Blue Hippo Tang Bulge Eye and Signs of Scratching itself against Rocks

[AdotBdot]

Hi All, I have an 60 gallon tank that has cycled for 2 months and added 1 fish per week over the last 2 months. The last addition was over 3 weeks ago and they all seemed fine and happy. Today i have seen that my Blue Tang has a swollen left eye, not coming out and has also started brushing itself against rocks. Please advise on what can be done?

As of 12 hours ago it had no symptoms and was eating normally. I am unable to get photos as he goes into hiding as soon as i come near the tank. Is there any way to treat the display tank by itself or is catching the fish my only option. He hides in the rockwork and it will be a pain to catch him out.

Today morning, I noticed that my Skimmer was overflowing and i had emptied it just the night before and had topped up the RODI water as well.

My paramter
Temp: 28 C
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 8
KH: 8.2

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi All, I have an 60 gallon tank that has cycled for 2 months and added 1 fish per week over the last 2 months. The last addition was over 3 weeks ago and they all seemed fine and happy. Today i have seen that my Blue Tang has a swollen left eye, not coming out and has also started brushing itself against rocks. Please advise on what can be done?

As of 12 hours ago it had no symptoms and was eating normally. I am unable to get photos as he goes into hiding as soon as i come near the tank. Is there any way to treat the display tank by itself or is catching the fish my only option. He hides in the rockwork and it will be a pain to catch him out.

Today morning, I noticed that my Skimmer was overflowing and i had emptied it just the night before and had topped up the RODI water as well.

My paramter
Temp: 28 C
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 8
KH: 8.2

May be a light eye injury but hard to determine without any pics or video

 

[MnFish1]

Hi All, I have an 60 gallon tank that has cycled for 2 months and added 1 fish per week over the last 2 months. The last addition was over 3 weeks ago and they all seemed fine and happy. Today i have seen that my Blue Tang has a swollen left eye, not coming out and has also started brushing itself against rocks. Please advise on what can be done?

As of 12 hours ago it had no symptoms and was eating normally. I am unable to get photos as he goes into hiding as soon as i come near the tank. Is there any way to treat the display tank by itself or is catching the fish my only option. He hides in the rockwork and it will be a pain to catch him out.

Today morning, I noticed that my Skimmer was overflowing and i had emptied it just the night before and had topped up the RODI water as well.

My paramter
Temp: 28 C
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 8
KH: 8.2

If you didn't do any quarantine (at all) - you could do the protocol with copper/prazipro. for all of the fish. Did you medicate your fish? Are there any lesions you can see>

 

[AdotBdot]

If you didn't do any quarantine (at all) - you could do the protocol with copper/prazipro. for all of the fish. Did you medicate your fish? Are there any lesions you can see>

Hi, as far as I can see the only thing is the bulge over the eye. Don’t see anything else. All the other fish seem to swim normally and eat normally. The only change in tank was the anemone spot. It has now moved closer to where the tang had its home.

I haven’t done any quarantine or treatment, I bought all the fish from the same LFS. He seems to be swimming normally for now.

 

[AdotBdot]

I’m

May be a light eye injury but hard to determine without any pics or video

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi, as far as I can see the only thing is the bulge over the eye. Don’t see anything else. All the other fish seem to swim normally and eat normally. The only change in tank was the anemone spot. It has now moved closer to where the tang had its home.

I haven’t done any quarantine or treatment, I bought all the fish from the same LFS. He seems to be swimming normally for now.

Pictures are very blurry. Assure the camera lens and tank glass is clean. A video may provide better results

 

[AdotBdot]

Pictures are very blurry. Assure the camera lens and tank glass is clean. A video may provide better results

Hi, maybe this might work

 

[AdotBdot]

Pictures are very blurry. Assure the camera lens and tank glass is clean. A video may provide better results

Added it to a streamed site and the link is here

 

[AdotBdot]

Hi, maybe this might work

One more of video it feeding like a pig just now. I am sorry all the fish seem to only love that corner and leave the whole tank empty

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok, I see the eye now which is popeye and likely stemmed from an injury and have noticed the lawnmower blenny is harassing the hepatus tang possibly have caused the injury
Treat in a separate tank with Maracyn for at least 5 days. You can not treat and see if it subsides but a gamble.

 

[AdotBdot]

Yes the lawnmover Blenny is a month older than the tang. The tang was attached to the hip with the Blenny, it followed it everywhere for the first 2-3 weeks. Now I notice the Blenny tries to eat the tang sometimes.

Ok, I see the eye now which is popeye and likely stemmed from an injury and have noticed the lawnmower blenny is harassing the hepatus tang possibly have caused the injury
Treat in a separate tank with Maracyn for at least 5 days. You can not treat and see if it subsides but a gamble.

 

[Mikeltee]

I had a Coral Beauty that had Popeye. I treated it with Maracyn (not II) but the eye was always white. He died about a month later. It was an injury caused from playing with a heater that was not secured in the flow.

I also had a blue hippo smaller than yours in a 130g. He flipped out and stress killed a dozen other fish in my tank. I'd never own a blue hippo without a 150g+ tank... after recent research I'd never own any tang other than a Bristletooth in a 48" tank.

You need to pull all your fish and qt them. Get some advice on stocking your tank as well....

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes the lawnmover Blenny is a month older than the tang. The tang was attached to the hip with the Blenny, it followed it everywhere for the first 2-3 weeks. Now I notice the Blenny tries to eat the tang sometimes.

I agree, the blenny is harassing the tang, not sure if that caused this injury, but it isn't going to help things. Can you put a tank divider in the tank to give the tang a third of the space or so to allow it to heal? The other option would be to set up a treatment tank and put the tang in there and use Erythromycin.

Jay

 

[AdotBdot]

Yes the lawnmover Blenny is a month older than the tang. The tang was attached to the hip with the Blenny, it followed it everywhere for the first 2-3 weeks. Now I notice the Blenny tries to eat the tang sometimes.

Ok, I see the eye now which is popeye and likely stemmed from an injury and have noticed the lawnmower blenny is harassing the hepatus tang possibly have caused the injury
Treat in a separate tank with Maracyn for at least 5 days. You can not treat and see if it subsides but a gamble.

I agree, the blenny is harassing the tang, not sure if that caused this injury, but it isn't going to help things. Can you put a tank divider in the tank to give the tang a third of the space or so to allow it to heal? The other option would be to set up a treatment tank and put the tang in there and use Erythromycin.

Jay

Hi, thanks for the suggestions. I will think about a treatment tank to get it to heal first and then decide on the next course of action. Is this a spreadable infection ? Like can it go into my other fish as well ?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes the lawnmover Blenny is a month older than the tang. The tang was attached to the hip with the Blenny, it followed it everywhere for the first 2-3 weeks. Now I notice the Blenny tries to eat the tang sometimes.



Hi, thanks for the suggestions. I will think about a treatment tank to get it to heal first and then decide on the next course of action. Is this a spreadable infection ? Like can it go into my other fish as well ?

It can potentially be. A treatment tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

 

[AdotBdot]

It can potentially be. A treatment tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

Thank you, catching the Tang is going to be a massive job as it lays flat in a crevice to hide. Any suggestions? or just patience?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you, catching the Tang is going to be a massive job as it lays flat in a crevice to hide. Any suggestions? or just patience?

I have 100% success with fish traps. They wedge between rocks and crevices making them near impossible to catch but once in between crevice, you can remove rock to a bucket of tank water and allow it to swim out and an easy catch

 

[AdotBdot]

I have 100% success with fish traps. They wedge between rocks and crevices making them near impossible to catch but once in between crevice, you can remove rock to a bucket of tank water and allow it to swim out and an easy catch

Just used a DSLR this morning, the bubble seems to have subsided slightly. But I am now seeing spots of black on the fish. Am I well and truly in the damaged zone now ? Is that ich ?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just used a DSLR this morning, the bubble seems to have subsided slightly. But I am now seeing spots of black on the fish. Am I well and truly in the damaged zone now ? Is that ich ?

Those are indeed mucus cones and typical issue with this type of fish. You will want to isolate fish in a treatment tant and treat with copper Power at therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.
The display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

 

[AdotBdot]

Those are indeed mucus cones and typical issue with this type of fish. You will want to isolate fish in a treatment tant and treat with copper Power at therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.
The display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

Thanks for your reply . Now the next question do i need to pull all my fish? into a QT tank? or go the reverse way and put all my corals and inverts in a QT and dose copper to the DT? I have 6 fish and going fallow would be kind hard i guess. Keen to hear your thoughts.

I hardly have any corals. 3 Hammers, 3 Zoa frags, 3 Mushroom frags, 2 leather frags and 7 snails other than my fish, these would be easy to put into a small tank and let them be there while i treat the fish. Is that doable?

My fish list: 1 Mcosker Wrasse, 1 Bristletooth tang, 1 diamond watchman goby, 1 lawnmover blenny and a pair of clowns.