HELP!! Sick Tang

[prbhasson]

I purchased a powder brown 2 weeks ago. I put him in quarantine for a week and he seemed to be doing great. Introduced him to my 75AGA and all was well until today. He seemed very sluggish and now he is barely moving. I moved him back to quaratine tank, 29g but he is not doing well. Just laying around and labored breathing it seems. Any suggestions? Could he have been hurt by my BTA? He did have a few spots of ich when he was in quaratine but the cleaner shrimp seemed to take care of the problem when he got in my main tank. No spots anyway. Going to bed soon, hopefully he will make it through the night....
Any suggestions would be appreciated....

 

[mmkeeper]

I would start hyposalinity to reduce the stress and fight the ich if it returned. You might even try a fresh water dip that might help knock down the ich if it is in his gills, which could help him breathe better.

 

[prbhasson]

I did a fresh water dip for about 10 minutes... Is that long enough? It did not seem to help him much... Thanks for the reply

 

[mmkeeper]

That should be. Are you going to treat him with hyposalinity?

 

[mmkeeper]

If you treat him with hypo, You want to do it for at least 4 weeks after you see no signs of ich. I would raise the Qt temp to 80 degrees and keep your ph at 8.3. Lower the salinity to 1.009 over a couple of days.

 

[mmkeeper]

While you are lowering the salinity, I would dip him several more times.

 

[steve-s]

I would actually suggest you not dip the fish at all. I would also never dip a fish for as long as 10 minutes, 3-5 at most. You can't actually kill the trophonts embeded in the epithelium so it is of little benefit other than reducing gill infestation to a small degree. Only mature cysts on the outer skin will fall away, none will actually be killed.

Was the dip water properly araeted, heated to the same as the display and the pH adjusted as well? Tap or RO?

Once in a proper treatment regimen (hypo is a great choice) leave the fish to regain it's energy and keep the stress as low as possible. Do not raise the temp either. Give the treatment time to do it's job. Speeding up the parasites life cycle only means the fish becomes infested faster. While 80° is of little concern, higher can alter the pH of the fish's blood and actually lower it's immune response leaving it vulnerable to secondary infection.

FWIW, cleaner shrimp are great "curiosities" and scavengers but are good for little else...

Cheers
Steve

 

[prbhasson]

RIP Tang. He did not make it through the night. Although the dip did help a little. He seemed to breathe easier after. It also was with RO/DI water with correct parameters. I would not just throw him in tap water... I will wait a month or so before I try again.... I want to make sure all my other fishes are o.k. Thankls for the input though..