Have you had success treating sick fish?

[Anonymous]

Over the years that I have kept freshwater and now saltwater fish I have used a quarantine tank. But I have not had much success treating any of the sick fish I kept in the tank.
If I put a fish in my q-tank, it is almost certainly the kiss of death.
The latest to die this morning was a Heniochus that I put in the tank on Tuesday. Fed him last night, he was eating and swimming fine, this am - dead.
I guess I am looking for some insight - do you treat aggresively with drugs, do you take a passive approach. It's hard to treat a disease when you won't know what you are treating.

 

[XXX]

What disease have you been treating? Are you sure your q-tank parameters are in line? Do you have a permanent resident in it to keep it stable? Need alot more info.

 

[drwwalker]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

It's hard to treat a disease when you won't know what you are treating.[/QB]

True your first need to identify the illness to treat the disease use the recommended amout by manufactor or less somtimes depending on fish and make sure you use a air stone medician deprive the o2 in the water and watch for rapid breathing and use water from you tank.

 

[Quillen]

Here are a few webpages I was sent for ID illness, luckily I haven't needed them: http://www.versaquatics.com/disease_diagnosis.htm http://saltwater.8m.com/diseases.htm

I'm sure there are millions of pages

on the net similar

My Q tank has been extremely beneficial. I normally ID a disease from a book or a friend, then treat as properly.
Make sure to turn off the lights and reduce all elements of stress in the Q tank.

 

[Joggins]

You have to take responsability for the proper running of a quarantine tank. It sounds to me that you have done little in the way of studying marine fish disease. I recommend you study and memorize the most common symptoms of the most common diseases and start your evaluation of the situstion there...then you can enrich your diagnoses with supplementary readings and observations. Then when you are sure that your quarantine tank has the proper parameters then it is safe to add the fish and act aggressively for the treatment of the fish. Be active once you have a 90% sure diagnoses, but be patient in the course of the treatment, don't deviate from the length of treatment because the fish appears 'better'. Also make sure you have the proper setup for your quarantine tank. I prefer little or no substrate, subdued lighting in a quiet part of the house. I have illnesses infrequently, so the tank lies fallow for months in between usage. This ensures that no protozoan parasites can remain hidden in the tank. I often nuke my Qtank with broad spectrum antibiotics after a treatment with copper or formalin. This ensures the purity of the Qtank for when I need it next. I then do a full water change and re-establish biofiltration while there are no fish in it by adding some fish food to rot and decay. Treating sick fish is a difficult part of marine husbandry, but you should gain confidence with experience...keep a 'rememberance' journal with details of the fish that die in your care. I include the scientific name, all symptoms, water parameters, treatment method, and rough length of treatment. Any patterns in this journal indicate a persistent problem in your main tank. You often have to treat your main tank as well when one of your fish get ill. On a last note: A quarantine tank is not only for sick fish. I keep my fish in there for a couple of days to a week before introducing them to my main display tank. before they are put in the "guesthouse" I dip them in freshwater, and again freshwater and/or formalin before they enter my main tank.
I have 5 display tanks...one 6500 gal., two 540 gal., and 2 90 gal. Quarantine tanks.

Good Luck! I hope you invest the time and effort to become a strong and confident aquarist.

-Stephen

PS- I recommend you start by reading Robert Fenner's THE CONSCIENTIOUS MARINE AQUARIST it is a nicely written intro to all relevant areas of marine husbandry.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replys. Let me say first off that I wasn't very clear in my original post.
I have had very little experience with the diseases of fish, not fish keeping in general. Actually this is the first saltwater fish that I have had to take out of my tanks due to disease. I had and still have no clues as to what was going on with this fish (developed clear blisters that spread very rapidly). Had just finished Saturday with a 5-day course of Maracyn-2. The fish didn't look any better last night, but it didn't look any worse. This morning when I found it dead, I was pretty upset.

My quarantine tank is not set up at all times. Instead I keep the bio-filter in the sump of my main tank where it is ready to go when I need it. Q-tank consists of 20g tank, filter, heater, small powerhead, no substrate, and a few rocks for hiding places.

Thanks Quillen for the link - will take a closer look.

Joggins,
You took the time to write a long post with alot of information. I appreciate the effort. First off, I cannot treat the main tank that the Heniochus came from, it's a reef tank. Second, I quaranteed the Heniochus for 2 weeks, it was fine. Didn't show symptons of illness until 3-4 days after I placed it in the main tank.
I understand the concept of "good water" parameters, I have a 75g FOWLR tank, 72g Reef tank and a 29g FOWLR tank.
I don't know fish diseases - do you know of any books that specifically address the diseases of saltwater fish? I have read Fenner's book, Tullock's Natural Reef Aquariums, Scott Michael's Reef Fish Volume 1, all 3 volumes of Sprung & Delbeek. But none of these covers diseases other than the basics..

TIA

 

[srbayless]

Howdy,

You might want to keep the quarantine tank filter in the Q-tank. You can keep the bilogical filter going by adding food to the tank while there aren't any fish in it.

There may not be that much filtration going on since the filter is in a bigger tank with live rock. Keeping it in the Q-tank will mean it is working, as long as you add food.

Good luck,

Scott.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Scott,
Will do.