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jarrid
10-05-2010, 10:40 PM
So I noticed that one of my triggers had a whit spot on his eye and on his body, so I medicated the whole 75 gallon tank w some artemiss microbe lift and followed the directions to turn off the protein skimmer and uv filter. About 6 hours after I did this I noticed two of my triggers were dead along with two of my puffers. One trigger along w a snowflake eel, a frogfish and two giant hermit crabs lived. As soon as I noticed the dead fish I immediately plugged my uv filter and protein skimmer back in. So far so good, but the frog fish isn't looking so good. Any idea what happened or what is goon on ? Howcome only some of the fish died while others have lived ? Any help would be greatly apreciated.

BlueTang<3
10-05-2010, 11:14 PM
Seeing you had 3 triggers 2 puffers an eel and a frog fish i would say you had a high bio load in that tank, which probably lead down to the poor water quality which in turn lead to the sick fish. We all over stock our tanks and just hope not to be burned. It happened to me i loaded up my tank to soon and lost all my fish but 1 its weird how some fish are just hardier and healthier then others. I guess its that same as any animal. Do a water change to remove as much as that medication as possible also try to run some carbon to remove crap from medicating. How are your ammonia nitrate and nitrite levels ?

Wayne
10-06-2010, 12:07 AM
Sorry no answer here. Sorry for the loss. Kinda a reminder that we should all have hospital tanks though. :cry:

jarrid
10-06-2010, 01:19 AM
All water levels are good, the two triggers were small and same w the puffer. How many fish should u have in a 75 ?

kien
10-06-2010, 01:54 AM
A lot of medications tell you to turn off your skimmer during medication. I personally am not a proponent of this practice. Without a skimmer running your oxygen levels can deplete quite rapidly to critical levels. Compound that with the stress that you are introducing with the meds themselves and you may have a bad scenario on your hands. I've noticed that sometimes fish will breath more heavily to try to get more oxygen during medication. What tends to happen is the meds you dose your tank causes the skimmer to go berserk and overflow the collection cup. If your skimmer is in sump then I would keep the skimmer on and let it overflow into the sump. As for why only some died and not all, well, if we keep with my theory and it was an oxygen issue then some fish just couldn't get enough oxygen :(

I'm sorry about your loss :(. I've actually had this happen to me in the past too. Sucks because all you were doing is following directions.

whatcaneyedo
10-06-2010, 01:57 AM
All water levels are good, the two triggers were small and same w the puffer. How many fish should u have in a 75 ?

If your intention is to keep relatively large growing predatory fish in a 75gal I'd recommend no more than 3.

jarrid
10-06-2010, 04:20 AM
I would have to agree w the oxygen depletion theory, because once I turned the skimmer back on then thats when the remaining trigger stopped breathing so hard and fast. The skimmer is a hang on back and has an overdraw tube coming from the cup and it was going crazy overflowing back into the tank until I did the water change. So how should I medicate then ?? Should I isolate The sick fish in a bucket and do a drip ?? Or leave the skimmer and uv light on And medicate directly into the tank ??

kien
10-06-2010, 02:50 PM
The microbe lift is reef safe so you can treat your display tank with it. Just keep the skimmer on and let it overflow into your tank for the duration of your treatment. Not all meds are reef safe so be sure to check. Also remember to do heft water changes.

jarrid
10-06-2010, 05:15 PM
My skimmer is still going nuts, how long does that usually take ? And what do u call a heft water change ? 10% or more ?

MitchM
10-06-2010, 05:29 PM
You could run an airstone instead of the skimmer.
Place it in the middle of the tank so you don't get a lot of salt spray outside the tank.

Mitch

kien
10-06-2010, 05:35 PM
Your skimmer will likely do that for the duration of your treatment. If you are done medicating then I'd do a hefty 50% water change. Then in two days another 25%. You should be diluted enough by then to continue regular water changes.

SeaHorse_Fanatic
10-06-2010, 05:47 PM
Yup, I would say that O2 depletion killed your fish. When the first fish died, its decomposing body would also contribute to the problem, including stress on fish that are already being stressed out by disease, lack of oxygen, etc.

An air stone and maybe extra powerheads would let you get away with no skimmer during a medication treatment.