Bartlett's Anthia stopped eating

[enricocoron]

Hi,

I just got two fish via mail Saturday, a Bartlett's Anthia and a Kole Tang. The Kole Tang started off a little iffy on eating but seems to be picking up speed. However the Anthia has been eating like a horse just stopped today (found it hiding in a PVC tube). I was in the process of slowly bringing salinity to 1.025 and then I was going to bring copper to 2.0 minimum over 3-4 days. Can't see obvious signs of disease, may be breathing a little heavy but hard to say because I haven't kept them and I know they have high metabolisms. Temp is 81 and Ammonia and Nitrite appear to be reading zero. Any suggestions? I have Copper, Prazipro, Nitrofuracin green, and H202 at the house.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

if it suddenly stopped eating, and its suddenly hiding in a pvc tube, IMO it points to bullying.

 

[k2-]

If I have one advice. Firstly put it into an acclimation box and secondly feed him extremely tiny food (may be like baby brine shrimp ) - how big is it ? Good luck

 

[k2-]

How many barletts you have in the tank ? Notorious for picking on each other

 

[littlebeard]

Can you explain your setup more? Any signs of disease? Proper aeration? Any observed aggression?


I don't have much faith in ammonia tests and I personally would do a water change.

 

[enricocoron]

Dead this morning. But to answer the questions

1) about an 1.5" long
2) only anthia in tank
3) 20 gallon standard QT with HOB, powerhead, and airstone in a bottle filter. The only other fish was the tang which never looked like it cared there was another fish in there, just kept cruising around picking at little spots of algae and food on the bottom.

It was eating for 3 days, stopped like that, and dead the next morning with no physical signs of damage. I should have done a FW dip yesterday, maybe it wouldn't have mattered, was a quick decline.

 

[enricocoron]

My concern now is for the kole tang still in QT. Given the Anthia was breathing really fast the morning it died, my gut tells me it had flukes attached to its gills. It's day 5 since the fish went in, and I was going to start in on copper tomorrow, but I'm wondering if I should pivot and treat with Prazipro. The tang is eating just fine and looks fine but something killed that Anthia and it wasn't the tang.

 

[enricocoron]

The tang is still eating with no signs of disease. I'm starting to be hesitant to treat with signs of disease. Is this wise?

 

[Tcook]

Still doesn’t prove bullying wasn’t happening especially with kole or tomini. They often do it when you aren’t there to distract them. By then the anthias is a stressed wreck going downhill. I would put new anthias alone in observation tank and get them acclimated and eating first before meds as long as they show no signs. Baby brine and frozen PE calanis are good to start with. Don’t give up!