multiple problems

[KevinL]

The problem I am trying to fix is my yellow tang has rotting fins, cloudy eyes, and red marks on his sides along its upper half (like popped blood vessels?). Rough shape, but still fast enough that I can't catch him.

Over the past 36 hours, I have done the following (before which, all was very well, except for lots of planaria):

1) I siphoned as many flatworms out that I could. I siphoned, let them all settle to the bottom with a bit of gravel that was also siphoned, then returned the water to the tank. I did this many times, emptying and returning about 5 gallons of water each time.

2) When I siphoned what I thought was around 80% of the flatworms that I could see (99% of what I could access), I treated my tank with FlatWorm Exit. I put 70 drops (around 1 drop per gallon). Within seconds, tons and tons of flatworms started appearing out of nowhere. For the first 20 minutes, I scooped and scooped the dead worms out with a net.

3) I added activated carbon at 20minutes in. I kept scooping for 40 minutes more, until it looked like they were all gone. That was amazing. The stuff really works. In the end, there are still around 20 visible super-flatworms left that I will get rid of once things settle down by treating the tank again.

4) I did a 15% water change, and removed the activated carbon 2 hours after adding the drops, and all seemed well. The corals were starting to come out again, and the fish seemed normal. That was around 8:00 last night.

5) Now, 10:30pm the next day, My Yellow Tang is as I described above. I have been fishing for 1 hour to try to move him to my refugium. I have no hospital, but it doesn't matter because I can't catch him. It seems to be going downhill fast. The fins are about 1/4 gone, and there are several tears in the tail.

Do I have time to save it? I won't be able to do anything in terms of medicine until tomorrow night. What do I do?

There is one other thing (mistake). I must have misread my hydrometer. The 15% water change brought my S.G. to 1.019 from 1.023 for about 24 hours. I had to add 2.5 cups of salt to the tank to get it back to 1.023. Don't worry, I have already beat myself for that one.
:bang:
I added the salt by removing about 1/2 a gallon, mixing the salt in it, and adding it back to the sump with a turkey baster over about 20 minutes. I don't know what would have been worse, leaving it for longer at 1.019 or raising it to 1.023 in this time frame. I panicked, and felt I had to act fast, so I made a decision. Now I am sure I may have just made things worse.

I have lost an emerald crab and a hermit, but my shrimp is okay, and the few corals I have look normal.

What a bad day!

[Reef Mike]

Sounds like salinity shock... Have not used Flatworm exit but I have used GreenX.. Killed all my flatworms and my yellow tang along with everything else in the tank didn't even notice..

Hopefully someone who has used flatworm exit will chime in here. Are you sure you used the right dose?

Mike

[KevinL]

The dosage was correct, perhaps a couple of drops high, but within the range on the box.

I am reading about bacterial infections...cloudy eyes, rotting fins, red interior lacerations...that sounds more like it to me. Are these symptoms common with salinity shock? Can that cause stress that would leave the fish susceptible to bacterial infection?

[Chrismo]

I've never treated for flatworms, but, another thnig that could have stressed the fish is adding undisolved salt to the tank.

You should wait 24 hours or so for the salt to disolve into the water fully before adding.

maybe just leave the fish alone for a while and let him calm down?. Hope he's adapting to his new environment.

[Wiggler]

Kevin,

Hows you fish doing?

Does it look as though he's adapting to the tank now?

Pam

[KevinL]

Chrismo, when you said salinity shock, I think you meant the change in the specific gravity, right? The addition of raw salt to the tank is something else?

I have heard to wait 24 hours as well, while others have told me that as long as the salt is mixed a bit by hand in a separate container, it is good to go. I think I will go back to waiting the 24 hours. Like I said, though, hindsight is 20/20. I felt I needed to act. I tried to be careful to add it to the sump and swish it around a bit before it got returned to the main tank. What a bummer.

Wiggler: The fish are sleeping now, lights off. Hopefully tomorrow they are not "sleeping with the fish", though.

[aquanut40]

Hello

Sounds like your tang has a little hemorrhaging (red Spots or streaks) And this is a sign of a bacterial infection in tangs and other fish. Most likely a strain of Vibrio. The bad news is that most fish don't recover from this. Best treatment would be antibiotics in a separate tank, not your sump.

Stan

[KevinL]

Thanks aquanut40. The yellow tang is now gone. Hopefully, the other fish will be okay. I will be watching them carefully. The bacterial infection sure happened fast. Every time I looked at him, there were more and more red streaks.

[jtremblay]

RC's thread on yellow tangs with red blotches (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138705).

I think you've got bad water quality (often the cause of the blotches) + someting else going on with the tang. If you can't catch the tang, at the very least try a few big (20%) water changes for a few days in a row, skim heavily, and use lots of carbon 'n' maybe PolyFilter.

Edit: sorry for your loss. You posted your message just as I was starting mine.

[KevinL]

Things seem to have stabilized. I lost the yellow tang, one clown, and the anthias. The flatworms are 'gone' (out of sight, at least).

I think it was all due to the water change with not enough salt. I won't make that mistake again.

[Dr. Tom]

Hey, Kev.

I think you and I went through the same thing when I lost my clowns and coral beauty. The salinity had dropped a bit too fast and my temp spiked.

SHOCKER!!

Glad to hear things have stabilized....we'll have to do some trading when we get together. So far, I have some polyps, shrooms (red, green stripes, blue with red spots) that are good to go and a few other types that I'm cultivating. A few leathers could be cut in a couple of months (spaghetti fluorescent green, pink finger leather with purple polyps, brown/burgundy colt leather)

I need some montipora and more chaetamorpha. I might get you to take a run to ORG for me at some point.

[Chrismo]

Kevin, sorry about the fish, thats a bummer.
Ya, I wasnt talking about salinity shock, I ment undisolved salt.

Different brands of salt dissolve at different speeds, but as far as I know you should mix the salt and let it sit for minimum 12 hours or so before adding, even the salt mixes that look clear right away.

Mixing the salt in water wich is already salty makes it dissolve really slow, and also kinda messes up the trace elements and such in the mix...

Example, if you mix up salt with half as much water as you should, then your Calcium levels will be twice as high as thy should too, like 800 or more, and will precipitate out of solution. Same with many of the other elements. I'm not sure how fast that happens but I remember reading about it in a "correct way to mix salt" article.

I remembered that supersaturation stuff because the article said If that didnt happen, then companies could just de-hydrate sea water and make a perfect dry salt mix. cool eh?

Anyway, for next time when your parameters are way off, and have been for a while, dont try to jerk them back into place, slowly bring them back.

Chris

[KevinL]

Thanks, Chrismo