Sometimes it's meant to just quit

[hotwire73]

Well in the last 2 weeks, I lost a 5 inch clown trigger, almost 7 inch dogface puffer, a rad. lionfish, and now the only two survivors look like death warmed over and probably will be dead in the 2 days. This is beyond rediculious. The damn trigger was about 160 himself, not counting the other 100 dollar ones. Local store said go with chelated iron. Well 5 days after starting it, they look twice as bad. It looks like a cross between ick and velvet, but when your doing fresh water dips and its not doing squat I mean what else can you do? I can dip him and get him a little better looking and 10 mins after back in the tank hes right back. I mean ammonia, nitrites, etc. are all 0; well nitrates are around 5ppm, give me a break their in paradise for that part. When I got the dogface puffer in about 3 weeks ago, he had about a quarter inch place in him, I mean it looked like a natural blow hole. I dipped him in hydroplex, but the whole tank went on a Bates Motel experience. The V Lion and the maroon clown are the only two still laying there I guess. I don't know of a way to make a lion eat, but after 5 days and thin as heck I don't see him going much more. Thing is like the clown trigger that gave out today, he looked like someone had pulled part of his colored skin off. Most of his fins where gone to the bone things sticking out. My local store, which I can't even get a copper testing kit from is rather useless. The main store for salt is only open 3 days a week, and they have never been good when it comes to treating anything. Their good at selling though. Any ideas or should I just take the last two out and kill them. This is beyond ****ing me off, my clown Ive had for 4 years.

[techigirl78]

Do you mean chelated copper instead of iron?

Have you tried providing live foods, such as feeder fish, for the lionfish? Are you giving the clown vitamin/garlic soaked foods if it is still eating?

How bad are the fish now? If they are indeed laying on their sides and refusing to eat, I would think it would be close to impossible to bring them back. Not to sound negative, JMO.

Your fish possibly contracted ich or velvet and it caused secondary bacteria infestions to take over.

[hotwire73]

Yeah sorry, copper. Yeah the Lion died during the night, so only thing kicking is the maroon clown. As for live yeah I had a variety going on, guess he was to blind to see anything, and never was much for just putting my hand in his mouth. Whatever it is, it hit hard and very fast. Started on the porc. puffer, but I thought I had caught it while on him and treated it differently. I can't even find test kit that does readings dealing with chelated copper. I got a red sea kit, which is all the the store had, and no one else had anything. It only does non-chelated though. I would at least like to know a way to do copper treatment for future purposes with some form of reliable testing. 13 bucks for the chelated copper, about the same for a kit, and basically I got a very unreliable nothing. The local store was the one that put me on the chelated copper, is regular better; he just said this is suppose to be a lot less toxic. Bottom line is a week later and nothing changed with the chelated copper, fresh water dips, and hydroplex. The 2 fish I did all this two lived about 2-3 days longer, the rest I just tried to let the copper do its thing.

[techigirl78]

When I have used copper in the past, I rely on my LFS as they have a copper test machine. From my understanding, it is harder to overdose the chelated. I haven't used copper in awhile though as I prefer hypo (easier for me to deal)

I hope the clown pulls through for you. What are its symptoms now? Is it still eating?

Do you use QT? I haven't had a whole tank issue since starting to use QT a number of years ago. It can be a pain, but my blue hippo has managed to stay ich free for years, so it seems to work.

[hotwire73]

Thanks, but no the clown died about 2 hours ago, so I lost the entire tank. Yeah none of the local retailers has anything that will test the chelated copper. Its beyond depressing, over 600 bucks in fish. As for symptoms, its like they had a mucus like layer on them. Most of the fish it seemed where having their skin, and fins eaten off of them. I guess the question now is how long do I leave the tank running before its basically as close to 100% safe to restock anything? Im at least waiting 30 days, but whatever killed these fish wasn't even slowed down any by the copper. I wish I could have taken a picture of the clown before I tossed him in the trash, he looked like something had eaten patches of his coloring off (a skinned fish). The V. Lions skin was peeling back from his spines, and alot of the webbing between was starting to disappear. Thing is as much money as we pay for these fish they shouldn't have crap. I did however max out the tank's limit and I'm assuming where one got extremely stressed it started all of this somehow. This just seems so much more than just ICK. These guys eyes where clouded up, some had weird stuff in there mouths (odd thing is nothing really around gills much (that could be seen)). I would have thought if some fish didnt get along they would attack, not develope something. I wonder if something just bought something with it? Just hard to eat, 4 of these fish where between 100-200 each. The others where worth something considering they had pretty much maxed out their sizes.

[techigirl78]

Sorry to hear you lost your clown too. I would wait 6-8 weeks to be sure. Remember to keep the tank at normal temp during this timeframe.

The other symptoms are all common for bacterial infections. It is common for them to take hold as a secondary infection once the fish have been weakened by ich/velvet. Which one? I'm not sure, they all share some common symptoms like cloudy eyes, fin rot, etc. I'll give you a bump though in case someone else has input for you.