hyposalinity (update sick fish)

Bought some Anthias the other night (3 female and 1 male) only to wake up yesterday to the Male have ich(thought possible stress from move) and then by end of day popeye showing up (thank good they are in a QT tank). Believe the popeye (both eyes so not just a accidental bump) is caused do to stress and ich.

Females are doing just fine but can't move them out as only have 1 QT.

So my question involves hypo-salinity.

Currently at SG 1.024 (probably should have had this lower in the first place but water basically came from DT).

I want to start dropping the SG but how can I calculate how much the SG will drop per gallon of tank water removed and ro/di water added?

Math was never my strong subject and don't want to be wrong.

 

Well this is the plan.. found basic instructions on site ehow which explains how to reduce your SG.

Unless others have any ideas on calculation this is what I am going with.

So I have a 30gal tank

.01 of clean water will reduce SG by 1% or .00025% so for me (1.13 liters or .3gal which is 30x.01)

The specific gravity of your tank can be reduced by up to 0.001 (calculation wrong on website they said .0001) each day, meaning that you can add no more than XXX(gal) of clean water to a XXX(gal TANK) replacing no more than .04% of the water in your tank during any 24 hour period

So the most I can do in a day would be 1.2 gal fresh ro/di

If my math or something else is off please let me know.

They came up with these calculations which should limit the stress on the fish (not sure how they figure out stress level of fish but sounds reasonable)

 

ok so I just removed 1gal tank water and put 1gal ro/di in and dropped from 1.024 to 1.023. Maybe I should have done that a little slower.

Maybe I should plan on doing 2 change outs or half a gallon every 12 hours.

This is going to be a long six weeks dammit.

 

You can drop salinity over a couple of days. Its raising it that you need to really go slow on.

 

How much would you say I can drop a day?

 

that's always what I've read as well, less caution when reducing but more when raising. I'm hesitant to advise on how quickly to do that though. I have no first hand knowledge.

 

48 hours is safe to go from where you are down to 1.009. So you can drop it around .007-.008 over 24 hours. That would bring you down to 1.016 over the course of the first 24 hours.

 

Thanks.. used the last of my ro/di stash earlier so filling up other container at this time.

At this point if I can save the male great (does not have a bad outbreak of ich but the popeye has me concerned something else may be going on also).

The females have no issues at this time(or at least that I can see) so trying to prevent that also.

 

So at this point still have not gone with hpyo as my LFS wanted me to wait a day to see if spots disappeared and sure enough white spots gone a day later but popeye (in both eyes) still exist. Male anthias still not eating. Was reading that popeye in both eyes is not common and that something underlying could be causing the issue. Hard to treat something when you are unsure of what it is.

Also the LFS that sold this to me has yet to say go with medication (XYZ) and I do trust their opinion. They have requested I just give it a little time and try to get fish to eat. I have tried pellets, mysis, marine cuisine, brine so far. Also tried them with garlic on them(come on who does not like garlic

Has anyone else dealt with popeye in both eyes?

Pics of white spots that were there then gone next day
and pic popeye (poor guy)

 

So I continue to feed him with a baster (variety foods with garlic-x) and literally have to put it right in his face as he can not see. He has been coming out a bit which is good to see. Eyes continued to grow out so finally pulled the trigger and started using Sulfathiazole (from seachem). First dose went in on Saturday. Today he had a bad day and hid most of the day and when he came out the spots were back and breathing a little heavy.

Decided to move forward with the Hypo as I still need to try to keep the other 3 female anthias healthy and hope they do not become infected. They continue to eat and dart around so that is a good sign.

I have reduced Salinity to 1.018 and will continue to drop this until I get to 1.010. Still doing this gradually but figure I should be able to get there by tomorrow evening.

Doing all I can to try to save this guy. Not into the freshwater dip thing as I had tried it years back and really never seemed to work (I know others swear buy it but guess you are lucky). I think it just stresses them out more.