Blue Hippo Tang Swimming and Eating Differently

[JerseyReefer]

Hey guys, I've had a blue hippo tang for the past 5 years. She had ick about 4 years ago but I was able to nurse her back to health and she's been great ever since. The queen of the tank. Today however her swimming seems a bit lethargic and she rocks back and forth. She seems to be hiding more than typical and when the food comes out she eats but so much less than normal and much less aggressively.

- There are no spots on her.
- Her color seems unchanged.
- Only thing that could be different is she seems a bit thicker around the stomach area but that could be my imagination.

Parameters:
- 90 gallon system (65 gallon DT)
- 1.024 (I'm raising back to 1.025)
- 0 Nitrite
- 0 Nitrate
- 0 NH3
- 1350 Mg
- 360 Ca (a bit lower than normal)
- 8.7 Kh
- 78.0 degrees F
- 1 gallon auto water change per day
- Food is nori pellets from Hakari twice daily. Same schedule for the past 2 years.

So what have I changed recently? I bought a new tank and I've been slowing moving corals and some live rock to the new tank. 90% of the rock is still in there and about 20% of the corals. None of the fish have moved. She shares the tank with 2 clowns, 1 royal gramma and 1 malanurus wrasse. All other fish appear healthy and unchanged (knock on wood).

Any ideas???

Thanks!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Your fish could just be upset by the changes, but I'm sort of keying in on the report that it is thicker in the belly. Can you post a picture? Ascites, or fluid build-up can be an issue with fish that have developed kidney or liver failure.

Jay

 

[Jwise]

Yes it more than likely is that your hippo doesn't quite feel safe with the changed in aquascape because of thier normally timid nature when it comes to new things happening they tend to hide and not act the same for a couple days to a couple weeks after you rearrange things. Same thing happened to me with a fox face his appetite and boldness was off the charts i was able to hand feed him seaweed, and food and i changed one thing in the tank and then he acted the same way. He did that for about 10 days and then slowly started to come around again and was like his old self about two weeks after the fact.

 

[JerseyReefer]

Your fish could just be upset by the changes, but I'm sort of keying in on the report that it is thicker in the belly. Can you post a picture? Ascites, or fluid build-up can be an issue with fish that have developed kidney or liver failure.

Jay

Here are a couple pics. Note her face has had dark regions like that for years.

 

[JerseyReefer]

Yes it more than likely is that your hippo doesn't quite feel safe with the changed in aquascape because of thier normally timid nature when it comes to new things happening they tend to hide and not act the same for a couple days to a couple weeks after you rearrange things. Same thing happened to me with a fox face his appetite and boldness was off the charts i was able to hand feed him seaweed, and food and i changed one thing in the tank and then he acted the same way. He did that for about 10 days and then slowly started to come around again and was like his old self about two weeks after the fact.

Very interesting. I moved a medium sized rock on Sunday but it really opened up some space where there normally isn't. I then went away for a few days, so perhaps she's been acting weird this whole time while I was away and I only noticed now. I'll keep monitoring her feeding to make sure she's at least still eating something.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Here are a couple pics. Note her face has had dark regions like that for years.

Kind of tough to see, but the belly looks "lumpy" in the second photo, and that helps rule out ascites as an issue.

Jay

 

[JerseyReefer]

I manually fed the tank to monitor. She’s definitely way more timid than normal but she ate. Maybe the rock movement is the problem. I added a frag rack a year ago that caused her to hide constantly. Once I removed it she was back to normal. Wonder how she will act once she moves tanks!

 

[JGT]

Fish are weird, esp Hippos.

 

[Jwise]

Yup hippos are generally like that she looks good in my opinion as long as she keeps eating she will learn that it is safe once again sooner or later and start to act like her old self once she does. I would get some seaweed strips and put them on a clip and put it in a spot to encourage her to keep coming out to graze and once she starts to graze more and more often it should help speed the process up a bit. i use rods seaweed and the magnetic gourmet algae clip because i can put the clip anywhere i want magnetically instead of putting my arms in the tank which would also help with skittishness.

 

[JerseyReefer]

Yup hippos are generally like that she looks good in my opinion as long as she keeps eating she will learn that it is safe once again sooner or later and start to act like her old self once she does. I would get some seaweed strips and put them on a clip and put it in a spot to encourage her to keep coming out to graze and once she starts to graze more and more often it should help speed the process up a bit. i use rods seaweed and the magnetic gourmet algae clip because i can put the clip anywhere i want magnetically instead of putting my arms in the tank which would also help with skittishness.

I have one of those dumb suction cup clips. What a joke. Things stays stuck for like a minute. I was going to upgrade to a magnet one but never got around to it. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Jwise]

I have one of those dumb suction cup clips. What a joke. Things stays stuck for like a minute. I was going to upgrade to a magnet one but never got around to it. Thanks for the reminder.

No problem for the reminder lol. Yes thats the only clip i use is is the gourmet algae clip its a blue clip that's all magnet. I use two per tank one on one side and one on another to make sure it decreases aggression problems with multiple tangs.

 

[JerseyReefer]

No problem for the reminder lol. Yes thats the only clip i use is is the gourmet algae clip its a blue clip that's all magnet. I use two per tank one on one side and one on another to make sure it decreases aggression problems with multiple tangs.

Yeah, I only have one tang. Just can only keep one successfully. Longest successful coexistence was 2 years but I guess my tank wasn't big enough or maybe I needed multiple feeders like you. I now just keep the one tang and then add in smaller fish.

 

[Jwise]

Yes there's a lot more than people realize to keeping multiple tangs in an aquarium. I successfully had 3 in a 75 for reasons stated above and i always make about three nice sized islands in my aquascape for extra swimming space and different territory for grazing because the most of the time arent grazing on the same island but they do graze on the same island with out as many problems as well. I think it makes it more likely that they don't see the other ones competing for the same resources that way. I had a powder brown, scopas, and tomini in the 75

 

[Jwise]

Im starting up a whole new system a 6 foot long 125 gallon and will get water in the system in 3 more weeks. Ive been taking my time setting it up because things are expensive to get for a big tank like that and it also takes time for stuff to ship. Im getting my skimmer in either tomorrow or saturday and cant wait. I got a reef octopus regal 150 sss for my skimmer. I have two Ecotech mp40s im got to get around to getting my screen made for the top to prevent jumpers. Im also going to get an AI 64 for the middle part and two AI 32s one for each side. Cant wait to see this thing set up. Im planning on getting 5 tangs for that system a Hippo Tang, White Tailed Bristle Tooth Tang, Tomini Tang, Blonde Naso Tang, and a Purple Tang. Im going to buy them all at the same time and get them all as small as i can and introduce them all at the same time as well to help curb any over obsessive aggression.

 

[JerseyReefer]

Im starting up a whole new system a 6 foot long 125 gallon and will get water in the system in 3 more weeks. Ive been taking my time setting it up because things are expensive to get for a big tank like that and it also takes time for stuff to ship. Im getting my skimmer in either tomorrow or saturday and cant wait. I got a reef octopus regal 150 sss for my skimmer. I have two Ecotech mp40s im got to get around to getting my screen made for the top to prevent jumpers. Im also going to get an AI 64 for the middle part and two AI 32s one for each side. Cant wait to see this thing set up. Im planning on getting 5 tangs for that system a Hippo Tang, White Tailed Bristle Tooth Tang, Tomini Tang, Blonde Naso Tang, and a Purple Tang. Im going to buy them all at the same time and get them all as small as i can and introduce them all at the same time as well to help curb any over obsessive aggression.

I'm in a similar situation. Just got a Red Sea 525XL. I setup 3 bonzai/zen-like rock islands. I still just plan on keeping 1 tang. I love the tangs but they are risky and the prices are through the roof now. Based on my blue hippo behavior now, I'm concerned that the move will really throw her off. Do you think I need to put some additional rocks in there so there's a cave for her? The smaller fish I'm sure will find spaces wherever. I'm more concerned about the tang.

Here's a pic from when I first started cycling and moving corals over...

 

[Jwise]

I'm in a similar situation. Just got a Red Sea 525XL. I setup 3 bonzai/zen-like rock islands. I still just plan on keeping 1 tang. I love the tangs but they are risky and the prices are through the roof now. Based on my blue hippo behavior now, I'm concerned that the move will really throw her off. Do you think I need to put some additional rocks in there so there's a cave for her? The smaller fish I'm sure will find spaces wherever. I'm more concerned about the tang.

Here's a pic from when I first started cycling and moving corals over...

Wow that looks awesome yes i think that she just has to adapt to the changes and like i said she would more than likely need to be encouraged to come out more often by placing an algae clip around where she hangs out so she can feel more comfortable coming out because she can graze on seaweed throughout the day.