My Hyposaline Adventure... (so far)

[sepulatian]

What do you mean by "the water seems to get slightly turbid in short order"? What kind of test kit do you have? Something seems to be wrong here. I see no reason for your fish to be having such a hard time in a 33 gallon holding area. What is your water movement? Am I perhaps missing something here?

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
What do you mean by "the water seems to get slightly turbid in short order"?
I mean that within 24 hrs or so, the QT becomes ever so slightly murky, except that murky isn't really the right word. More like dull or milky actually, it's just not as clear as it should be, which is crystal.
Originally Posted by sepulatian
What kind of test kit do you have? Something seems to be wrong here. I see no reason for your fish to be having such a hard time in a 33 gallon holding area. What is your water movement? Am I perhaps missing something here?
No, you're not missing anything. I know I must really sound like a paranoid crybaby, but I'm just relaying the facts as they happen. As I said, I have fairly vigorous circulation via a rated HOB filter and a small rated powerhead. I'm using all Seachem test kits which have a good rep, and I can personally vouch that their ph test matches exactly what my meter says at work. My SG readings are via refractometer. I don't know if my experience is typical or not, but I'm just putting it out there for others to compare, hopefully they'll learn from my experience and do better. Actually the fish seem to be doing a little better today, and I really don't feel too bad either. I'm halfway through this ordeal and I'm batting 714 so far. The only thing I can think that might have been making the fish sick is something toxic like insecticide or perhaps chemical decay of the plastic (it is far from new) might have been leaching from the plastic of the bin, or perhaps the hypo process itself is just flat stressful on fish that are already stressed from disease. :thinking:

 

[tankyou]

50% Water change today. Potters is more active, so active in fact I finally got a good look at him after a week or so... It has popeye; not bad though.

 

[tankyou]

50% water change. Potter's dead.
Other than that... Merry Christmas

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
50% water change. Potter's dead.
Other than that... Merry Christmas
I am sorry to hear that your Potter died, how are the other fish doing? Merry Christmas to you as well!!

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
I am sorry to hear that your Potter died, how are the other fish doing? Merry Christmas to you as well!!

Hate to jinx it, but the rest seem to be doing okay. Gonna do another 50% change today.
Good thing I get my water from the Pacific, don't know how I'd be able to afford all these changes otherwise.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
Hate to jinx it, but the rest seem to be doing okay. Gonna do another 50% change today.
Good thing I get my water from the Pacific, don't know how I'd be able to afford all these changes otherwise.
You have already started counting the three weeks right? How far along the long road of hyposalinity are you at this point?

 

[farnorth]

Tankyou.... I just started hypo on my mt and am curious if you knew when it/ if it kills the ich during the stage that it is actually on the fish. I am in my 2nd day of doing hypo and the ich seems to be getting worse on my tang. After reading your experience I am crossing my fingers that I don't experience the same thing with all of my fish.

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
You have already started counting the three weeks right?
Correct
Originally Posted by sepulatian
How far along the long road of hyposalinity are you at this point?
Almost done actually, my three weeks should be up by this Thursday (12/28), but I'm thinking of going one more week just to be safe, that will make it 1/4/07. My DT will have been empty of fish for 6 weeks by the 7th and my fish reacclimated to saltwater by the 11th. My new Imperator will hopefully be out of quarantine by the 12th (haven't seen him flick since that one time), and I want to give him a couple days alone in the DT before I add the survivors. Any suggestions on altering this schedule?
BTW, all the survivors seem real good at this time (fingers crossed, knocking on wood). :jumping:

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by farnorth
Tankyou.... I just started hypo on my mt and am curious if you knew when it/ if it kills the ich during the stage that it is actually on the fish.
Ich can certainly kill while the fish is manifesting symptoms, and though I have no way of knowing for sure, I'm fairly certain it killed my YLN Butterfly after the trophants or tomonts (not sure which stage they are the little white dots, I believe the latter) had fallen off, if for no other reason than that the fish was weakened and stressed by the hypo. No idea why the other fish succumbed, because I've been pretty scrupulous with the procedure.
Originally Posted by farnorth
I am in my 2nd day of doing hypo and the ich seems to be getting worse on my tang. After reading your experience I am crossing my fingers that I don't experience the same thing with all of my fish.
It would be a tang

. I'm crossing my fingers for you as well. I'm looking at this as a learning experience, perhaps you should also start a thread, so we can all learn a little more too. I'll be happy to share what little insight I now have.

BTW, what are you using for a QT during hypo? I think from my experience a regular aquarium is better, as observations in a bin are pretty hard. Good luck!

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by farnorth
I am in my 2nd day of doing hypo and the ich seems to be getting worse on my tang.
Oh yeah, don't know how true it is, but I just recalled from somewhere in my readings on the subject that the ich trophants can go nuts upon encountering the decreased salinity and burrow deeper into the fish to get away. Perhaps they also encyst at this stage and become a tomont as protection, thus causing an increase in the spots, (if the cysts are indeed the spots).

 

[tankyou]

It has come to my attention via another db (don't know if it's kosher to post a link so I'll refrain), that after an extended time in hypo, certain fish can display alarming swimming behavior. Part of the conversation went as follows...
Originally Posted by Other fish board guys
"Poster # 1- just watch the fish close towards the end of the 4 weeks. he might start acting weird.
Poster #2- why would it act weird after 4 weeks ???
Poster #1- well...i had two fairy wrasses in hypo..towards the last week they started acting really wierd doing barrel rolls and stuff (if u want i posted a video on here a few days ago)
last night my local reef club had a meeting and i started talking to one of the guys and he said the same thing happened to him when he had 2 tangs in hypo..
he was explaining it how their swim bladder (the part of the fish that affects the swim bladder) was swollen and the fish started acting really strange...so he reaised the salinity and almost instantly the fish was fine.
so if ur kole tang starts acting really wierd and lethargic and swimming on its side then start raising the salinity"
Funny I've never heard that mentioned on this db. Anyway, a light clicked on as soon as I read it. This is exactly as my Gramma has been acting, I've been finding him in the morning floating on his side, but he soon recovers and swims more or less normally the rest of the day. It has also been jamming itself into various crevices. My guess is he does so, so that he doesn't have to struggle maintaining equilibrium... I think he must float out at night once he goes to sleep. Furthermore I had one Percula die with a distended stomach which very well could have been a swollen swim bladder. The posters on this other board also maintain that fish must remain in hypo a minimum of 4 weeks after the tomonts detach, with 6 weeks being more desireable.
I was thinking about ending the hypo tomorrow because of my grammas condition, but that would put me 1 week under the minimum (according to them). Any thoughts on solving my dilemma?

 

[dadszx7]

what island are you on?
A Hui Hou'

 

[tankyou]

Oahu

 

[tankyou]

50% water change today, Gramma was floating sideways again this morning, but resumed fairly normal behavior early pm (before water change). Decided to try'n tough it out one more week as the Grammas been on this see-saw a couple weeks already and he's still eating. Figure if I do lose him I can still rest assured that the others have been fully hypoed. Really would hate to reintroduce ich into my DT after all this hassle.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
50% water change today, Gramma was floating sideways again this morning, but resumed fairly normal behavior early pm (before water change). Decided to try'n tough it out one more week as the Grammas been on this see-saw a couple weeks already and he's still eating. Figure if I do lose him I can still rest assured that the others have been fully hypoed. Really would hate to reintroduce ich into my DT after all this hassle.
Thats how gramma's behave. They act weird sometimes. Don't stop with almost a week to go or the hypo won't be complete. There will be a chance of ich still living in your system. I have had grammas act that way many times. It is most likely the lack of adequate hiding places/ territories. He will be fine.

 

[dadszx7]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
Oahu

I've only been there once. Was only there for three days, stayed in Waikiki and went to Pearlharbor. Next time we go there, will go to North Shore

 

[tankyou]

50% water change. Everythings copacetic.

 

[tankyou]

50% water change, everybodys happy. Will start raising salinity this Wednesday when I do my next 50% water change. Plan on changing out 16.5% (5 gal) with fresh seawater daily.

 

[tinyfish]

I have been reading your posts with interest. I am 10 days into my adventure. Everything was going well until yesterday when I could not find my six line wrasse. It had wedged itself into the live rock. When it came out, it was almost dead (breathing but that is all). He did not float but sank to the bottom. I am wondering whether I got my salinity down too far. My eyes are not that great and the gradations on my refractometer a pretty close. I had thought to isolate it and add just a tiny bit of dissolved salt but by the time I got everything ready, it was dead.
My other fish are fine though. I would relate my parameters but by testing everyday all my tests had run out.