Falco hawkfish breathing heavily

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Fish is still hanging in there

Not eating, still breathing heavy

Since the fish WAS eating well in your tank, you can eliminate issues with transport or acclimation. Since the other fish are fine, you can rule out water quality issues. The length of time that it has lived like this rules out Amyloodinium (velvet) and mostly rules out bacterial gill disease. That narrows things down quite a bit: residual toxicity from being collected with cyanide, some viral issue, coccidia or myxosporidians. None of those can be treated. The only treatable disease I can think of is gill flukes, thus my earlier recommendation to try a FW dip and/or prazipro. Flukes can be specific to certain groups of fish, and they are slow to kill, so that all matches up. However, going this long without food makes any treatment more risky. Also, what can happen with heavy fluke infections is when the fish is treated, all of the flukes fall off at once, leaving hundreds of tiny holes in the fish's gills and skin and then the fish bleeds out.
Sorry - but I just don't see a good resolution at this point.....

Jay

 

[40g Nano]

That is him now. He came out of hiding but is still not eating

 

[40g Nano]

Since the fish WAS eating well in your tank, you can eliminate issues with transport or acclimation. Since the other fish are fine, you can rule out water quality issues. The length of time that it has lived like this rules out Amyloodinium (velvet) and mostly rules out bacterial gill disease. That narrows things down quite a bit: residual toxicity from being collected with cyanide, some viral issue, coccidia or myxosporidians. None of those can be treated. The only treatable disease I can think of is gill flukes, thus my earlier recommendation to try a FW dip and/or prazipro. Flukes can be specific to certain groups of fish, and they are slow to kill, so that all matches up. However, going this long without food makes any treatment more risky. Also, what can happen with heavy fluke infections is when the fish is treated, all of the flukes fall off at once, leaving hundreds of tiny holes in the fish's gills and skin and then the fish bleeds out.
Sorry - but I just don't see a good resolution at this point.....

Jay

Is it worth the shot to add prazipro now?

 

[40g Nano]

I added it for ~ 70g to account for the sandbed and rock (71g display ~20g sump)

I also pointed the power head at the surface along with the return line

after 24 hours I’m gonna put carbon in

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That is him now. He came out of hiding but is still not eating

It may just be the different angle, but in this video, it doesn’t seem to be breathing as deeply as it was…. Jay

 

[40g Nano]

It may just be the different angle, but in this video, it doesn’t seem to be breathing as deeply as it was…. Jay

Yeah I thought that too

 

[40g Nano]

Although, it looks kinda the same depending on the angle

 

[40g Nano]

He still alive today, still breathing heavy

 

[40g Nano]

Hawkfish is still breathing heavy

All other fish eating and doing good

I have no clue what it is at this point

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hawkfish is still breathing heavy

All other fish eating and doing good

I have no clue what it is at this point

It's only been 24 hours. If it IS flukes, it will take at least 48 hours for the wounds to start to heal. I usually tell folks 72 hours before seeing an improvement. If it isn't flukes, then it will either keep getting worse, or at best, will not get any better.....using a treatment as a diagnostic tool is something that has to be done with fish sometimes....not ideal, but better than no action at all.

Jay

 

[40g Nano]

It's only been 24 hours. If it IS flukes, it will take at least 48 hours for the wounds to start to heal. I usually tell folks 72 hours before seeing an improvement. If it isn't flukes, then it will either keep getting worse, or at best, will not get any better.....using a treatment as a diagnostic tool is something that has to be done with fish sometimes....not ideal, but better than no action at all.

Jay

So should I leave the prazipro in then dose it again in a week?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So should I leave the prazipro in then dose it again in a week?

Prazipro breaks down pretty fast, so it will be gone in another 24 hours. If you don't see any improvement in another 48 hours, a second treatment is unlikely to be of any benefit. If the fish gets better, then you want to do the second treatment in case there were any unhatched fluke eggs in the tank that will reinfect the fish.

Jay

 

[40g Nano]

Prazipro breaks down pretty fast, so it will be gone in another 24 hours. If you don't see any improvement in another 48 hours, a second treatment is unlikely to be of any benefit. If the fish gets better, then you want to do the second treatment in case there were any unhatched fluke eggs in the tank that will reinfect the fish.

Jay

Ok thanks for all the help

 

[40g Nano]

Still breathing heavy and not eating, but he has been moving around the tank a lot today.

 

[40g Nano]

He’s still alive, not really breathing heavily, but not eating

all other fish are doing good

 

[40g Nano]

He ate today!

 

[Karen00]

He ate today!

Nice! That's always such a huge relief. The worry just washes away (well most of it). Eating again and again and again is the prize. :-)

 

[40g Nano]

Nice! That's always such a huge relief. The worry just washes away (well most of it). Eating again and again and again is the prize. :)

He ate 1 big piece of lrs. He also might’ve eaten yesterday, but a small piece

 

[Drizzieee]

Talk about facing adversity. That fish has the will to survive. Hope he continues to do well :)

 

[40g Nano]

Talk about facing adversity. That fish has the will to survive. Hope he continues to do well :)

Thanks!