Hyposalinity and Eels

[rnelson]

Yesterday I started hyposalinity on my 240 FOWLR......it's an aggressive setup but I have some large turbo snails, a 5" Cowrie, and a large Hermit in there.....I moved most all the fish into a 50gal rubbermaid tank and started the hyposalinity. I left my 2 eels (a 12" SFE and a 30" Zebra) in the tank.......do I need to move them to Hypo also? I've read conflicting advice on this.....they don't appear to have ich.


Thanks!

[kraze3]

Eels can carry ich. I have a snowflake and when I did my hypo treatment I put him thru it also. It wont hurt the eel at all. Id be on the safe side and I would put them into hypo.

Also Im not sure if im reading it wrong or not, "Yesterday I started hyposalinity on my 240 FOWLR" you dont want to perform hypo on the tank, it will kill snails, hermits, and your LR and LS. if the tank sits fishless for 6-8 weeks it will be ich free.
If your not treating your tank then my apologies, but I just want to make sure you are only treating the fish.

[rnelson]

Yeah, after re-reading it I can understand the confusion....no, I am not doing hypo in the main tank, I'm doing it in the 50gal rubbermaid.....but the eels are still in the main tank. Thanks for the advice......getting the eels out may be difficult, especially the Zebra.....I didn't think eels carried ich, that's why I left them in there......

I feel really bad about putting the fish in the 50gal.....it doesn't have 50gal of water in there....maybe 30......the 8" puffer looks so big in there.....the triggers are both about 4", the wrasse is 4", the Dogface is 4".....I wish I had a bigger tank to put them in.....they aren't moving around very much though....I don't know if it's because of the lack of room or whether it's the ich....

They have had symptoms for about a week......hope I didn't wait to long.....I did hypo once, about 2 years ago, had 4 tangs and a couple of clowns.....lost every one of them.....so hypo makes me nervous.....but then, so does ich, and I felt like I had to do something......already lost my Blue-ring Angel this morning.....it was the first to show symptoms and the last fish to go in the tank (along with the Dogface).....after they had been in the tank a couple of days is when I started noticing the ich....the angel had the worst case by far.....started to do copper but thought I'd give hypo another try....

[kraze3]

If im correct I think i read that eels dont do well with copper, so make sure there is no copper present. With a refractometer your Hypo treatment should go easy. Watch your PH closely and try to keep it steady.
Here is a link on hyposalinity
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

If you think the 50g is to crowded is there anyway maybe to get a second container and perform the hypo on both. Im only worried cause 6-8 weeks is a long time to keep the fish cramped up together. You dont want to stress the fish any more than you have to.

[kraze3]

I jsut reread your post
If you havent already, check all parameters. Ich shouldnt be killing fish after only a week. Due to the life cycle it is possible you missed it before. Ich does drop off the fish into the substrate to reproduce. IMO if you watch your fish regularly you should have noticed it one of the first few times, if not the first time it attatched to fish. It is possible your fish are stressed. How long have they been in the tub together. Listing all parameters will also help others to better help you.

[rnelson]

I think the ich was caused by either the Blue-Ring or the Dogface....I added both of them about 10 days ago....3 days later I noticed the ich on the angel, and then started noticing on all the others......never had a problem with ich before then, so I assume one or both of the new arrivals had it.... another lesson to QUARANTINE!!

pH - 8.3
SG - 1.023
Nitrates - 25
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
Phosphate - .03 (found out my top-off has been the culprit of my phosphate level, bought and installed a new DI filter on my RO/DI, much better now)
I tested for copper when I first set this tank up, none. I haven't added anything with copper in it, and my topoff has tested zero for copper, so I assume copper=0

[kraze3]

I learned my lesson by not quarantining and like yourself I had a tank full of ich. Not so fun. I will now QT everything that is going into my tank whether corals, snails, fish, anything!!!. Good luck with your treatment, keep an eye on your Ph while in hypo as it tends to be unstable