Question For Beth And Terry

[yzfr6]

hi, I ordered a flame angel,purple firefish,jawfish and a blue hippo from swf.com about 2 months ago. When I recieved them they all went into a 20g quarantine. Then my girlfriend picked up a black perc at a local fishstore whicj quickly was covered in white spots within days of being in the quarantine. I'm guessing that it was the fish that brought in parasites with it.
Since then the fish were all in there about a month aat 1.009 and it seemed under and the white spots cleared up of the perc. None of the other fish have shown any signs of stress but the purple firefish. It never developed any spots but sometimes chaffs or scratches of the bottom making me think its early stages of ick, but it never goes away.
I have since started another 10g quarantine and moved the other fish there just in case there is a reinfestation. They have shown no scratching or white spots for a month now but I am still leaving them in there for a little more observation.
On the other hand I left the firefish in the other QT and lowered the salt even lower to 1.005. Its been about 3 1/2 weeks and he scratches every so often but still no spots. I have a refractometer and a hydrometer that I use to measure with so I pretty sure on the salinity. Its starting to show signs of stress by not moving much and only feeding slightly. So now I want to try to bring the salinity back up but I want to be sure its disease free.
Is there any other problem I may be missing?

 

[beth]

Go ahead and bring the firefish QT up to nomral salinity levels and then leave it in there to see if anything delelops.
The 1.005 was probably too low for the fish, thus you see the stress. It could be another type of parasite, that is not effected by hypo. Fish do have parasites that they may live very well with. Just a matter of maintaining quality environment to keep them healthy. I have a clown that has 2 little parasites that it has lived with. They show up when he gets very stressed, but, cause no real problems.
Use a mag glass and see if you can detect any parasites on the body, raised scales, etc.
Also, some fish will just scratch. How much is he scratching?

 

[yzfr6]

Thanks for the advice. The firefish only scratches every so often and when it does it usually does it 2 or 3 times. Also I have had fish in the past before with ich and they do the little shaking twirly dance thing but the firefish doesnt do it.
If it is some other parasite do you think it would be contagious to the other fish once placed back into the display tank?. For now I will take your advice and raise the salinity back up and try to get a closer look with a maginifier, but I will continue to keep that fish isolated for now.

 

[beth]

Aside from the scratching, does the fish look good, eat, swim normally?

 

[yzfr6]

Aside from the scratching the fish does swim and breath normal, but since the low salinity the fish doesnt feed as well.
Terry I have heard of using formalin dips but I read somewhere its only availible thru pharmacies due to it being a carcinogen? Would you happen to know any marine products that supply it or any other means of obtaining it?....thanks

 

[yzfr6]

also the ph has been a constant 8.2-8.3 the last 2 months.
Is Formailin as harmfull to the fish as copper treatments can be sometimes?

 

[beth]

You can get formalin thru just about any online store. Check the LFS. Most carry it.