Sick Blue Tang

[pat8you]

sorry to open this thread up again but when i got home from school today i had to hunt all over for the tang and this is what i found. It seems as though he is almost if not completly blind, he just was swimming around the tank bumping into things. It seems as though he is obviously very stressed with heavy breathing. Any diagnoses/treatments? (sorry for the picture quality i will try and get a better one soon, he wont stop long enough for me to get a good picture)

 

[lando]

Sorry to hear the bad news. heavy gilling and disorientation would lead me to believe this a water parameter issues. These are signs of NH3 toxicity. Test parameters and do a water change ASAP. Keep us posted.

 

[pat8you]

i tested the levels and the NO3 is around 40. everything else was in normal range except for the salinity was a little high, i did a small water change and added some freshwater. none of the other fish are exibiting any of these signs, and now it seems like he is losing color pretty fast, could he just be sleeping?

 

[lando]

No...I am sure the behavior and color change is due to stress from the poor water parameters. Keep up with the water changes using aged SW and hope for the best.

 

[melosu58]

What is your salinity at?

 

[roka64]

I agree, can you post other numbers, such as pH, salinity, temp. Also, what are you feeding him, how much and how often?

 

[pat8you]

NO2 ~ 0
NO3 ~ looks around 30ppm still not even close to what ive seen for nitrate toxsisity?
SG ~1.026 (added freshwater)
PH ~8.5ish (added ph down)
Temp ~77-78ish (turned down heater a bit its been abnormally warm here for chicago 62 degrees!)
i have been feeding him mysis about 2ce a day and offered him nori on a daily basis, both dipped in garlic guard. as of right now what really concerns me is he is not eating, i still dont think he can see. is there any way i can feed him to keep him alive while we try and figure this out? The only thing i can think of is i just added a cleaner shrimp to the tank. None of the other fish or shrimp are exibiting any abnormal signs, i am under the impression that if my levels were way outta line the shrimp would be the most sensitive. for now i have moved him into one of those small breeding style hang on tanks so i can keep an eye on him. im going to try and feed him with a syringe a bit later after the mysis has soaked in some garlic guard, i will also get some new pics up before the end of the night. the only abnormal things about him now is slighty fast gilling and his eyes still look wrong along with some spots that look like they have lost color but i cant be sure.PLEASE HELP! ive grown attached to the little guy

 

[melosu58]

Try lowering your salinity down to 1.023. The lower the salinity the more oxygen in the tank. Nothing wrong with 1.026 but if he is gasping I would lower it for now to see if he gets better. Hopefully it`s not too late.

 

[pat8you]

here are some pics im not sure if they really help at all... first two taken with light directly over him, third with it behind him which kinda shows where he has lost color. I always saw his eyes as pitch black and the circles in them are becoming more noticable by the day. im reeling through everything in my tank to try and figure this out and i think my brother posted about some purple algea we were getting, its fairly long and its starting to carpet parts of the bottom. Im not sure if he ever got identified as good or bad but im just throwing everything out there. i will try and lower the salinity and post back. OH! i got him to eat about 2 shrimp from the syringe before he got excited/freaked out and started to bump into the syringe a lot and then he just got plain freaked out and refused to eat more. Any other feeding suggestions or how long he can go without food?

 

[pat8you]

the little tang is looking much better and i think he has regained his eyesight. i fed him from an eye dropper for a few days by squirting mysis right above his mouth and he took it. he is much more active now but recently starting flicking against the side of the little breeder thing i have him in. Is this a sign that there is still something wrong with him or is he just tired of being in there?

As for why he got sick in the first place the only thing me and my brother could come up with was he may have eaten what looks to be Cynobacteria in the tank. Does this sound like it could be correct, and how would you go about treating it? (help on cleaning out the Cyno would be appreciated as well)

 

[roka64]

Simple way to get rid of cyano....Increased PWCs, siphon the cyano out, reduce feeding, lighting. I feed my tanks every other day. I also run my lights for 10 hours....but key is PWCs. That is the quickest and easies way to knock it out.

 

[pat8you]

Released the tang last night, he was immediatly pounced on by my new cleaning shrimp and was literally held down seemingly against his will and cleaned. The little guy really didnt seem to sure about the whole process which made it all the more enjoyable to watch, the shrimp was in complete control! Today when i got back from school he was zooming around the tank and his spots look 100x better. Cleaning shrimp was the best investment to the tank yet!