2013-8-29 accidental formalin (Rid-Ich) overdose

Formalin OD

Accidentally added 9 TBSP to 90 gallon tank instead of 9 TSP!

 

See the ORP (redline) crash.  Tank became hypoxic.  Fish at surface gasping for air.  Did 50% water change ASAP and added airlines ASAP.  I think all the discus were saved.  Lost one rummy nose tetra.

 



2013-8-15 Capillaria eggs from Golden Melon discus

Proof positive for capillaria eggs in Golden Melon stool.  Treated for 3 days with levimasole at 5gm/100gallons.

SE makes fish sluggish and they don't eat with this treatment.

Now treating main tank to get newly hatched eggs from that tank.  Need to do it again in 3 weeks.

QT only has the albino coral.  Still can't figure out why he eats poorly and is so skittish.

2013-8-15 QT potential pathogen

Hexamita /Spironucleus

Hexamita is a small (3 -- 18 m) intestinal parasite commonly found in the intestinal tract of freshwater fish (Figure 10). Sick fish are extremely thin and the abdomen may be distended. The intestines may contain a yellow mucoid (mucus-like) material. Recent taxonomic studies have labeled the intestinal flagellate of freshwater angelfish as Spironucleus. Hexamita or Sprironucleus can be diagnosed by making a squash preparation of the intestine and examining it at 200 or 400x magnification. The flagellates can be seen where the mucosa (intestinal lining) is broken. They move by spiraling and in heavy infestations, they will be too numerous to be overlooked.

Figure 10. 

The recommended treatment for Hexamita / Spironucleus is metronidazole (Flagyl). Metronidazole can be administered in a bath at a concentration of 5 mg/L (18.9 mg/gallon) every other day for three treatments. Medicated feed is even more effective at a dosage of 50 mg/kg body weight (or 10 mg/gm food) for five consecutive days. See also IFAS Fact Sheet VM-67, Management of Hexamita in Ornamental Cichlids.

2013-8-13

QT TANK

Was going to move Golden Melon to big tank bc was eating well and being more aggressive to the companion sighted Coral Albino.  But then way white stringy poop from the Golden Melon.  No evidence of bacterial infx and the sores on the side were successfully eliminated by Baytril and the secondary fungal infx eliminated by salt and Rid Ich.

Stringy poop examined and saw 1 fluke like parasite and the tumbling egg-shaped parasites but not much else.  Specifically did not see capillaria eggs.

I had treated the big tank recently with Levmisole and all those fish are now eating well.  So I am treating the QT tank with Levmisole also.  Perhaps I should add them all back to main tank and treat the bunch again and perhaps I will, bc I need to treat the main tank again as it needs to be repeated q 3 weeks.

Both tanks maintained at pH 6.0 and the bio filters work at that pH.  At pH 4.0 the bio filters are knocked out.

2013-8-7 Disease update

Main tank has recovered well.  May need to repeat Levmisole next week to keep the cycle of parasites from repeating with newly hatched eggs.
The small flamingo red discus is eating again but will not eat with the other fish.  It acts traumatized, probably by all the housekeeping I have to do with the tank.
The 1/2 blind coral has remated with the same blue fish as before indicating health.

I have tried to increase Excel to cut down on hair algae and it looks successful.

I dropped the pH in the main tank to 6.0 with phosphoric acid and CO2.  This is for disease prevention effects.  No problem with increased ammonia.

QT tank:  The large Golden Melon looks to have recovered with 2 injx of Baytril 0.1cc IM QOD X 2.  Developed white spots c/w fungus.  Skin scraping showed nothing else but apparent fungal hyphae, though I have trouble discerning the diff bn fungal hyphae and algae strands bc the strands look green sometime to me.
For this I increased temp to 88F and added salt at 1 tbsp./5gal and added Rid-Ich Plus which is combo of formalin and malachite green.  Dosed q-12-24hrs.  After 2-3 days the spots have appeared to resolve.  The fish is not eating great but eating some.

The other coral albino that is not blind has been in the tank for 10 days or so for what looked like wasting disease.  He had withdrawn and stopped eating for a week before QT with no external signs of disease.  For this I dropped the pH gradually to 5.0.  I will go ahead and drop it further to 4.0 per Jack Wattley since it doesn't look like I'll have to QT more fish at this time.  He is eating enough to appear status quo in weight but clearly needs to gain.

Need to replace bulb in UV light.  Also I treated the main tank for cyanobacteria again this week with Chemiclean.
I ideally should do twice weekly water changes but clearly that is not practical at this time.

Crypts and Java fern grow well with added nitrogen.  Red plant needs further tweaking to grow faster to outpace the hair algae/algae on the leaves.