Please Help, this is breaking my heart

Captainhemo · #1 09-01-2004, 02:36 AM

Hey a\ALL
I made a post a few days ago about my stressed / sick dommino damsels. Although things steted to look up for a day or two they are worse now. The larger of the two (the one which I was aking about in my other post) is now spending most of his time on his side in a hole in the live rock. He comes out at feeding or when there is a sudden movement in front fo the tank. When he soes come out he swims eraticlally now.
The smaller one sosent seem as bad, he seems to be rubbing/scratching himself up against the rocks but stills wims ok. He is also still eating well.

The fish almost look like they have specs of dust on them.
I am assumming they have got some kind of parasite. Is there anything I can do for them that is safe for the rest of the tank ( hermits, snails, live rock ? ) Normally I'd be taling to my local dealer but they are on holdidays , I feel really bad for the fish and it starting to really upset me not being able to do anything .

Nothing new has been added to the tank lately, this all just seemed to start out of the blue. They are the only 2 fish in the tank and have been doing well for about 3 or 4 weeks up until last thursday night when I first noticed something was wrong and started the other thresad (Help, Domminos not doing well)

I've also noticed the development of what aapeears to be small white spots onthe tnaks glass . Upon clser inspection these a re actuyally little animals with legs. Searching on the forums, they appear to be a type of jelly fish i read about here http://www.rshimek.com/odd_critters....Around%20Tanks
From reading the info there, it dosent seem like these would be the cuilprit

BTW, tnak is a 33 gal,
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates <10ppm
PH 8.2
Salinityh 1.024
Temp is 78

The tank has about 50 lbs of reef sand, 30 lbs live rock, multiple hermits and snails, a red mushrrom, and the 2 damsels

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do for these ppor guys ? The larger one seems to be gettng worse, Im scared if I dont do some thing for him he's not gonna make it. My dealer isnt gonna be back for about another weekk i think

Aquattro · #2 09-01-2004, 03:03 AM

I'd do a partial water change, make sure there is plenty of O2 in the water (add an air stone). Since they're still eating, try feeding them some fresh garlic soaked food.
Search on ich and velvet to see if you can compare what your fish have to pics on the subject.

Captainhemo · #3 09-01-2004, 04:26 AM

Hi

Thanks for the suggestions. I've done acouople partial water chances over the past few days ( apporx 5 gal at a time)
I could try ading an )2 pump, Ill have ot see what I've got kicking around. Not sure that will help though, as this seems to be something that has recently started very abruyptly The fish dont seem to be struggling for air, not going to the srface or anything
Gonna try the garlic for sure

Have looked a qutie a bit of Ich rleated info, dosetn really seem to be it. I havent read much on vlevet yet though, guess thats next
Any more ideas anyone ? Please let me know, as I said before, its not much fun watching your fish slowly suffer and continue to get worse

Aquattro · #4 09-01-2004, 05:46 AM

Somebody has to have more ideas!! Let's help the fishies, guys & gals!

pocilipora · #5 09-01-2004, 06:02 AM

Maybe a fresh water dip and into a QT tank then leave your tank fishless for a month or two. Do the spots cover the entire fish? Any pics?

Doug · #6 09-01-2004, 01:28 PM

As the last post said, they need to be moved a QT. Also need an idea of what disease it is, to suggest a treatment. Its sounds like ick to me but hard to say without a pic or actually seeing them. If it is a copper based treatment in quarentine would help, if its not to late.

Or if its in very early stages, improving water conditions by the water changes and Brads suggestion of garlic may help.

There are othere treatments like Melefix and the such, for other ailments, but most need to be used separate from a reef tank also.

Skimmerking · #7 09-01-2004, 02:12 PM

it sounds liek ICK ,but i thought tha damsels and wrasses dont get ICK ,or maybe i have been misinformed.. But i dont think so and my experinces are from my dad Doug... any how hope this can clear its self up

mike

trilinearmipmap · #8 09-01-2004, 04:54 PM

I would set up a Q-tank to treat them.

The advantage of this is you can use the Q-tank in the future to quarantine new arrivals to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

I'm not sure about the life cycle of these organisms but you would want to leave your main tank empty of fish for some time, perhaps a month or more.

Another option would be to post pics of your fish on the "Fish diseases" section of Reef Central to get a positive ID.

Skimmerking · #9 09-01-2004, 05:24 PM

If it is ICK then dont you have to leave the tank free of fish for months or so

Just curious

mike

Samw · #10 09-01-2004, 05:53 PM

If it is ick, my advice is oxygenate heavily with airstones or skimmer (Skimmer is better because it doesn't produce salt spray). Ick is not hard to beat. Fish can survive it.

My tank has ick from the very beginning and most of my new fish seem to get it when I introduce them to my tank. However, they all survive and become immune to it on their own without treatment, garlic, etc. Maybe cleaner shrimps help a little, maybe not.

Here is Moo when I first got her

Even Moo kicked icked and lived happily ever after for years. Before I bought my skimmer, all of my fish got ick and died. After I got the skimmer, ick never killed another fish. At least, I've never seen a dead fish in my tank with ick since then. Ick is still in my tank.