fish struggling to swim upright

[Salty Rambler]

Came home to find my blue-green chromis struggling to swim, with its head towards the surface and the tail towards the sand. A few months ago the tank was fine and had five fish, but now its down to two, this chromis and a clownfish. The other three fish passed of seemingly unrelated issues, but the timing makes me think they are actually connected. Is this a parasite or other contagious illness that I overlooked?

 

[fishguy242]

Hi,please read sticky's at top of disease forum,
post as much info as possible.
#fishmedic best wishes

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is a buoyancy issue and may have evolved from an internal issue.
Struggling to maintain a normal swimming position is relevant to swim bladder infection or similar internal issue/symptom.
If severe buoyancy problems exist, the fish may not be able to feed normally or even reach the surface of the water. This disorder is sometimes caused by compression of the swim bladder, which may involve a distended stomach from rapidly eating, overeating, constipation, or gulping air, which is thought to occur with floating foods. Eating freeze-dried or dry flake food that expands when it becomes wet can also lead to an enlarged stomach or intestinal tract.
Other causes are :

• Trauma/Injury
• Bacterial infection
• Parasitic infection
• Stress/rapidly changing water parameters
• Poor water quality

Water change(s) may help and antibiotic should also help. Kanamyacin or neomyacyn should help great and best done in a quarantine tank

 

[Salty Rambler]

Apologies for the length, below is an attempt to answer the queries in the stickies:

The tank is a reef aquarium of circa 40 gallons with a sump and skimmer. It has been moved a few times as a FOWLR, but the last ong distance move occurred in Fall 2020, and sand was discarded/replaced during that move, and corals have subsequently been added a few at a time.

Background on other three recent fish deaths: In December 2021, the chalk bass went from large, fat and active to skinny, rallied for a week or two, and then passed in early Jan 2022 (fish one). Two days later a hermit crab died. In mid-February, some of the orange zoas in the tank started closing up (I posted separately on it), but after a few weeks of angst, they started to reopen, and no other corals (to include the other zoas) experienced any issues. On 5 March I added some xenia to the tank. On 12 March, I came home to find a large bangai cardinal dead (fish two), with no observed symptoms in prior days. On 20 March, I noticed the starry blenny hiding amidst the corals a bit more than usual, and on 21 March I found the blenny dead with what appeared to be a bloated abdomen (fish three). That night, one of the powerheads fell off the glass and caused quite a sandstorm in the tank -- to include burying a number of corals and causing an avalanche of sand in the clownfish's normal sleeping spot. I thankfully woke up in the middle of the night to find the sandstorm, and spent the rest of the night straightening things out, conducting a water change, and monitoring the two remaining clearly stressed fish (chromis and clownfish). The blue-green chromis reacted to the sandstorm by swimming quickly back and forth along the length of the tank for hours afterwards, but eventually calmed down and settled back into it's normal pattern of life. It's been eating and swimming normally until today, when I noticed it was struggling to swim properly. At the scheduled feeding time it swam around the food, but did not appear to eat any of it (I have an auto feeder). I also added some frozen food to the tank, and the chromis didn't attempt to eat any of it. None of the inverts appear to be affected -- a few snails are spawning, and the long spined urchin and hermit crabs appear to be fine.

I was suspicious of the first three fish dying close together, but couldn't pinpoint a common cause. I haven't changed the food. I did remove the powerhead that caused the sandstorm, but there is still decent movement and surface agitation in the tank with the remaining powerhead and the return pump. The chromis was definitely stressed from the late March sandstorm, but seemed to have recovered (I thought I was going to lose both remaining fish that night).

As I've been typing this, the chromis has started to tilt slightly back towards normal -- it's body is now positioned on a diagonal instead of straight up and down, but it isn't back to the normal horizontal orientation yet. It also appears to be starting to be able to maintain position in the tank instead of struggling to stay off the sand, but still isn't swimming "normally" yet.

I'll prep another water change and see if I can catch the chromis and move it to a QT.

Temp 77F
pH 8.0
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 (usually around 5, so will retest)
Phosphorus 0.25
Copper not tested nor used
Calcium 360
dKH 5.3
Mg 1500

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Apologies for the length, below is an attempt to answer the queries in the stickies:

The tank is a reef aquarium of circa 40 gallons with a sump and skimmer. It has been moved a few times as a FOWLR, but the last ong distance move occurred in Fall 2020, and sand was discarded/replaced during that move, and corals have subsequently been added a few at a time.

Background on other three recent fish deaths: In December 2021, the chalk bass went from large, fat and active to skinny, rallied for a week or two, and then passed in early Jan 2022 (fish one). Two days later a hermit crab died. In mid-February, some of the orange zoas in the tank started closing up (I posted separately on it), but after a few weeks of angst, they started to reopen, and no other corals (to include the other zoas) experienced any issues. On 5 March I added some xenia to the tank. On 12 March, I came home to find a large bangai cardinal dead (fish two), with no observed symptoms in prior days. On 20 March, I noticed the starry blenny hiding amidst the corals a bit more than usual, and on 21 March I found the blenny dead with what appeared to be a bloated abdomen (fish three). That night, one of the powerheads fell off the glass and caused quite a sandstorm in the tank -- to include burying a number of corals and causing an avalanche of sand in the clownfish's normal sleeping spot. I thankfully woke up in the middle of the night to find the sandstorm, and spent the rest of the night straightening things out, conducting a water change, and monitoring the two remaining clearly stressed fish (chromis and clownfish). The blue-green chromis reacted to the sandstorm by swimming quickly back and forth along the length of the tank for hours afterwards, but eventually calmed down and settled back into it's normal pattern of life. It's been eating and swimming normally until today, when I noticed it was struggling to swim properly. At the scheduled feeding time it swam around the food, but did not appear to eat any of it (I have an auto feeder). I also added some frozen food to the tank, and the chromis didn't attempt to eat any of it. None of the inverts appear to be affected -- a few snails are spawning, and the long spined urchin and hermit crabs appear to be fine.

I was suspicious of the first three fish dying close together, but couldn't pinpoint a common cause. I haven't changed the food. I did remove the powerhead that caused the sandstorm, but there is still decent movement and surface agitation in the tank with the remaining powerhead and the return pump. The chromis was definitely stressed from the late March sandstorm, but seemed to have recovered (I thought I was going to lose both remaining fish that night).

As I've been typing this, the chromis has started to tilt slightly back towards normal -- it's body is now positioned on a diagonal instead of straight up and down, but it isn't back to the normal horizontal orientation yet. It also appears to be starting to be able to maintain position in the tank instead of struggling to stay off the sand, but still isn't swimming "normally" yet.

I'll prep another water change and see if I can catch the chromis and move it to a QT.

Temp 77F
pH 8.0
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 (usually around 5, so will retest)
Phosphorus 0.25
Copper not tested nor used
Calcium 360
dKH 5.3
Mg 1500

Thanks for the in-depth data. That doesn't always point us to the right answer, but it can help rule things out.

The water parameters are fine. I think you can rule out the death of the crab and the closing up of the zoas as being related to the fish deaths.

I don't see a commonality between the fish deaths, and they are spaced out a bit, so are likely not closely related.

The chromis looks outwardly good aside from its swimming issue. Can you post a short video of it?
I doubt there is anything to be done for it though, these symptoms are simply not from something "treatable" like ich or flukes.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Apologies for the length, below is an attempt to answer the queries in the stickies:

The tank is a reef aquarium of circa 40 gallons with a sump and skimmer. It has been moved a few times as a FOWLR, but the last ong distance move occurred in Fall 2020, and sand was discarded/replaced during that move, and corals have subsequently been added a few at a time.

Background on other three recent fish deaths: In December 2021, the chalk bass went from large, fat and active to skinny, rallied for a week or two, and then passed in early Jan 2022 (fish one). Two days later a hermit crab died. In mid-February, some of the orange zoas in the tank started closing up (I posted separately on it), but after a few weeks of angst, they started to reopen, and no other corals (to include the other zoas) experienced any issues. On 5 March I added some xenia to the tank. On 12 March, I came home to find a large bangai cardinal dead (fish two), with no observed symptoms in prior days. On 20 March, I noticed the starry blenny hiding amidst the corals a bit more than usual, and on 21 March I found the blenny dead with what appeared to be a bloated abdomen (fish three). That night, one of the powerheads fell off the glass and caused quite a sandstorm in the tank -- to include burying a number of corals and causing an avalanche of sand in the clownfish's normal sleeping spot. I thankfully woke up in the middle of the night to find the sandstorm, and spent the rest of the night straightening things out, conducting a water change, and monitoring the two remaining clearly stressed fish (chromis and clownfish). The blue-green chromis reacted to the sandstorm by swimming quickly back and forth along the length of the tank for hours afterwards, but eventually calmed down and settled back into it's normal pattern of life. It's been eating and swimming normally until today, when I noticed it was struggling to swim properly. At the scheduled feeding time it swam around the food, but did not appear to eat any of it (I have an auto feeder). I also added some frozen food to the tank, and the chromis didn't attempt to eat any of it. None of the inverts appear to be affected -- a few snails are spawning, and the long spined urchin and hermit crabs appear to be fine.

I was suspicious of the first three fish dying close together, but couldn't pinpoint a common cause. I haven't changed the food. I did remove the powerhead that caused the sandstorm, but there is still decent movement and surface agitation in the tank with the remaining powerhead and the return pump. The chromis was definitely stressed from the late March sandstorm, but seemed to have recovered (I thought I was going to lose both remaining fish that night).

As I've been typing this, the chromis has started to tilt slightly back towards normal -- it's body is now positioned on a diagonal instead of straight up and down, but it isn't back to the normal horizontal orientation yet. It also appears to be starting to be able to maintain position in the tank instead of struggling to stay off the sand, but still isn't swimming "normally" yet.

I'll prep another water change and see if I can catch the chromis and move it to a QT.

Temp 77F
pH 8.0
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 (usually around 5, so will retest)
Phosphorus 0.25
Copper not tested nor used
Calcium 360
dKH 5.3
Mg 1500

You indicated Zero ammonia and Nitrate. What test kits are you using ?

 

[Salty Rambler]

Thanks for the in-depth data. That doesn't always point us to the right answer, but it can help rule things out.

The water parameters are fine. I think you can rule out the death of the crab and the closing up of the zoas as being related to the fish deaths.

I don't see a commonality between the fish deaths, and they are spaced out a bit, so are likely not closely related.

The chromis looks outwardly good aside from its swimming issue. Can you post a short video of it?
I doubt there is anything to be done for it though, these symptoms are simply not from something "treatable" like ich or flukes.

Jay

This was the fish swimming earlier...

 

[Jay Hemdal]

This was the fish swimming earlier...

In the video, I can see the fish's belly is pinched. It is also negatively buoyant. That is kind of rare, most fish with swim bladder issues become positively buoyant. It is also breathing really fast, but that may be a function of it struggling to swim.

All I can come up with is some internal issue that collapsed its swim bladder - but I can't tell you what that could have been....sorry!

Jay

 

[Salty Rambler]

You indicated Zero ammonia and Nitrate. What test kits are you using ?

For those two readings I used the API kit -- I'm slowly buying other kits, but using up what I have. I also have an ammonia badge in the sump. I've had really high nitrates in the past, but it usually hovers at 5 with vodka dosing.

 

[Salty Rambler]

In the video, I can see the fish's belly is pinched. It is also negatively buoyant. That is kind of rare, most fish with swim bladder issues become positively buoyant. It is also breathing really fast, but that may be a function of it struggling to swim.

All I can come up with is some internal issue that collapsed its swim bladder - but I can't tell you what that could have been....sorry!

Jay

In contrast, here is the same fish swimming two hours later. Still not right, but better than before.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

In contrast, here is the same fish swimming two hours later. Still not right, but better than before.

Weird - still breathing way too fast, but not struggling to swim as much.....

Jay

 

[Salty Rambler]

Update... the chromis avoided food for another week. After it began eating again, there were two instances that week where I noticed white stringy poop, and there appeared to be a pink/red patch on the left side of its body near the tail. Now 5+ weeks from the bobbing episode, the fish is still struggling to swim, but is hanging in there -- no more stringy poop observed, and the pink/red patch appears to have healed over (but is raised as if scarred/inflammed). I performed a few water changes throughout the month, but was unsuccessful in attempting to move the fish to a QT, so no meds have been administered. Unsure if the fish is still injured/ill or on the mend, but wanted to post an update in the event anyone else is experiencing similar issues.

 

[chill48]

This is a buoyancy issue and may have evolved from an internal issue.
Struggling to maintain a normal swimming position is relevant to swim bladder infection or similar internal issue/symptom.
If severe buoyancy problems exist, the fish may not be able to feed normally or even reach the surface of the water. This disorder is sometimes caused by compression of the swim bladder, which may involve a distended stomach from rapidly eating, overeating, constipation, or gulping air, which is thought to occur with floating foods. Eating freeze-dried or dry flake food that expands when it becomes wet can also lead to an enlarged stomach or intestinal tract.
Other causes are :

• Trauma/Injury
• Bacterial infection
• Parasitic infection
• Stress/rapidly changing water parameters
• Poor water quality

Water change(s) may help and antibiotic should also help. Kanamyacin or neomyacyn should help great and best done in a quarantine tank

Where do you get the antibiotics

 

[vetteguy53081]

W

Where do you get the antibiotics

What country are you in?