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T. Occellatus Flashing

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:07 pm
by WalkingTarget
Alrighty, here's the situation.

Tank Parameters:
69-71*F
Nitrate: 20ppm and Dropping
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0

Salinity: 1.019 SG

Tanks Size: 40G B

Feeding: Mussels, shell-on-shrimp, occasional Ghost Shrimp (FW variety). Lately has only been accepting Omega One Algae Wafers, a favorite food.

Salt is DD-H20 and the only additive is Prime Decholrinator.

Changes in the last month: Added about 2.5lbs of Live Rock Rubble (Already Cured) from a display tank, brought down from 1.025 to 1.019 over the course of a week before being added. Nitrate level has since begun to drop. Macroalgae (calurpa) was also introduced at this time. That was aprox 2 weeks ago.

Equipment: Aquaclear QuickFilter, 2 air-driven Sponge Filters, Whisper 10i loaded with activated carbon, crappy Ebay air-driven skimmer (pulling green-tea color skim). There is also a large wad of Calurpa to help with nutrient uptake.

Tank was cycled using the old sponge filter from his last tank to seed the tank combined with large water changes to prevent waste accumulation. Filtration is now a combination of mechanical, biological, chemical, live rock and algal scrubbing.

Waterchanges are 20% weekly.

Behavior has been for aproximately one week.

Thinking this is a gill issue, should I treat with malachite green and formalin or go for general cure (metronidazole and praziquantel) and at what dosing?

Re: T. Occellatus Flashing

Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:55 am
by LilGreenPuffer
Halt! Stop right there! Don't medicate until you know what's going on.

Is there any evidence of ich?

Re: T. Occellatus Flashing

Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:42 am
by pufferfreak
Being as this is a coldwater species i might lower the temperature so that it is always below 70. Also if you seeded with "warmwater" biological filter media then it all died because of the temperature shock. Coldwater bacteria develop much slower then warmwater so your biological filter might not be functioning as well as it should be. Maybe its just a nitrate problem. BTW adding warmwater liverock will create the same die off in coldwater tanks. The rock is just recurring. I would water until nitrates are down before jumping to conclusions. Also you didnt specify the behavior he is exhibiting.