No appetite????

[cashemin44]

My tangs have ich and they are not eating well at all. My hippo has coudy eye on top of ich and hasn't swam in 2 days (but is stil breathing and moving her fins). I don't want their immune systems to get any worse than they already are. I've soaking there food in zoe but that's not doing any good b/c they really aren't eating. I've been adding the zoe straight to the water so something is in there. Is there a liquid supplement of sorts that I can add to the water that maybe they can absorb in the mean time until there appetite comes back? I just don't want them to get sicker b/c they already seem so compromised as it is. Thanks

 

[mcsd22]

Need to no water parameters, tank size, age. Need to no exact diet also,

 

[cashemin44]

tank is four months old and it's a 55g
I have a baby whiteface tang about 3-4 in and a blue hippo about the same size. I took in the hippo from my neighbor who was moving and needed to find her a home until she could set up her tank again. I just lost my diamond goby yesterday. He was the only other fish in the tank. I think he had a bacterial infection (he had those red bruise, like he was hemorrhaging under the skin. I saw Beth's pic though and that's what makes me think it was bacterial). He fought the ich for a very long time but as he was dying yesterday I noticed he started to get it too. Anyway:
Tank Conditions:
Ammonia 0.25 ( This started to go up as of yesterday and I believe this is due to the fact the fish aren't eating the food put in the tank. I cut back and vaccuumed everything I could out yesterday with the 25% water change I did)
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 20
pH: 8.0-8.2
Alkalinity: 8
Salinity:1.009 (according to my refractometer)
Temp: 78F
Their diet before they got sick was prime reef flake and formula two pellets in the morning. I would also leave a piece of seaweed for the whiteface tang before I left for work. At dinner they would get mysis shrimp (occasionally a little blood worms or brine shrimp mixed in) soaked in garlic exlir. Another piece of seaweed after dinner before I would go to bed, tang loves that stuff. I used Nori seaweed, the green kind. Although now I plan on ordering Sea Veggies, like Lion Crazz gets. Heard they are pretty good. Lately I've been added Zoe to my tank to get some vitamins in there. I'm also currently using Melafix for the hippo's cloudy eye problem. I'm hoping this stuff is working. The tang finally got up moves to another spot (now upright not on it's side) for the first time in 2 days. I also used AmQuel plus tonight for the first time. My LFS said it's very good to get down the excess ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in the tank. I think the hypo is finally working after two weeks. I cna't wait to get this freakin ich out of my tank and try to get back to normal. I've had ich in this tank for about 1.5 months. You wouldn't believe what I've been through..... Let me know if there is anything out there I can use as a nutritional supplement, until they are starting to feel more themselves again.

 

[beth]

If these fish have ich, they need to be appropriately treated, or they will die. Does your tank have LR, inverts?
Please take a look at the info on ich and treatment in the FAQ Thread.

 

[lion_crazz]

Beth, cashemin has the fish in hyposalinity to treat the ich. What did you mean they need to be appropriately treated?

 

[beth]

Ok, did not connect this thread, with the previous thread....that is why its a good idea to keep threads going in the same thread.
Ammonia, any ammonia, will cause difficulty for fish, including fish that refuse to eat. This problem could also cause death. How long have you been treating for ich?

 

[cashemin44]

with hyposalinity about 3 weeks, I've been adding AmQuel for the past 2 days to the water and I also have cut back on their feeding to 1x per day b/c they are nto eating very well and it just floats around the tank. Hoping that this will bring down the ammonia, I testes it last night and it was between 0-0.25. So that better. I bet my nitrates are causing some of the problem, they seem to be going up. They are now creeping up past 20. I'm hoping that AmQuel will help, at least my LFS said it would. If this product is a waste please let me know. I have been adding Zoe to the water to at least give them something to soak up. I can't them to come out from behind my rock structure to see how much ich is left on them. I know it's alot better than it was last week. Still has some specks though. My tang now has open sores on his forehead. I believe there to be a bacterial infection my tank as well as ich. I have treating w/ Melafix(no carbon in my filters since Thursday). I believe this is what my diamond goby died of. Let me know what you think.
Water Levels:
Ammonia: 0-.25
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: strong 20 (looks like it might be on the climb)
pH 8.2
Salinity: 1.009 (with refractometer)
Alkalinity: 8
Temp: 78F
Also did a 25% water change on Wednesday.

 

[beth]

Have you done water changes?
AmQuel is a good product, but if you have not done daily water changes, you should. Add carbon, and forget about the melfix, since it is ineffective.
By "open sores" what do you mean? Describe this.
How long have the fish been ich-free?

 

[cashemin44]

my fish still are showing some ich specks, and I think some lymphocyctis too. Instead to trying to describe what it looks like I'm gonna try and get some more pic on here. This way you can see what it looks like. I did a 25% water change last Wednesday. Should I do another?