Sick yellow tang?

[alex8111]

This morning I noticed that my yellow tang is not swimming normally. He looked like he was having to move a lot more to get to swim. He is wobbling having to move his fins much faster to swim. His normal behavior is smooth swimming and very active and aggressive. But today he is just swimming at the same place.

He is also swimming on his side a lot. Last night, he was all well so this happened less than 24 hours ago.

I gave some food to see if he would eat and he did. He ate the food like he always does and then just went to chill somewhere again. Nothing about him looks different other than the way he is swimming.

I don’t know what to do here. Is he sick?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Lorna]

measure all your water parameters......then do a 30% water change just in case. Do you feed him any algae? on a clip, or live? also is there any sign of ich in your tank as this could easily be ich.

 

[TRe]

how olds the tank and what size??? how long have you had the fish?? params??

 

[KahluaZzZ]

dya have a cam, cell etc to show us his behavior/color

 

[alex8111]

Honestly, I think it might be ich. Although I don’t see any physical changes in his body. No spots, etc. just his swimming.

This morning he seems to be doing a lot better. He is not on his side anymore and is swimming around. But he is still not being a bully and is not actively nibbing on rocks, etc. like he used to. I guess he just needs a few days to come around. I just don’t want to stress him any more by removing him from the tank. These past few weeks he has been moved a lot because of his aggressiveness and I feel that im stressing him out by moving him too much.

I don’t think the moving around is the cause of his weird swimming but I just don’t want to make him worse by removing him from the tank.

I’ve had the fish for a month I think.

Ich I think for some reason is always there. I have a coral beauty who gets spots on him and then they go away in a few hours on its own. I don’t understand how he can get ich and be ich free on his own with in a few hours…is that possible? Is it even ich I’m seeing?

Do fish come around on their own? Should I let the tang chill for a few days to see how he will do?

 

[TRe]

if it is ich your guna have to pull all the fish and quarentine 4-6 weeks ..... by your display tank being fish free for 4-6 weeks natually the ich will die off ..... as far as the fish you need to either treat with copper or hyposalinty..... copper can be pretty hard on the fish so i suggest the hyposalinity route...hyposalinity mean little by little droping your salt levels as low as 1.009 .Hyposalinity should be maintained for at least 4 weeks but 6 weeks is preferable..When the treatment is complete, the salinity should be raised gradually to normal over a number of days..hope its not ich though

 

[TRe]

btw you say

These past few weeks he has been moved a lot because of his aggressiveness and I feel that im stressing him out by moving him too much.

explain a little more... ich may be stress induced

 

[alex8111]

btw you say explain a little more... ich may be stress induced

Well the tang has been moved from the display to QT because of his aggressiveness. Not because he was sick in the past. Each time I get a new fish, he starts harassing them. Exactly like you said in a previous post. I need to make sure the tang is the last fish but I cant keep him in a small QT for too long.

So each time I get a new fish, I end up taking the tang out to let the new fish establish territory and then put the tang back. This method seems to be working well. The tang is not bothering fish that were there before him.

So I just think that all this moving might be stressing him out. So I will just let him be for a few days to see if he gets better or worse. Right now its too hard to determine what the problem is. He seems to be doing better.

About hyposalinity, can I do that with my main tank? All I have in there are fish, snails and hermits. Can the snails tolerate the low salinity?

 

[TRe]

its definitly possible to use the hyposalinity method to treat your display but i wouldnt recommend it since any life on your liverock most likely wont make it... not sure if the inverts will make it but i doubt it..... on the other hand it will stress the fish less so i guess theres pros and cons but i feel the cons out weigh the pros

 

[Lorna]

There are a few things you said.....you have been introducing new fish to your tank over the past few weeks? any one of these additions could have contaminated your display and may be the cause of an ich breakout. I would really seriously consider getting a cheap 20g and remove all your fish and qt them for the 6-8 weeks necessary to get rid of the ich......in future you should be qt new arrivals to ensure you are not introducing diseases to your tank......