Blue Hippo Tang Flashing

[alex37310]

So I’ve had a juvenile blue hippo tang for a couple months now.

Did the quarantine process from @Jay Hemdal
31 days coperpower
#1#1#1oundf prazipro
8 days later water change
#2#2#2oundf prazipro
….
At this point I couldn’t do a 3rd round as 48h after I had to evacuate for hurricane Milton.
Was planing on a 3rd round and then a few days of copper again but since I evacuated, I put my 2 clowns (from DT) and my tang (from QT) in a nano tank to bring with me.

Since coming back home thankfully without any damage, I placed all fish in DT

Now, a month later, my blue tang is flashing on the rocks… no visible issues, I haven’t noticed abnormal breathing but I’m also not great at diagnosing this stuff…

Important to know, I’m battling a couple issues the past 2 weeks:
- dino outbreak (SCA), started dosing microbacter7, eco balance, live phyto and have a ton of pods, and started to dose 40% silicate to 3ppm daily for diatom bloom.
Tested nitrates 30, phosphate above 0.9.
Added gracilaria to my empty refugium and set lights on 24/7 in that section.

- a few days in I notice my monti frags looking rough and what I thought was fresh growth looked more like dead coral with brown algae taking over.
Tested again, nitrates 15ppm, phosphates 2.3ppm

Added 75g of rowaphos in a bag in the 150micron filter sock (60g of water volume)

Stopped dosing silicate as rowaphos also removes silicates

Did a 15% water change, nitrates 20 phosphate 0.7 (turkey basted the brown algae off my sps)

I’m about to start dosing waste away now that I’ve finished dosing eco balance over 20 days

#fishmedics #reefsq#fishmedics#reefsq#fishmedics#reefsquad

 

[alex37310]

MP4 video

 

[alex37310]

And link for video if it doesn’t work :

 

[fishywishy]

You’re supposed to do copper for 31 days so that could be the problem.

It could also just be flukes, so I would do another 4 weeks of praziquantel treatment. If that doesn’t help, try another copper treatment or hyposalinity because I don’t think it’s velvet.

 

[alex37310]

Correction, I did 31 days! Late night I got mixed up! Lol

I’ll edit OP

Prazipro ok in DT with snails, hermit, BTA and corals? I’ll add a bubbler

 

[fishywishy]

Correction, I did 31 days! Late night I got mixed up! Lol

I’ll edit OP

Prazipro ok in DT with snails, hermit, BTA and corals? I’ll add a bubbler

Should be fine

 

[vetteguy53081]

You’re supposed to do copper for 31 days so that could be the problem.

It could also just be flukes, so I would do another 4 weeks of praziquantel treatment. If that doesn’t help, try another copper treatment or hyposalinity because I don’t think it’s velvet.

30 days for coppersafe and two 8 day intervals for prazi Not 4 weeks

 

[vetteguy53081]

And link for video if it doesn’t work :

Please repost video under white light intensity - No Blue as all images are too dark to clearly see fish

 

[Duane family]

Sure the behaviour looks like its a scratching to address crypto but as has been addressed the ambient lighting is to dark.

Do not rule out that there was an anomaly during your initial copper treatment or your subsequent praziquantel treatment. I have been quarantining fish for decades and back in the days I used ionic copper a mistake would happen once or twice in a 3 year period. Now we have better measurement equipment and this make the entire process more repeatable but I have recently made a mistake with copper levels in a QT system as I was dealing with multiple water samples. So what I am trying to say is don't think that the method you used is not solid it is, but there is a human factor involved so the odd mistake is always going to happen.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So I’ve had a juvenile blue hippo tang for a couple months now.

Did the quarantine process from @Jay Hemdal
31 days coperpower
#1#1#1oundf prazipro
8 days later water change
#2#2#2oundf prazipro
….
At this point I couldn’t do a 3rd round as 48h after I had to evacuate for hurricane Milton.
Was planing on a 3rd round and then a few days of copper again but since I evacuated, I put my 2 clowns (from DT) and my tang (from QT) in a nano tank to bring with me.

Since coming back home thankfully without any damage, I placed all fish in DT

Now, a month later, my blue tang is flashing on the rocks… no visible issues, I haven’t noticed abnormal breathing but I’m also not great at diagnosing this stuff…

Important to know, I’m battling a couple issues the past 2 weeks:
- dino outbreak (SCA), started dosing microbacter7, eco balance, live phyto and have a ton of pods, and started to dose 40% silicate to 3ppm daily for diatom bloom.
Tested nitrates 30, phosphate above 0.9.
Added gracilaria to my empty refugium and set lights on 24/7 in that section.

- a few days in I notice my monti frags looking rough and what I thought was fresh growth looked more like dead coral with brown algae taking over.
Tested again, nitrates 15ppm, phosphates 2.3ppm

Added 75g of rowaphos in a bag in the 150micron filter sock (60g of water volume)

Stopped dosing silicate as rowaphos also removes silicates

Did a 15% water change, nitrates 20 phosphate 0.7 (turkey basted the brown algae off my sps)

I’m about to start dosing waste away now that I’ve finished dosing eco balance over 20 days

#fishmedics #reefsq#fishmedics#reefsq#fishmedics#reefsquad

Two things causes scratching like that - gill flukes or particles in the water. Since you went through a full treatment, but have also been adding a lot of “stuff” to the tank, at this point, I’d say this is from particulates. I’d give it a few days at least, flukes won’t kill that quickly. Then, if the issue gets worse, you can safely dose the tank with Prazipro, 3x, 8 days apart with good aeration.

 

[alex37310]

Two things causes scratching like that - gill flukes or particles in the water. Since you went through a full treatment, but have also been adding a lot of “stuff” to the tank, at this point, I’d say this is from particulates. I’d give it a few days at least, flukes won’t kill that quickly. Then, if the issue gets worse, you can safely dose the tank with Prazipro, 3x, 8 days apart with good aeration.

Thanks Jay, I was thinking about that because the 40% silicate that I dose for diatoms does precipitate a lot when first added (I dilute it in 200ml of rodi first which helps a lot)

 

[alex37310]

I’m pretty confident in my 31 days copper treatment as I tested multiple times a week with Hannah checker and had consistent reading a never let it fall bellow 2.2, even after topping off.

On the other end, the prazipro, I did first treatment, waited 7 days, water change, dosed again, 48h later took the fish out of qt (I believe prazipro is only effective the first 48-72 really) so I feel like he did 2 full rounds but I know to be effective against life cycles of larvae you want to do a 3rd which I didn’t so there could be my issue if it is indeed flukes.

Will keep monitoring, thanks for the guidance and happy to have professional points of you from you all.

 

[alex37310]

Please repost video under white light intensity - No Blue as all images are too dark to clearly see fish

 

[vetteguy53081]

I dont see flashing but I do see a Lot of turbulence and should be reduced or redirected to allow fish to swim with less effort

 

[fishywishy]

30 days for coppersafe and two 8 day intervals for prazi Not 4 weeks

Sorry the 31 days was a typo.

Certain flukes need more than two 8 day intervals, sometimes 3-4 treatments is needed, and in his case if it actually is flukes it he definitely needs to do more than two weeks.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I dont see flashing but I do see a Lot of turbulence and should be reduced or redirected to allow fish to swim with less effort

Other fish are not showing signs either. Do not keep repeating dosages unless absolutely necessary.

 

[reefer2/19/24]

So I’ve had a juvenile blue hippo tang for a couple months now.

Did the quarantine process from @Jay Hemdal
31 days coperpower
#1#1#1oundf prazipro
8 days later water change
#2#2#2oundf prazipro
….
At this point I couldn’t do a 3rd round as 48h after I had to evacuate for hurricane Milton.
Was planing on a 3rd round and then a few days of copper again but since I evacuated, I put my 2 clowns (from DT) and my tang (from QT) in a nano tank to bring with me.

Since coming back home thankfully without any damage, I placed all fish in DT

Now, a month later, my blue tang is flashing on the rocks… no visible issues, I haven’t noticed abnormal breathing but I’m also not great at diagnosing this stuff…

Important to know, I’m battling a couple issues the past 2 weeks:
- dino outbreak (SCA), started dosing microbacter7, eco balance, live phyto and have a ton of pods, and started to dose 40% silicate to 3ppm daily for diatom bloom.
Tested nitrates 30, phosphate above 0.9.
Added gracilaria to my empty refugium and set lights on 24/7 in that section.

- a few days in I notice my monti frags looking rough and what I thought was fresh growth looked more like dead coral with brown algae taking over.
Tested again, nitrates 15ppm, phosphates 2.3ppm

Added 75g of rowaphos in a bag in the 150micron filter sock (60g of water volume)

Stopped dosing silicate as rowaphos also removes silicates

Did a 15% water change, nitrates 20 phosphate 0.7 (turkey basted the brown algae off my sps)

I’m about to start dosing waste away now that I’ve finished dosing eco balance over 20 days

#fishmedics #reefsq#fishmedics#reefsq#fishmedics#reefsquad

Kind of off topic but in the last two days my Powder Blue is bullying my Hippo and I absolutely can't stand bullying whether it has two legs or swims. He's always been top dog in the tank but this is aggression. Trying the small mirror trick and it definitely noticed it! I am just trying to get as much information as possible before this guy takes a ride on the swirly coaster or worse dump him at Petco. Any and all suggestions are welcomed.
Thank you for your time.

 

[Duane family]

Kind of off topic but in the last two days my Powder Blue is bullying my Hippo and I absolutely can't stand bullying whether it has two legs or swims. He's always been top dog in the tank but this is aggression. Trying the small mirror trick and it definitely noticed it! I am just trying to get as much information as possible before this guy takes a ride on the swirly coaster or worse dump him at Petco. Any and all suggestions are welcomed.
Thank you for your time.

Hi, well this type of personality comes with the fish but sometimes the degree of aggression can vary and be worse than in some of the species.

The mirror can work but its 50/50 at best. How does your tank size and scaping play into this aggression ? These fish need lots of swimming space but also shelter space but with some Powder Blue's they generally don't like their own shelter they like everyone else's and that is where the problem starts. Understanding the fish's potential behavior and planning for that before acquiring this species is a huge part of keeping one successfully.

Right now depending on your scaping and tank size your best option would be catching it and putting it in the sump space for a really long time till you feel that enough has changed in your tank to accommodate both. Or removing the fish completely from your system and re homing it.

 

[alex37310]

@vetteguy53081 What do you mean by turbulence? Currents going against each others? Is my flow maybe too strong? I’ve been wondering.. ill shoot a video of the tank when feeding to show the flow..
What I mean by flashing, and maybe I misunderstood what it means, but I’m talking about how she was scratching the rocks. The clowns have been great and where also treated with 3 rounds of prazipro and metro plex in the past.

 

[reefer2/19/24]

Hi, well this type of personality comes with the fish but sometimes the degree of aggression can vary and be worse than in some of the species.

The mirror can work but its 50/50 at best. How does your tank size and scaping play into this aggression ? These fish need lots of swimming space but also shelter space but with some Powder Blue's they generally don't like their own shelter they like everyone else's and that is where the problem starts. Understanding the fish's potential behavior and planning for that before acquiring this species is a huge part of keeping one successfully.

Right now depending on your scaping and tank size your best option would be catching it and putting it in the sump space for a really long time till you feel that enough has changed in your tank to accommodate both. Or removing the fish completely from your system and re homing it.

Thank you for your response and time. My tank is a 100-gallon Innovative Marine Reef Complete. So what I did was put it on our local fb saltwater aquarium page and offered it for free to anyone with a large established tank and the response was a bit overwhelming tbh. Anyway a gal came to my place and helped me catch him which was quite a bit of work but we finally got him. I'm happy to report that he is now in a 600-gallon tank and doing very well. Lesson learned!