Hyposalinity question - QT tank - how fast can you lower SG?

[kien]

I suppose there is more than one way to skin a cat as they say..

For as along as I've been in the hobby I have never used meds or hypo to battle ich. The first time I was ever exposed to ich years ago someone said to try cleaner shrimp, so I did and it worked beautifully. Ever since then I have always had an army of cleaner shrimp (presently 4 skunk cleaners and 2 fire shrimp [yes they clean too!]). I have 3 tangs presently and each of them (and sometimes one or two other fish) get ich as soon as they were put into the tank but a few days of cleaner shrimp loving and they are clean as a whistle. When they are not cleaning they readily eat anything I put in the tank, but they seem to enjoy cleaning a lot, even when I don't see signs of ich on any fish. Anyway, that's been my experience. Sorry to hear about your battle

[Delphinus]

The last time I bought a tang was 2001, my sailfin .. he got a few spots when I got him but it cleared up. I had cleaner shrimp at the time. I'm sure it helped but I always thought that when you had ich beyond maybe 10 spots that it was better to take proactive steps like QT, hospital, hypo, medication, etc.

Ever other fish I've bought either came from hobbyists (so were healthy) or just never got ich anyhow. So I never did QT before. I thought, sooner or later my luck will run out, and I couldn't live with myself if I introduced something that would compromise existing livestock. Especially the now 8 year old tang...

So .. I don't know. Maybe the old way I would do it (ie., hope for the best) was still better after all.

Too late now though. I mean .. even if I wanted to raise the salinity now, it would take a week to bring it back up. It remains to be seen whether they'll make it that far.

[marie]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

The last time I bought a tang was 2001, my sailfin .. he got a few spots when I got him but it cleared up. I had cleaner shrimp at the time. I'm sure it helped but I always thought that when you had ich beyond maybe 10 spots that it was better to take proactive steps like QT, hospital, hypo, medication, etc.

Ever other fish I've bought either came from hobbyists (so were healthy) or just never got ich anyhow. So I never did QT before. I thought, sooner or later my luck will run out, and I couldn't live with myself if I introduced something that would compromise existing livestock. Especially the now 8 year old tang...

So .. I don't know. Maybe the old way I would do it (ie., hope for the best) was still better after all.

Too late now though. I mean .. even if I wanted to raise the salinity now, it would take a week to bring it back up. It remains to be seen whether they'll make it that far.

The nice thing about a quarantine tank is that you don't have to call it quits until you've tried everything. I would medicate immediately if they are that bad and while using copper, start raising the salinity back up.

*edit* I've noticed when treating with cupramine that all visible signs of ich are gone within half an hour and when I treated my achilles for marine velvet, within 10 min he was no longer scratching frantically and his breathing had returned to normal

Another option is a freshwater bath to relieve them of the worst of the parasites.

[Delphinus]

Well, to my astonishment, this morning the butterfly is swimming around. I'm surprised because last night he was opaque, listless and unresponsive to his surroundings. Usually with butterflys, at least IME so far, they go from "Oh, something looks off" to dead within a couple of hours. So to see him pull out of that funk is not something I expected. Remains to be seen where we go from here though, of course.

And .. well, I guess the lieutenant tang decided to take matter into his own hands and solved his own ich problem ... or rather, made the ich situation irrelevant. He jumped.

FML.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Well, to my astonishment, this morning the butterfly is swimming around. I'm surprised because last night he was opaque, listless and unresponsive to his surroundings. Usually with butterflys, at least IME so far, they go from "Oh, something looks off" to dead within a couple of hours. So to see him pull out of that funk is not something I expected. Remains to be seen where we go from here though, of course.

And .. well, I guess the lieutenant tang decided to take matter into his own hands and solved his own ich problem ... or rather, made the ich situation irrelevant. He jumped.

FML.

So sorry to hear this Tony.
Bloody Hobby! Sometimes you just can't win. Butterfly perks up and Tang jumps.

[christyf5]

Aww crap Tony, that sucks rocks. Stupid fish

[Delphinus]

Yeah. Unfortunately the butterfly didn't make it through the day, although I wasn't really expecting much on that. So it's down the last fish now, he's got the cloudy eyes like the others so I'm thinking it's a matter of time.

So, I'm sort of left wondering if this is an epic fail of a QT, or if I maybe dodged a bullet by not exposing my current livestock. I'm not sure. I feel very stunned and drained though, I'll say that. I never learn, I'm always optimistic.

Anyhow went and bought some cupramine. Taking Marie's point to heart in that it's never over until it's over, and this is something I can do different, so we'll see.

[sharuq1]

That sucks Darn thing must have had a death wish.