My tang has gone all pale - help!

[danelam]

Ok, so my hippo tang has been in QT this past week with 2 false percs. All has been fine, eating, swimming etc. until this afternoon I get home and the hippo is deathly pale, breathing rapidly and generally seeming distressed. She's not eating either. All water parameters are fine and there is no sign of any white spots or the like. The percs are carrying on like nothing is happening.

What is wrong? What should I do? She seems bad.

Please help! Thankyou!

 

[KathyC]

Do you have anything adding air into the tank for oxygenating the water?

 

[danelam]

i have a sponge filter connected to an air pump as well as a small minijet powerhead

 

[danelam]

could it help to put it in my display tank?

 

[KathyC]

No! Mostly because you don't know what is wrong with it.

How big is the QT tank? Have you recently done a water change ..never hurts unless there is a large swing in the parameters. If you do one, try and make the water a tiny but warmer than what you are replacing..never cooler.

Have you stuck your finger in there? You don't have a heater or anything malfunctioning?

 

[KathyC]

Is there any air bubbles actually coming out of the sponge filter? You should always question an oxygenation issue when the larger fish takes a turn for the worse suddenly and the smaller fish seem fine. (though it could still be 100 other causes...)

Are you treating them for anything or just keeping an eye on them in the QT?
How many days in QT?

 

[danelam]

the temp is all good and i've been doing twice daily water changes with water from my main tank. She's just been charging the glass frantically and then looked like trying to jump out now she's down the bottom under some rock breathing rapidly...i dunno what's wrong!

 

[danelam]

been in QT for 1 week now. Not treating for anything, just observing.

 

[danelam]

the only thing that I can think of that's changed since yesterday is that I put a new, more powerful maxijet in the tank instead of the minijet, but I thought this would have helped. In the past few hours I've changed back to the minijet

 

[Bikinisalt]

Why are you doing water changes from the main tank and not adding fresh salted water?

 

[KathyC]

Are you positive the water quality is good in there?? In a small tank, things change rapidly..have you tested the water in the QT itself today? What are the numbers?
How big is the tank & the tang?
I'd do another water change but with new SW..now.

 

[danelam]

Why are you doing water changes from the main tank and not adding fresh salted water?

Someone advised me to do this to help the immature bacteria on the sponge filter...

I just did a water change with fresh saltwater.

Readings now:
Amm: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0

The questionable one is PH, I think it's 8.4 but I can't tell if it's 8.8. The colors on the testkit are very similar.

 

[danelam]

the tang is about 3 inches, the quarantine is 10g

 

[KathyC]

Try the PH test again ..run one on your main tank too and compare the 2.

 

[danelam]

Ok, Display tank ph is 8.2. I'm pretty sure QT is 8.4. I cross referenced with a strip test that only reads PH to the nearest whole number and it reads 8. So if it were 8.8 it would more likely read 9....

BTW, thankyou for helping with this Kathy. I don't know what is wrong. She looks bad, on the bottom and a rock panting

 

[danelam]

wait, I just did another reading of PH with my good test kit and the PH seems to have changed again - looks like 8.2 or 7.8. It's weird

 

[KathyC]

If you are having huge PH swings..that will greatly harm a fish. (though I don't know why the clowns woulnd't be bothered by it..IF it's a PH swing.
You want to keep the PH as consistent as possible.
If you'd been doing water changes all along with tank water and now have changed to freshly mixed SW, your parameters can be totally different..not a good thing. (but please don't go back to using tank water in the QT)

Did you open or close a window in the room the QT is in?

You may also be dealing with something completely different with your tang. Anything from an internal problem, to having slammed it'self into the glass before you got home, to a fish caught with cyanide that is just declining now. The list goes on & on.

I wish you the very best of luck. Shut the room lights off (more calming for the fish) and hope for the best. Please do keep us informed.

One more thought..I'd yank out the sponge (keep it submerged maybe in the sump of your main tank) and just run straight air into the QT..you need as much as you can get in there right now.

 

[danelam]

Hey Kathy,

Well, we lost the tang. It continued to get more erratic as the night went on - looked like she was trying to jump out the tank, to following her reflection to lying on the bottom all breathing rapidly and getting paler and palter. Still the water parameters all seemed fine. It's a mystery that there was such a sudden and dramatic change.

I emailed Bob Fenner and he suggested it might be environmental ... who knows?
Thanks for all your suggestions all the same. I may hold off on getting another tang for a while until I have a bit more experience

Still the clowns seem to be fine at least.

 

[Chapz]

Dane, Sorry for the loss. I would have wished it lasted longer.
Well take care of the 2 perculas u have.

 

[rookie07]

sorry dane.
Sometiimes these things happen....You are removing things from their natural enviroment and putting them in you home... Of course most times there is a problem with the tank....
Good luck, I would keep trying to figure out what went wrong...
Phil