Dammit

Hey folks. Im in a bit of trouble. My trigger took the best part of one of my remoras pectoral fins with repeated attacks and poor thing came down with a severe case of whitespot and sadly it didnt make it. It went completely grey, was covered in a goey grey slime. He was bashing himself off the rock whilst swimming erraticaly and his breathing was very laboured. Certain it was beyond help I removed it from the tank and euthanised it . Thing is, I didnt even realise it was ich until later when I took a closer look at the dead fishes body and noticed the tiny white spots concentrated around the damaged fin and on his flanks. Now it seems I didnt act quickly enough. To make matters worse, it seems to be a very aggressive strain as the remora was otherwise healthy a few days ago and now it appears the puffer has it too. As of today, he has ceased eating. The trigger seems to be free of the parasite for now, as does the moray but needless to say Im worried here. That remora as a bruiser, over a foot long and very strong and it succumbed rapidly. I just performed a large wc and have begun to increase the temp and am trying the JBL Punktol. Failing that I will do the kill or cure method of a formalin/copper bath but fingers crossed I wont have to do that and he recovers. As there have been no new additions to the tank since introducing the remora a couple of months ago, Im confident this is a stress related outbreak brought on by the triggers attacks and thankfully it isnt harrassing anything else so I can concentrate on killing this bug. Will keep you folks posted on how things progress and all advice welcome.

Jay

jaysus Jay i cant offer you advice on this, but i am very sorry to hear of your loss and i hope you get trough this

Sorry to hear that Jay....Best of luck with it all

Lar

sorry to hear that Jay
that was a fine oulde fish so it was
don't loose heart
these things happen from time to time
hope you don't have any more losses...

Des

Sorry To hear this news Jay. Hope u get this outbreak sorted and then possibly get another predator in there. Keep us posted.

Mick....

Thanks lads. The puffer, though still suffering, took food today. Just a few bites but its better than nothing. The trigger and the moray so far seem unaffected. Ill look into a more suitable tankmate when this clears up. Thanks again guys and Ill keep you posted.

Jay

Keep the head up Jay sorry to hear that R Johney

That sad news Jay, they remora was a beauty.

Ive been trowing the idea around my head of how white spot could be putting the puffer off its food.
The only thing i can think of is a possible heavy infestation on the gills, the gills been a soft easy target for the white spot.

Maybe instead of the kill or cure method try a fresh water bath for temporary relief. It might be enough to help the puffer on the road to recovery.

He is covered in it now. There is a large amounts of cysts around his gills and eyes, not so much on the fins. Temp is up and the system is due its next dose of meds so I will continue until Ive finished the course. I had considered a fw bath to begin with but figured this was a bit aggressive, so fire with fire and all, but in retrospect it makes sense to exhaust the less damaging options first. Cheers Darren,

Jay

Ok, after good advice from Darren I have tried the hyposalinity route so I have discontinued the meds and have lowered the specific gravity to 1.009. Yesterday was day four of the low salinity and I woke to find the tank looking like worm stew. Loads of dead and dying fireworms, bristleworms and other inverts being washed around the water columm. This, however, was to be expected and is why you shouldnt place live rock in a freshwater system (someone was asking about that not long ago). Nice job cleaning that up. The moray and the trigger are doing fine. The puffer is looking much better but is still a bit reclusive and still "coughing" but is eating well. This process lasts a month or so so Im in this for the long haul so far so good.
Thats it for now. Hoping to have this sorted by mid December and introduce a new centerpiece fish providing all is well. Thinking a harlequin tuskfish would be ideal.


Jay

People differ but I believe in the reduced salinity route as it causes the cysts etc to imbibe fresh water causing them to swell and die/fall off, I'd also recommend feeding with Garlic laden food either purchased already prepared or to steep your Prawn etc in Garlic additive that is available from most LFS, hit it from within and without.

Kev.

These guys wont take anything but meat. I will try adding garlic via powder to it and see if they take it. Cant believe I never thought of that. I added that hebatna stuff. Seems to mellow them out a quite a bit...

Jay

So after many weeks of treatment the tank is now clear of ich and every other invert that lived in it. All fish and the moray are in great health. The moray is a little thin after fasting for nearly two weeks but they do this from time to time and is back eating again. This low salinity treatment was a bit of an experiment as far as the moray was concerned as neither myself or some of the other experienced salty keepers were sure how the eel would fare with an SG of 1.009 maintained for over a month. It is known that some fish like sharks and rays cannot survive this, like all inverts, but as it turned out, it came through no worse for wear. I will purchase a few kilos of live rock to reintroduce the vital inverts that maintain a healthy setup. I also plan to introduce a harlequin tuskfish in the coming weeks so when its in and settled Ill throw up a clip. Cheers,

Jay

Great work on the sorting it out, nice follow through bro, bit o bad luck there, good to hear tey're on the mend. That Eel is a great specimen.





Mark

Thanks Mark. Yeah the moray has become to get bolder as he settled. He tends to expose more of himself now at feeding time to snatch a morsel before his tankmates get there. Gotta watch the fingers...

Jay