Chromi Lethargic and Unable to Swim Upright

[reddogf5]

I woke up this morning to find a chromis in QT laying on his side lethargic. after a prod he began swimming, but has trouble staying upright. Any ideas on what can be done to save him?

They have just finished week two of observation, been in QT for five weeks - three of copper, Metro, and General Cure, and now observation while the DT is fallow. Yesterday the tang was breathing fast, and now this morning the chromis is in trouble. This fish has been active and eating well the entire time. The only recent change was adding some turbostart900 bacteria to help reduce ammonia, after adding it the tang started to breath what appeared rapidly, so I added an airstone to the HOB filter that's on the tank.

Any input appreciated.

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[Jay Hemdal]

If you faithfully ran that quarantine, with copper at full dose, it is pretty unlikely that a protozoan parasite is the root cause here. Uronema can get through quarantine, and chromis are very susceptible to that, but yellow tangs are not, so that helps rule out that issue. In your other post, I thought I understood that the tang had stopped breathing fast, has that trend reversed?

I'm focusing on the turbo-star, that is unlikely the direct problem, but if you were adding it to deal with an ammonia issue, that could be the root cause. What ammonia levels were you seeing, what test kit were you using and what copper brand did you use (some contain ammonia).


Jay

 

[reddogf5]

I didn't test for ammonia, the tank just has one of those indicators in it. It was turning from yellow to green, so 0.05 ppm at the most. I just tested the tank for ammonia with an expired API kit (maybe a little better than guessing?), the pic is attached. I can't read this test beyond "yes" or "no"
The copper was Copper Power, ramped up from 1.0 to 2.5ppm per the Humble.Fish procedure, but they have been out of copper for about two weeks.

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[reddogf5]

Also, I can transfer him to another tank. The copper tank is set up, but just got new fish yesterday, no copper yet. And I have another small 3 gallon tank that is set up, no fish, just some coral and a rock flower anemone.

 

[Arabyps]

Ammonia is high. IMO do a large water change. Make sure you followed Fritz TurboStart instructions and NOT overdose.

 

[reddogf5]

The Chromis didn't make it. I moved him to another tank, figuring whether it was ammonia or lack of oxygen, he would be better off in the other tank. I don't know if it was the move, if too much damage had been already done, or if there was something else wrong with him, but he swam for maybe an hour, then stopped moving.
I examined him as much as I could, there was nothing visibly wrong with him, which sucks as I really wish I knew what caused his demise so I could at least attempt to avoid it in the future.