Snowflake only survivor

[ron s]

I recently had an outbreak of what was probably ick with a secondary infection and lost all my fish in my 150 aggressive except the SFE. I lost the Tusk before I had the QT set up. I caught the Lion and treated Myracyn and Hypo but he died last week. I don't have a glass Hydrometer or a Refractometer so I may have not had the salinaty low enough. I was going to put the SFE in with the Lion last week but the antibiotics killed the bio filter and the QT started to cycle agian. I am still planing to take the SFE out of the display tank and leave it with out any fish for at least 3 weeks as soon as I can get all the parameters in the QT back to where they sould be.
My question is the Eel seems to be unaffected by what ever killed everything else. He has been the only fish in the 150 gal for the last week and a half and is doing good. Is it ok to just put him in the QT for 3 weeks or do I need to treat him with Hypo even though he seems to be healthy? I have 175 lbs of live rock in the display tank so I can't treat it. I don't realy want to spend $100 on a refractometer right now and I have never seen a glass Hydrometer even online, so I don't know if would do any good to try and use Hypo on the Eel with only a SeaTest Hydrometer to check salinity.
[ December 20, 2001: Message edited by: Ron S ]

 

[nevurrmore]

I don't have the answers to all your questions, but I do know that eels are not near as succeptable to parasites and infections as fish are. I've got a snowflake that's about 18in and I've never had a problem with him. I also can't seem to find a glass hydrometer anywhere.

 

[ron s]

Well Terry when the problem first started I posted and you thought that it was Ick because the fish were still alive after a week and velvet is sopossed to kill everything fast. I don't know if there are any other posibilities besides these two but this out break was far more devestating than my other experiences with Ick in my 50 gal.
The first fish to show signs was the Tusk 4 days after added him to the tank. First three days he was great then Monday he was covered with little white spots. I did not have a QT big enough to treat him in so I tried Garlic. He seemed to be getting better still eating good but his eyes were a little cloudy. Sunday he looked ok then when I got up Monday mourning he looked really bad almost like he had been dipped in flour and all the fish stoped eating except the Eel and damsel. I tried to find a large QT that night but did not find what I wanted. The next mourning he was just about dead looked like his slim coat was peeling off. I found a QT and set it up that night but he died the next day. In the mean time the Lion started getting bad. I put him the QT as soon as it was ready. He apeared to be getting better with treatment, started to eat agian. Then Monday came around again and he started to get bad agian. It hit the grouper in the main tank also and I was finally able to catch him and put him in the QT, but he died the next day then the Lion and damsel followed in the next two days. All the fish except the Eel were dead about 2 1/2 weeks after the first signs. A very costly leason. I plan on quarantining all the new fish from now on. I don't know if you can tell which parasite it was from this but thanks for your time and advise.
Also I searched again tonight online and still have not found a glass hydrometer. I have a deep six and a sea test and the only other type I have found is called the eSHa Marinomat it looks like a higher quality hydrometer but it is still plastic. The glass hydrometer you are talking about is not the kind with a built in thermometer is it. I have one of those also but it is very hard to read especaily if you have any current in the tank. Thanks again.
Ron S