some Marine Ecolibrium No-Ich from Fish Vet to try and treat them in my main tank. Does anyone have any experience with this product? I will be posting a new topic on this product as well, but i thought that i would start here.
 
Update on Tyson, my Tusk:
He is much more active than he was. He is not breathing as heavy and he is actually swimming around the tank more. He is still not eating and he looks a little disoriented. He stays mostly at the top of the tank poking his head out of the water, and swimming into the current. He bumps into the side of the tank on accasion too, but he is still living I'm waiting for Fed-Ex to bring my me the No-Ich so i can start dosing the tank. Tonight i'm going to feed my Eel, and mix some water. I made 10 Gal of RO/DI water yesterday for a 20% water change that i will do tomorrow.
 
i checked my levels last night and the nitrates were at 20. I cant remember a time when they werent holding steady at 15 to 20. I dont have a deep enough sand bed yet (soon) to remove all of the bioballs from my wetdry, and i know that they are the devil :twisted: and keep nitrates, but i am going to remove the biomedia from the BackPack Skimmer when i do the water change tomorrow.
 
Couldn't wait to do the water change. I did a 10Gal Water change last night, which is about 20% of my total water volume. I can see the ich comming back on the Tusks fins and tail. Guess the parasites are starting another life cycle :roll: I removed the biomedia from the BackPack Skimmer last night during the water change, im hoping that without it the nitrate leves will come down a little. He is still not eating, sigh. But he is more alert and is not swimming into things. I hope that No-Ich stuff comes soon, and most of all i hope it works for me.
 
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