Tanktified
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Hypo on an Orbicular Burrfish
My Orbicular Burrfish has become progressively more lethargic and is now barely eating after 2 weeks using leebca's hypo process at 1.009 sg (calibrated Vital Sine SR-6 Seawater Refractometer). Has anyone on the forum treated this fish using this process? Crypt was mild and disappeared w/in 2 days, but the fish has steadily declined. Here is some background.
Fish was very healthy despite mild case of Crypt initially, but is now extremely lethargic, & reclusive. Some indications of increased respiration rate, but only at times. Not seeming to gasp for air. Fish is now hard to motivate to eat and getting his attention is hard (won't look at interesting things).
Feces have consistency of pancake batter (sorry for this visual association) and uniformly colored greenish yellow deposited in fairly large puddles. The fish's coloration is generally darker than normal, but occasionally a sickly pale. On rare occasions it's color is completely normal. No signs of secondary infection, cloudy eyes, slime changes, or frayed fins (I have a UV running on the tank). No parasites noticed at anus, but began 3 day oral Metronidazole in case parasites flared up due to hypo or stress.
Metronidazole treatment is frozen krill squeezed dry to make them more absorbent, then soaked in garlic and 100mg/tsp solution for about 15 min. Fed Day 2 of three day regimen today. Spit out last piece and sat there looking at it until I removed it a while later. No obvious affect on the fish yet, just continued lower energy and activity as before.
Water quality is good, though an occasional slight rise in ammonia has been detected (<.25 ppm) and is being controlled with 50% water changes and addition of prime. Wet-dry filter bacteria are apparently not fully active following the 4-day drop in salinity. Nitrite always 0, nitrate 5ppm.
Monitoring ammonia 3 times per day using API test we noticed that ammonia readings track higher with pH (see below) and are never quite zero once Prime is added to the water, even as it is aging before use. Many people have reported persistent low ammonia readings < .25ppm after using prime. The ammonia reading may be NH4 ionized ammonium captured by Prime vs. the non-ionized NH3.
The pH, measured continuously with a meter, was fluctuating 7.8 at dawn 8.2 by sundown. I found this was controllable by covering the aquarium during the day and adding small sodium bicarbonate solution additions to keep the pH about 8.0. Until we got the meter I nearly went crazy trying to understand the pH changes, which seemed random.
Tank has wet-dry 300GPH, half passing through a CoralLife 35W UV to achieve level 2 sterilization for crypt, just to reduce the numbers and improve redox. Setup includes some dead live rock for hiding and a thin sand bed; essentially a sparsely furnished quarantine tank. New carbon added 3 days ago.
Any thoughts?
My Orbicular Burrfish has become progressively more lethargic and is now barely eating after 2 weeks using leebca's hypo process at 1.009 sg (calibrated Vital Sine SR-6 Seawater Refractometer). Has anyone on the forum treated this fish using this process? Crypt was mild and disappeared w/in 2 days, but the fish has steadily declined. Here is some background.
Fish was very healthy despite mild case of Crypt initially, but is now extremely lethargic, & reclusive. Some indications of increased respiration rate, but only at times. Not seeming to gasp for air. Fish is now hard to motivate to eat and getting his attention is hard (won't look at interesting things).
Feces have consistency of pancake batter (sorry for this visual association) and uniformly colored greenish yellow deposited in fairly large puddles. The fish's coloration is generally darker than normal, but occasionally a sickly pale. On rare occasions it's color is completely normal. No signs of secondary infection, cloudy eyes, slime changes, or frayed fins (I have a UV running on the tank). No parasites noticed at anus, but began 3 day oral Metronidazole in case parasites flared up due to hypo or stress.
Metronidazole treatment is frozen krill squeezed dry to make them more absorbent, then soaked in garlic and 100mg/tsp solution for about 15 min. Fed Day 2 of three day regimen today. Spit out last piece and sat there looking at it until I removed it a while later. No obvious affect on the fish yet, just continued lower energy and activity as before.
Water quality is good, though an occasional slight rise in ammonia has been detected (<.25 ppm) and is being controlled with 50% water changes and addition of prime. Wet-dry filter bacteria are apparently not fully active following the 4-day drop in salinity. Nitrite always 0, nitrate 5ppm.
Monitoring ammonia 3 times per day using API test we noticed that ammonia readings track higher with pH (see below) and are never quite zero once Prime is added to the water, even as it is aging before use. Many people have reported persistent low ammonia readings < .25ppm after using prime. The ammonia reading may be NH4 ionized ammonium captured by Prime vs. the non-ionized NH3.
The pH, measured continuously with a meter, was fluctuating 7.8 at dawn 8.2 by sundown. I found this was controllable by covering the aquarium during the day and adding small sodium bicarbonate solution additions to keep the pH about 8.0. Until we got the meter I nearly went crazy trying to understand the pH changes, which seemed random.
Tank has wet-dry 300GPH, half passing through a CoralLife 35W UV to achieve level 2 sterilization for crypt, just to reduce the numbers and improve redox. Setup includes some dead live rock for hiding and a thin sand bed; essentially a sparsely furnished quarantine tank. New carbon added 3 days ago.
Any thoughts?
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