How to tell if the fish has been drugged?

[jofeny]

I just bought the most beautiful potter I've ever seen 2 days ago...it was lively n feeding pellets at the LFS...

The first day in my qt it was still feeding abit of mysis but was more interested in pecking the liverocks...

But today...it's breathing v rapidly n now lying belly-up on the liverock but the colour is still as brilliant as b4...really dun understand what's going on...the ammonia 0, nitrate 0...salanity is 1.009 so there shouldn't be any parasite...no sign of slime or ich or anything wrong...

v v sad.... n seems like there's nothing I can do abt it...

could this all b a sign that it wasn't hand caught?

[beaver]

Friend, did u say that the salinity is 1.009? I hope that is a typo error cos the standard level should be at least 1.021 for marine fish.

Regards

[BFG]

I think salinity is the culprit. My sg 1.019 and some coral up lorry. Have replenish the sg to 1.022 already. Some softies can tolerate this low but some lps up lorry liao. Lesson learnt.

[ambystoma82]

heyz

u can go to this website for diagnosis...

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/info....htm#Diagnostic

go to this webby for medicine... hehe...

look under same medicine content then look for it under sea chem directory loh...

http://www.seachem.com/products/medications.html

hope can help u in some way or another...

[jofeny]

Thx guys for the replies...my potter is dead..

Still not sure wats wrong...I inspected it's body n nv c any visible injury or parasite n it's color is still brilliant even when it's dead...

Bro beaver & BFG, sry forgot to mention I'm keeping my qt tank at a hypo state so as to cure my new fishes of parasites...the salinity shd b ok for the fish but not for shrimps or corals...

Bro ambystoma82, thx for the intro to the website...it'll sure come useful in the future...

I still suspect the fish is "drug-caught" instead of hand-caught...any bro here can tell whether a fish died cos it was "drug-caught"??

[Bali Brain]

You mentioned Ammonia 0, nitrate 0, did you test for nitrite?

What is the state of your QT? Sometimes, if you keep a tank devoid of fishes for too long, the bacteria dies off, and although initially, the water is okay, the biological filtration fails. Did you test the water after the fish died?

[jofeny]

Hmm...I dun have test kit for nitrite...but I'm doing regular water change n dosing ammonia removal so hopefully tt shd keep the water in gd condition...I still have some other fish that were in there for more than 2 weeks le...

[tineng]

did you buffer up the water for your QT?? one of the biggest problem with hypo is to maintain a higher KH such that the PH would not flucate too much.....also i am assumping that when you do your hypo treatment, its was done with a gradual reduction of salinity over a few days rather then straight off 1.009????

[sky107line]

Hi there jofeny! Welcome to the club! I do have that kind of bad experience before on my beloved Chevron tang with a very promising price that cost $150/- and can only can last me for 2 weeks after QT for 2days by doing a transfer dripping water method from my main tank to the QT tank. Feed well, swim well with all the anthias I have success till now is still surviving in my tank : Pink square, 4 purple queen, 2 dispar, x2 swallow tail angel, 2 percular, 1 purple firegoby, 3blue eye cardinal, x1 convict blemmy and clown fairy wrasse not to mention several shrimp in my tank too.....Suddenly, I notice that it started breath rapidly and slowly touch down on my sand bed and the next morning.....BOOOM! Up the lorry!!!

Well if ur question says whether the fish had been drugs or not??? I guess you can hardly find the wright answer ( skeptical) and sometimes I find that buying a fish is like a box of chocolate, You'll never know what you gonna get!!! But one thing for sure that I will never go to the same LFS again !!!

[jofeny]

tineng thx for the reminder...I think I overlooked the KH factor...I tot by dosing PH buffer I'll b able to maintain the PH...

sky107line thx for sharing ur experience...looks like it really depends on my luck...

Now I can only hope my abt is alrite...it's vomitting out watever it's eating...

[sky107line]

tineng thx for the reminder...I think I overlooked the KH factor...I tot by dosing PH buffer I'll b able to maintain the PH...

sky107line thx for sharing ur experience...looks like it really depends on my luck...

Now I can only hope my abt is alrite...it's vomitting out watever it's eating...

Yo! jofeny, May be you might wanna try to introduce daphnia frozen food mix with a seachem garlic for your new addition fish which is kind of a small partical that will make them easier to feed and this is what I had been practicing to all my new addition and I find that it does help to those kind of a shy species.....Once they start getting use to it then you can start to introduce with some other kind of food. And just try to maintain ur basic water parameter : Kh @8.5-9.5,Ph 8.3,Calcium 380-400 and magnesium level 1300. Hope that this will help!

[tineng]

tineng thx for the reminder...I think I overlooked the KH factor...I tot by dosing PH buffer I'll b able to maintain the PH...

sky107line thx for sharing ur experience...looks like it really depends on my luck...

Now I can only hope my abt is alrite...it's vomitting out watever it's eating...

i think it really depends on what you use to buff up the PH....some PH buffer are really nothing more then buffering up the KH such that PH is indirectly push up (so your KH might be at the correct level already)....but i do have experience using those china brand PH buffer that only rasies PH temporary but would result in drop much later in the day (i think its very similar to how vinger drops PH but does nothing to KH).....

The best if you have a PH monitor to charge the PH changes throughout the day...but given that most will save on QT, its quite an expensive things to do....

[jofeny]

thx sky107line, my kH is 9 but I haven get myself a CA or MG test kit...izzit necessary to maintain the CA n MG in qt as well? Cos I dose the tropic-marine Bio Calcium in my main tank but i tot it's abit ex to dose the qt as well so I skip it for my qt..

Gd idea on the daphnia! Will try it in the future with my new fish...but my ABT was feeding extremely well for 2 wks until now...despite the vomitting it's still looking for food constantly though...

thx tineng, I use seachem pH buffer, which is suppose to maintain the pH at 8.3...but my pH is abt 8 now so guess I'll have to dose abit more...I'll try to monitor my pH with my pH pen instead...can't afford a pH monitor...

Come to think of it...I read somewhere that the pH will fluctuate when the lights r off...will that happen even when my kH is at 9? could this cos the death of my beloved potter?

[sky107line]

As for dosing the Ca- Mg I recon you to get a descent big Seachem Ca & Seachem reef builder bottle which I find is quite economy for daily usage and as for the Mg I suggest you can continue using the Tropic Marine product.... Why??? O.K here goes the reason : As for Seachem cost ard $8/- which is so cheap right? However, If you were to look closely on the partical its kind of shiny which I believed it's more like contain lots of water instead. And as for the Tropic marine that cost 3 times higher from Seachem product which I find that its more like a fine powder and full of concentration on the Mg though! Well, In the end the preference is still all up to you then.

Oh! ya!....I noticed about the PH buffer that you had been used all this while right?? And another thing is... just becareful when mixing the additive with the quality of the water that you are going to use!!! Never ever use the tap water and try to get a distilled water instead. The reason is the tap water PH sometimes is not stable and the bad thing is...Its well known contained of silicate which is abandon in the reefing world!!! Get yourself a descent bottle of distilled water to mix with your additive ya!! Then you will slowly find that your PH will not goes haywire anymore & you will no longer be needing any of the PH buffer!!Coz this what I have been doing all along and my PH maintain 8.4 without droping anymore!!!

[jofeny]

Actually I also tot of getting the seachem reef builder but a fellow reefer was selling the TM Bio calcium so I grab it instead...actually I'm quite confused with all these additives...I used to dose only kalkwasser...how r they different?

Is the distilled water same as those we get in the supermarket? Will water from DI unit work as well?

[flying carpet]

Did you bring the fish back home and then let it go at your QT that has the salinity of 1.009?

[jofeny]

I acclimatise them for an hr adding abit of water every 10 min...is this ok?

Actually I'm quite confused...according to the method used by the 'saltwater aquarium' website, I shd bring down the salanity fast so as to make the parasites "explode"...but here seems like most of the method is to bring down over a few days or wks...

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/hyposalin...yposalinity.htm

[sky107line]

Actually I also tot of getting the seachem reef builder but a fellow reefer was selling the TM Bio calcium so I grab it instead...actually I'm quite confused with all these additives...I used to dose only kalkwasser...how r they different?

Is the distilled water same as those we get in the supermarket? Will water from DI unit work as well?

Has anyone ever tell you that the Reefbuilder additive is mean to buffering ur kh instead of Ca??? Well, Anyway is good to know that you already bought the right additive from a fellow reefer inorder to maintain ur Ca by using the TM bio Ca but the issue is.... In long run if you were to calculate back .....I guess only the price is the matter . However, I believe you still need to purchase the reefbuilder inorder to buffer ur kh well. As for the Kalkwasser it's only to maintain the element of ur kh, strontium,calcium etc....Provided if you have buffered your kh, ph, Ca and Mg correctly....then it will work correctly or otherwise you'll never get ur parameter correctly

[tineng]

seachem pH buffer should be ok....it will also raise your KH....i used that too....only that i raise till 10 instead of 9....but i guess at 9 it should be ok....

personally, i think sometime you just can't win them.....