Cuke Nuke

[zenn]

I had a cuke nuke this morning involving a newly added "non-toxic" sea cucumber. I was watching the tank this morning and realized my tang was acting very strange...wildly swimming about in erratic fashion. Upon further investigation, I found my new cuke with internal organs lying beside it.

I immediately went into RED ALERT damage control mode. Obviously, this 'non-toxic' cuke wasn't so "non-toxic". It was obviously causing my tang a lot of problems.

So i removed the cuke and organs, and set up my power filter with two new carbon pouches. I'm making 30g of water as I write this so I can do a large water change as soon as possible. (this is where i wish i had a booster pump on my ro/di).

The tang seems to be the only fish that is having major issues...everyone else is fine. I hope I caught it early enough that none of my fish will die. It seemed to just have happened in the last hour or so. Looks like i'll be looking for fighting conches again.

Now before anyone accusses me of making a horrible decision by adding the cuke, just know I did lots of research and got lots of advice before adding it to my tank.

 

[ronj]

do you have a small tank you could put the fish in??? i would use my new water to fill up a 10 or 20g and just keep running carbon in the main tank, until there was more water to do Wc's

 

[zenn]

I was thinking of doing that. My only worry with that is that i'm going to stress the tang even further trying to catch it and then putting it into completely different water parameters. I don't want to kill it while trying to save it basically. But maybe that's my best bet. In the last 30 minutes, he's calmed down a bit...but is still swimming wildly here and there.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Unless your tap water is terrible, it is most likely superior to what is in your tank. Change the water quickly.

 

[ronj]

did you let the salt mix really well???

 

[zenn]

Tap water here is pretty bad. I think that would only make an already mess an even bigger disaster.

By this happening on sunday when I'm home and nothing much to do, I kind of lucked out. If it would have happened during the week when I'm at work all day, i bet i'd come home to a cloudy soup of dead sea creatures.

I think what I'm going to do is just watch the tang and other fish and make sure they aren't getting worse. As long as they don't get worse, I think i can treat them in the tank. But I am setting up my QT tank right now. If he gets worse, he's going in the QT as soon as it's ready. It's going to take an hour or two before it's ready though. So in the mean while, I hope the tang can pull through.

 

[zenn]

did you let the salt mix really well???

I added the salt right away so it has the most time possible to mix. Hopefully I can get the QT tank filled an up to temp so he can go in there if needed. But the salt isn't going to get a 24 hour mix/age like I usually do for water changes.

 

[steve-s]

A good turn over rate on a power filter and several carbon changes would be just as if not more beneficial than the water changes. Although I would still do both. I wouldn't move the fish unless you couldn't do either.

Which cuke did you end up with?

 

[zenn]

i ordered from eTropicals. Link below is of the one i ordered.

http://www.etropicals.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=43&pCatId=1302

The one I received didn't look like the one they have pictured in that link. The one I got was all black. It sat around for a week, not doing much of anything, and then expelled its organs.

Good news is, a day later and everthing seems to be back to normal. None of the other fish were affected...and the tang has calmed down. He's still noticably more active, but at least he's not swimming about all erratic. I did a 50% water change last night (huge PITA) and I'm switching out the carbon again tonight. The power filter i'm using is pretty large. So i think i've got it in check.

Steve, i'm not blaming this one on anyone. eTropicals credited my account for the cuke. I'll just chalk this up to a learning experience. One question I still have is, if there are any toxins left in the water, will they ever become inert or and wear off?

Looks like I'll be looking into some fighting conches after all.

 

[steve-s]

Steve, i'm not blaming this one on anyone. eTropicals credited my account for the cuke. I'll just chalk this up to a learning experience.

No worries there. I stand behind what I told you earlier. They are a fine addition and even if they die, rarely will anything else water volume/time frame depending. It all comes down to what you buy and how it's added. If this cuke spat it's innards so quickly, something was amiss with it or it's surroundings.

One question I still have is, if there are any toxins left in the water, will they ever become inert or and wear off?

Any lingering problems will not be from the water as long as the carbon gets replaced along with the water changes. Fish will feel the "after affects" like you or I would if we inhaled smoke or something along those lines. They should all respond positively in short order.