Lionfish injurey?....deceased

[adidas]

that sucks...

[danny zubot]

Its dicouraging.
Mr. Phoomps was my girlfriend's fish, but he was my favorite too. We got him as a baby and had to have Deb train him to eat. After several months at her place she gave him back, and he was a real character. They call them lionfish because they prowl for thier food just like a cat.

[outtafocus]

sorry to hear.

[bulletsworld]

Yiks! I just left for a little bit! SoRRY!

So sorry Danny to hear about Mr. Phoomps. I know you loved that guy. He'll be dearly missed, I'm sure. *SUPERHUGS*

My speculation of the events....

Since this seemed to all have started during treatment. It is possible you lowered the salinity to fast and without closely monitoring the NH3 spike (how high did it go?), knowing scaleless fish (Mr. Phoomps is one of them) are very sensitive, intolerant of ammonia. And without testing... its possible Mr. Phoomps suffered mild ammonia burn when it spiked (or still), teamed up with the ich infestation (too much) it would left him with a wicked bacteria infection. Now without knowing your water quality levels, you'll never know for sure.

Now if he was still alive.... It's hard to say what would have been best to do. Treating with an antibacterial medication (for scaleless fish) would have probably been my opinion, that's first IF it didn't go away on its own or clear up with having excellent water quality over about a weeks time. I agree, water quality is key.

Just for your info, its not uncommon after dropping the salinity (Hyposalinity treatment) to approx. 1.016 to get a ammonia spike, if your not watching closely. It can mean you’re dropping it to fast. You need to give enough time for bacteria to balance in your system, to be stable and not crash. Most fish are hardy enough to handle a spike unless their scaleless or heavily infected with a parasite.

Also if you’re testing (Nitrate, Nitrite & Ammonia) regularly then you could have caught the spike before it happened. Cause you would see your Nitrates would be rising and rising. It does happen fast though so you have to be on top of it when you know your passing about 1.016.

Please be comforted to know that scaleless fish are one of the HARDEST fish to treat once they get ill. They are very sensitive to treatment & limited for meds to use on them.

But you have other fish still in QT ...so run HOME...check water parameters, quick! Let us know if the others show an infection of the fins as well.


Deepest regards for Mr. Phoomps. *HUGS*

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Dang. Sorry about your fav fish both of you. Condolences from the coast.

Anthony

[EmilyB]

Danny, Frank Marini knows ALL about lionfish and I've talked to him a lot. Find him on reefcentral and send him the pics etc.

[danny zubot]

Thanks guys. Anige was pretty upset about "her" fish dying, at least she didn't cry this time. (She's pregnant, she's allowed)

When I got home I examined the fish closely, the fin infection spread rapidly to the gills and I suspect that he died of suffication. My levels were tested right away and I found that the NH3 actually dropped, but my NO2 was really high, and nitrates were relatively low as well. All other fish were fine. I did two 5 gallon water changes that night, one consisted of water from the main tank, diluted to 10PPT. I figured the Q-tank needed more bio bacteria to help with denitrification. As of last night NH3 and nitrates are almost 0, NO2 is still very high though. Another water change will help.

I didn't know scaless fish were more sensitive to salinity changes, I would have slowed down the process if I'd have known. Bummer. I did follow the intructions pretty acurately, it took at least 3 days to drop the salinty to 10-11 PPT.