General disease questions for Beth or Terry

[joe carey]

I wrote to you a while ago about Ich. I think I have a number of things going on with my fish. I have removed all of them from my display tank and am going to try hyposalinity for the Ich. It is heavy on a few of the fish (Hippo Tang, Royal Gramma), lighter on others. A few of them (Yellow Tang, Royal Gramma) also appear to have Finrot, which I am currently treating with Spectrogram. Do you know anything about Spectrogram or is there something else you recommend as a treatment for Finrot? In looking at your pictures, my Royal Gramma also has a general appearance similar to the Clownfish you say has Brooklynella. (Believe it or not, the Gramma is still acting OK and eating fine, although he ws rubbing himself in the sand alot before I took him out of the display tank). Should I be giving him Formalin baths as well, or should I wait and see what the Spectrogram does? I also have a Purple Goby that has a line going down his body, similar to the Tang you say has Line Disease. What should I do for him? Lastly, I have a Firefish Goby that has a cloudy bag covering one of his eyes. Suggestions? I know this sounds like alot, but I believe it progressed to this point because I wasted time trying reef safe treatments (Marine Max, Greenex). Lesson learned. My QT is a 29 gallon, and has been set up for about 2 months. I started it with water from my display tank. Water tests Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 0. PH - 8.3, temp - 78. There is only PVC in the QT and the fish listed above. They have been in the QT for 2 days, which is probably why the water tests like it does. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

[beth]

Wow, Joe, looks lilke you have a lot of problems going on. And, from the general sound of things, many of these problem could well be overall fish husbandry.
You are on the right track with hyposalinity. Do you have a refractometer? What are you using to measure salinity? Continue with the antibiotic at this point. If any of your fish had brooklynella before, then they would be dead by now if you had not treated them with formalin.
Give some details about your tank. As I said, I think you may have some husbandry issues which could explain the HLLE.

 

[joe carey]

Ok, as of tonight, Purple Firefish is clear and looks good. Cloudy bag on Firefish Goby seems to be getting better. All others are about the same. I forgot to mention that both Tangs eyes have a cloudy film over them - doesn't look the same as what is on the Firefish - he has what looks like a small bag over his eye. The Tangs eyes do look better.
I do not have a refractometer. I have a Marineland Labs Hydrometer that reads from 1.000 to 1.032. If you don't think this will work, please tell me where I can get a refractometer.
My tank is 150 gallon tall (48" X 24" X 30"). I have about 200 lbs. of Southdown sand as a base and 150 lbs. of LR. For lighting I am using a Custom Sealife 4 X 65 power compact. the water tests the same as the QT. All my fish are currently in the QT and were listed in the original post. I also have a Bubble Tip Anemone, A Condi Anemone, 2 Emerald Crabs, A Porcelain Crab, an Anemone Crab, 2 Scarlet Hermits, several shrimp (Camelback and Peppermint), less than 5 snails (the Greenex killed many of the snails) and a Chocolate Chip Starfish. If I read everything correctly, I am going to use hyposalinity only for the Ich (no Copper), and continue with the Spectrogram (every other day for 5 days). I'm fairly new to this board, what is HLLE? None of these fish were placed in the QT prior to being put in the display tank. I won't make that mistake again! Thanks for taking the time to reply.