Longnose Butterfly

[kgriffith]

Yesterday I added a medium sized 4" long nose butterfly to my tank which is:
90 gallon and has the following fish... engineer goby, fire angel, sweetlips,yellow band clown, and a tang.

The butterfly seemed fine at first and as of this morning he seems lethargic and just staying under the live rock, sometimes vertical sometimes on his side. I am concerned, do you guys have any suggestions or is this not a problem?

Also I checked all of my levels and they are fine.

 

[Fluff]

How did you acclimate the longnose to your tank?

 

[kgriffith]

Unfortunately I took the advise of a friend and just placed the bag containing the fish in the water for 15 minutes then put him in the tank. I did the same thing with my sweetlips that was added tho he seems fine. I am going to setup a quarantine tank this afternoon and put the longnose in it. Any advise? I treated the tank with stress coat this morning. Do you think placing him in the quarantine tank will help? I figured I could at least make sure he is eating.

 

[Fluff]

QT is always a good idea. The problem with just throwing them in the tank with only 15 mins of floating to acclimate to temps is that alot of times the lfs water is very different from our own. They keep thier salinity lower for one. Your fish could be stressed/in shock, due to an extreme change in salinity or ph or any number of other water differences. A slower acclimation, adding a bit of water to the floating bag over time is best. Or even doing a drip acclimation is better. I'm not really sure what to offer since he's already been moved other than to QT and keep a close eye on him. If your using new water in the QT, be sure to acclimate him well over to the new tank. Good luck as this fish is kinda picky anyway and sometimes hard to get eating prepared foods.

 

[Fluff]

Here are some articles that may help.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/2/1/Acclimation/Page1.html

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/5/1/Quarantine-for-saltwater-fish/Page1.html

 

[kgriffith]

Thanks for your input.
As far as the qt goes my plan was to use water from the current tank. Would that be best or I ran my ro unit last night and I could make some fresh salt water?
What do you feed your longnose? I have zookplanktin, krill and squid at home all frozen. Should I get some whole food for them? Copepods perhaps?

What about the sweetlips? Should I leave him be since he seems to be doing fine?

 

[Fluff]

Maybe a 50/50 mix of water would work. Keep water prepared for water changes as they will need to be done often in a new QT tank.
You said your levels are fine, does that mean 0's across the board?
It's always safer to QT new fish incase of disease but since the sweetlips is already in the tank and seems to be doing well, I don't see any reason to move him.
When feeding the butterfly, give him minced bits of marine fish and/or crustacean. It has a tiny mouth used for picking between rocks and corals so the food needs to be small enough for it to eat. A frozen butterfly food is available as well if you can find it and would be another option.
Here is an example. And this is a great brand if you can find it.
Aquarium Fish Foods: San Francisco Bay Brand Angel & Butterfly Diet
HTH

 

[kgriffith]

Thanks for your advice guys.
I have a video of the butterfly, maybe you guys could recognize what the fish is doing. It has been 5 days since I added him to the tank and his color is still great but he just seems to loaf around the tank preferring the corners. My levels are just fine and I did a 10% change last night.

http://www.griffithexteriors.com/butterfly.avi

 

[CatatonicBug]

Could it be that the new fish is just not comfortable in the new tank yet, and is hiding? I know many fish take a while to feel comfortable enough to swim freely in a new home.

 

[kgriffith]

That is what I am hoping, he does venture around a bit, I suppose it is the way he wafts around that concerns me. He also doesnt seem to be afraid of me at all while the other fish run when my hand is near he doesnt.

 

[kgriffith]

*bump
Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[roka64]

In your video, it looks like he is hiding. Does he ever swim normal? Have you tried soaking their frozen food in garlic guard?

 

[CaptainAhab]

Maybe try killing the lights for a day or so. BTW: sweet hosted-clown. Always a personal fav. Was lookin for that goby though

 

[kgriffith]

In your video, it looks like he is hiding. Does he ever swim normal? Have you tried soaking their frozen food in garlic guard?

I just tried the garlic tonight, he did not seem interested.

 

[kgriffith]

Maybe try killing the lights for a day or so. BTW: sweet hosted-clown. Always a personal fav. Was lookin for that goby though

I will give that a shot, has it worked for you? Ha the clown is very cool large and nice color but he is an a**hole. He is tearing up my sweetlips. Leaves everyone else alone. Want him? haha

 

[kgriffith]

Think I found the problem with the butterfly, he has "pop eye".. Noticed it recently as it has gotten worse. Both eyes are noticable "popped"
Anyone had this issue and what did you do to resolve it?

 

[CaptainAhab]

Popeye itself is typically either caused by some injury to the eye(s) or by some other disease in the tank and is not classified as a disease. If you can't identifyh the trauma then you should get him out and QT him and possibly treat for both possible fungus and bacteria infection.

I would venture a guess that he got bullied and injured himself but then it's not my tank and associated risk.

Be sure that's what it is though, both eyes is on one hand not that common (for injury) and the other a reason to believe that it may not be injury related. Make sure the eyes don't look like that from loss of weight.

 

[kgriffith]

I don't think it is from a loss of weight, he has been in the tank a week and hasn't seemed to eat but at the same time doesn't appear to have lost any weight.

 

[cmor1701d]

I would take it out and QT it for a few weeks. Keep water parameters pristine with constant (10% - 20% daily) pwc's in the cycled QT. Larger pwc's if the QT is not cycled. Reduce the salinity to 1.012 -1.015 in the QT tank over a couple of days.

The popeye should start to heal in about a week. If not, an anti-bacterial regimen would be inorder. You may want to do that anyway as both eyes being affected is not normally injury related as CaptaijnAhab already stated.

After the treatment get the SG back up slowly. I would then capture the sweetlips to go in the QT for a week while the butterlfy gets comfortable in the tank. Then you can add the sweetlips back and see how things go.

 

[kgriffith]

Thanks for the input, I put him in qt tonite got the ammonia down as low as possible, put in a peice of live rock and a sponge from my display tank. The ammonia is not as low as I would have liked but I will do a 50% change before work tommorow. Getting him out was the right thing to do even if he doesnt make it in qt right? I was concerned for the other fish in the tank... anyway here are the levels as of 10:30 est..

1.025 gravity
8.2 ph
.25 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate

I hope he makes it through the night.