EMERGENCY MY BIG BEAUTIFUL PURPLE TANG DOESN’t look right

[Chantelle Arrow]

My big beautiful purple tang isn’t doing well and I’m not sure why.

Salinity is a touch low so I’ve been very slowly bringing it back up.

All other water parameters are good and stable the tank is over 6months old now I found him leaning on his side like this.Started medicating for white spot just to be safe.

Please any help would be great I don’t want to loose him

Many thanks

 

[Jekyl]

Please read through this so we can further help you. Additionally provide white light photos and a 20 sec video.

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[IrezumiHurts]

My big beautiful purple tang isn’t doing well and I’m not sure why.

Salinity is a touch low so I’ve been very slowly bringing it back up.

All other water parameters are good and stable the tank is over 6months old now I found him leaning on his side like this.Started medicating for white spot just to be safe.

Please any help would be great I don’t want to loose him

Many thanks

Low salinity is not an issue for fish, in context, unless you dropped it really, really fast and it would have to be a pretty big swing. They can endure hyposalinity for weeks so that's unlikely your issue. In fact lower salinity would help if anything for dealing with most diseases.

As mentioned by another user your picture is hard to tell anything from, but if you didnt follow proper quarantining protocols you are likely dealing with marine ich.

Curious what you are using to medicate for white spot?

There are no conventional treatments that actually work where you can keep your fish in the same tank as your coral and inverts. So unless this is a FOWLR tank and you are using chloroquine phosphate or copper, I'm sorry to say whatever "medication" you are using is garbage and WILL NOT WORK. If you do even a small amount of research on the topic you will see that I'm correct, you really only have copper, CP, hypo and TTM as effective methods. It doesn't matter what the label says.

Hate to make so many assumptions but I'm heading to bed so likely won't see your response, figure you should at least be armed with the grim reality of the circumstance if my assumptions are half correct.

Your best bet beyond all this is to set up a hospital tank. That way regardless of what the issue is, you will be better prepared to deal with it in a quarantine setting. In his current state, he will almost certainly continue to decline until he dies. Most treatments for fish ailments aren't suitable for reef display tanks, with few exceptions. Furthermore you can observe the fish better and diagnose your treatment protocol efficacy

 

[IrezumiHurts]

Oh and to be clear, assuming it is marine ich / "white spot", you should recognize your whole tank is already infected, and you need to decide going forward if you want to 1) manage or 2) eradicate the parasite. They are two entirely different approaches to dealing with it and you owe some research to decide.

Short term if you look at the fish closely and are comfortable diagnosing the fish having cryptocarryon, my advice would be to start treatment immediately. Ich often attacks the gills so him laying on his side he may not be able to breathe.

A quick way to provide minor relief is a freshwater dip for 3 to 5 minutes, it will cause osmotic shock to most of the ich on it. You can use temperature adjusted RODI water but better to use tap water with a dechlorinator like prime so the pH is closer to your tank. You will need to run an airstone.

Lastly for your quarantine setup you will want to get copper. Copper power, copper safe, cuprimine. They all have different dose requirements. The responsible thing to do is buy a hanna copper checker but you can follow the directions on the bottle to a T in a pinch. But don't put sand or basically anything porous in your QT or the copper may get absorbed over time and mess with your levels.

You need to manage ammonia in your hospital tank because it ain't cycled. I don't recommend bringing media from your tank over because you are bringing the pest with it, and rock etc has lots of crevices and may increase risk for a failed treatment. Your ammonia will be fine at first few hours but you will want to get a seachem ammonia badge, and buy a bottle of prime. Be ready to dose prime at 2-5x strength every 24 hours and better yet i would even do 100% daily water changes on top of that, so i wouldn't do more than a 10 gallon QT. You shouldn't use prime with cuprimine but it is safe with copper power and i believe copper safe.

Oh, and even if you recognize this is ich, that doesn't mean the fish doesn't have another underlying issue with overlapping symptoms for the breathing. For example, it may also have flukes.

With that in mind if this were my fish and it was not quarantined previously, i would be treating with a combination of both copper and praziquantel at a minimum, at the same time, or better yet general cure since it adds metronidazole to the prazi. Airstones in the tank, heavy aeration.

Strap in, this ride is going to take at minimum 14 days, but assuming you figure out how you want to deal with the tank more likely a couple months. But you can do it. I'd not dally, fish go down fast. Better to start doing something and change gears if you determine it's the wrong treatment plan than wait 24hrs for the right answer and have a dead fish, but that's my opinion

 

[gbroadbridge]

Your ammonia will be fine at first few hours but you will want to get a seachem ammonia badge, and buy a bottle of prime. Be ready to dose prime at 2-5x strength every 24 hours and better yet i would even do 100% daily water changes on top of that, so i wouldn't do more than a 10 gallon QT. You shouldn't use prime with cuprimine but it is safe with copper power and i believe copper safe.

You do understand that Seachem Prime has no effect on Ammonia despite what it may say on the bottle?

It has been tested and proven to be a false claim many times over.

The only way to control Ammonia in an uncycled tank is with water changes.

 

[gbroadbridge]

.

 

[threebuoys]

How long have you had this fish, how long has the symptoms been present, has he eaten in the time frame you've had him, is his breathing normal or rapid ( 100 to 200 bpm). More photos not under blue light.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I’m concerned because the clownfish also seem a bit off in the video. As some others have said, we need clearer video, taken under white lights plus more background information.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My big beautiful purple tang isn’t doing well and I’m not sure why.

Salinity is a touch low so I’ve been very slowly bringing it back up.

All other water parameters are good and stable the tank is over 6months old now I found him leaning on his side like this.Started medicating for white spot just to be safe.

Please any help would be great I don’t want to loose him

Many thanks

Video is dark and will need same under bright white lighting. I would not medicate for white spot/ich in a display tank as its now an issue for adding inverts and coral moving forward.
Did you see dots or assumed ich?
In addition, cant tell if fish are breathing rapid or normal .
This can be water quality related or as simple as flukes especially if you Don't see dots or issues such as scratching, darting, swimming at surface as examples. Refrain from adding meds unless you can confirm certain symptoms

 

[IrezumiHurts]

You do understand that Seachem Prime has no effect on Ammonia despite what it may say on the bottle?

It has been tested and proven to be a false claim many times over.

The only way to control Ammonia in an uncycled tank is with water changes

im not going to debate that particular issue with you but i agree large water changes are in order to err on the side of caution, per my suggested 100% every day