Bristle tooth Tang, started with flukes? Now Can't float right?

[LBA]

I have a bristle tooth tang that was doing well up until about 3 days ago.

We spotted what we believe were flukes, introduced by a what we think was our new hippo tang into the tank.

I did a prazipro treatment in the reef for 48 hours until I noticed it was 2 years expired. ( I've now bought a new one that I haven't used)

I am not sure if it was indeed flukes, but I did notice some white spots on the fins and face at one point. I've gotten the fish out and did a fresh water dip for 3 minutes.

She is now sitting in a 5 gallon bucket of her own salt water.

For the last 48 hours she has been floating around, not very buoyantly, often upside down. And yesterday she was still picking at rocks to eat.

Today she seems weaker, but she can still get upright and dart fast if you spook her.

Anyway I was able to catch her today. And am wondering if you have any suggestions please?

Thanks,

Art

 

[winxp_man]

Can you post how you did the FW dip? As in the steps you took to set that up?

 

[LBA]

I made new Ro water and brought it to the same temperature as my aquarium water (77f). I put the fish in for 3 minutes.

 

[LBA]

I currently have the fish in a 5 gallon bucket with an aerator and heater.

I dosed 1.25 ML of the new PraziPro.

I have left a piece of Nori that I soaked in PraziPro.

I'm open to suggestions.

 

[winxp_man]

Almost sounds like the fish hit its head running around? If this took place over the matter of a short period. Longer periods would point to internal parasites or disease. Did this happen before you caught the fish? If all other fish are good in the tank no reason to really say it’s what caused the BT to not have proper buoyancy.

As for prazipro in food I would not recommend it. Stuff contains oxybispropanol ( soluble solutions) which can damage intestinal membrane or how the membrane works.

Medications in food if not done properly can end badly. @Jay Hemdal has a protocol on administering medication to fish. But even then most will advise against it. You have to know fish weight and feed 3% of total body mass daily. For this you will need an accurate scale that can take weight in the .001 gr for getting fish weight and weighing medication.

Stress, internal parasites, can be a factor to swim bladder issues. Also is the fish positive buoyant (floating at the surface), or is it negative just at the bottom?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I also wonder if the fish got hurt when you captured it for the dip?

Another issue might be the expired meds - were other fish treated with it and are fine?
I’ve had a lot of questions about Prazipro and its short shelf life. I know the inventor of this product, but I’ve not been able to contact him…..

I agree, never use Prazipro or General Cure in foods. Pure prazi can be added to food, but it really only treats tapeworms, and that isn’t the issue here.

 

[LBA]

Thank you for the responses.

To clarify, the fish was swimming oddly and having issues with buoyancy BEFORE I decided to try and capture it. It was the deciding factor in why I decided to stop in tank treatment and pursue more aggressive quarantine treatment.

All other fish look happy and healthy

Is it possible that the big hippo tang (new to the tank) beat this fish up and it's as simple as that?

I'm not sure when she would have done that because she just been swimming up and down the corner of the glass ever since we put her in.

I also read that maybe I should try treating is for bacteria? I do have Kanaplex I could add to the quarantine bucket?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for the responses.

To clarify, the fish was swimming oddly and having issues with buoyancy BEFORE I decided to try and capture it. It was the deciding factor in why I decided to stop in tank treatment and pursue more aggressive quarantine treatment.

All other fish look happy and healthy

Is it possible that the big hippo tang (new to the tank) beat this fish up and it's as simple as that?

I'm not sure when she would have done that because she just been swimming up and down the corner of the glass ever since we put her in.

I also read that maybe I should try treating is for bacteria? I do have Kanaplex I could add to the quarantine bucket?

I don’t see anything of note in the video of the fish in your hand. Can you get a video of it in the tank?

I don’t see any indication of an external bacterial infection, so kanaplex dips won’t help here.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a bristle tooth tang that was doing well up until about 3 days ago.

We spotted what we believe were flukes, introduced by a what we think was our new hippo tang into the tank.

I did a prazipro treatment in the reef for 48 hours until I noticed it was 2 years expired. ( I've now bought a new one that I haven't used)

I am not sure if it was indeed flukes, but I did notice some white spots on the fins and face at one point. I've gotten the fish out and did a fresh water dip for 3 minutes.

She is now sitting in a 5 gallon bucket of her own salt water.

For the last 48 hours she has been floating around, not very buoyantly, often upside down. And yesterday she was still picking at rocks to eat.

Today she seems weaker, but she can still get upright and dart fast if you spook her.

Anyway I was able to catch her today. And am wondering if you have any suggestions please?

Thanks,

Art

I see dots from post healing/nick injury and not parasitical

 

[LBA]

Unfortunately there's not much to film. Shes laying down in the bucket all day.

 

[LBA]

So good news / bad news on the bristletooth. We nursed her in a bucket for 5 days. With air, heat and water changes. Her swimming improved a lot. And she appeared to be parasite free.

So we put her back in the new aquarium today. She's been relentlessly harassed by the Tomini Tang.

Swimming strength isn't 100%, but it's vastly improved.

Shes been picking at algae all day.

Now I can't tell If she's caught flukes again. After 10 hours in the tank? (None of my other fish show signs of flukes).

Or could these be attack wounds?

 

[winxp_man]

So good news / bad news on the bristletooth. We nursed her in a bucket for 5 days. With air, heat and water changes. Her swimming improved a lot. And she appeared to be parasite free.

So we put her back in the new aquarium today. She's been relentlessly harassed by the Tomini Tang.

Swimming strength isn't 100%, but it's vastly improved.

Shes been picking at algae all day.

Now I can't tell If she's caught flukes again. After 10 hours in the tank? (None of my other fish show signs of flukes).

Or could these be attack wounds?

What I see in the last picture post is a separated fin. That is aggression marks. My brother has a Tomini that is just as aggressive. Expect that punk fights about anything that goes into the tank. He got his back fin chomped on by maroon female when the dummy tired to attack her a few times. And remember both are bristletooth family of Tangs. I would move the Tomini for a week.

 

[LBA]

What I see in the last picture post is a separated fin. That is aggression marks. My brother has a Tomini that is just as aggressive. Expect that punk fights about anything that goes into the tank. He got his back fin chomped on by maroon female when the dummy tired to attack her a few times. And remember both are bristletooth family of Tangs. I would move the Tomini for a week.

Thank you for the insight. I do have a fish trap. I'm exhausted on fish care right now, so I'm hoping that maybe after lights out tonight it might be better tomorrow? If not, I'll pull out the ole fish trap I guess. I thought Tomini were supposed to be the more peaceful of the tangs

 

[me & my baby]

How did you introduce the Tomini. About 3 weeks ago my Tomini got down with QT and I placed him in my 150 . My other bristle tooth beat the crap out of him . I took him out and put him back into QT . I saw reefdude make an acclimation box out of a clear pet carrier from petsmart with a soldering iron . So I went and got it and did the same thing . I place the Tomini in it and after a few days I opened the lid he came out and neither fish bother each other at all . Might be worth a shot.

 

[me & my baby]

So good news / bad news on the bristletooth. We nursed her in a bucket for 5 days. With air, heat and water changes. Her swimming improved a lot. And she appeared to be parasite free.

So we put her back in the new aquarium today. She's been relentlessly harassed by the Tomini Tang.

Swimming strength isn't 100%, but it's vastly improved.

Shes been picking at algae all day.

Now I can't tell If she's caught flukes again. After 10 hours in the tank? (None of my other fish show signs of flukes).

Or could these be attack wounds?

What I see in the last picture post is a separated fin. That is aggression marks. My brother has a Tomini that is just as aggressive. Expect that punk fights about anything that goes into the tank. He got his back fin chomped on by maroon female when the dummy tired to attack her a few times. And remember both are bristletooth family of Tangs. I would move the Tomini for a week.

Each fish is different I have had a Tomini that was the pure a hole worse then my old
Maroon clown . I have also had one that was the most peaceful fish in the tank it’s just a roll of the dice .

 

[vetteguy53081]

Each fish is different I have had a Tomini that was the pure a hole worse then my old
Maroon clown . I have also had one that was the most peaceful fish in the tank it’s just a roll of the dice .

Mine is my most peaceful of 27 tangs and we simply cannot compare our own fish with others as I agree, each fish has their own personality

 

[LBA]

How did you introduce the Tomini. About 3 weeks ago my Tomini got down with QT and I placed him in my 150 . My other bristle tooth beat the crap out of him . I took him out and put him back into QT . I saw reefdude make an acclimation box out of a clear pet carrier from petsmart with a soldering iron . So I went and got it and did the same thing . I place the Tomini in it and after a few days I opened the lid he came out and neither fish bother each other at all . Might be worth a shot.

That may indeed be worth a shot, thanks.

This is a new, larger tank setup. Before moving the fish from my old tank into this tank, I decided to buy the Tomini and Two Spot at the same time and put them in there first. They were getting along quite well for a while, but then something injured the Two Spot's swim bladder (I'm guessing the Tomini). I took her out for some time to heal up and treat her.

Now that shes better, I put her back in and the Tomini is now relentlessly picking on her.

 

[me & my baby]

Well while she was out the Tomini claimed her spot . Now trying to get her to share is going to be the fun part . You might have to give them both a time out and reintroduce them both back at the same time . They can get very territorial