Hawkfish stopped eating, swimming weird

Sharkbait19 · May 30, 2022

#fishmedic
Hello,
I’ve noticed over the past few days that my longnose Hawkfish ate less than usual (it usually eats the most among my fish), and today, it completely ignored any food that hit the water. Additionally, it cannot seem to balance itself while perched, and also swims more wobbly than usual. Something is definitely up.

It was previously quarantined and underwent full prazi, copper, and hexshield treatments. It now lives in a 40B tank with a clownfish, aurora goby, and a coral beauty angel, which it was quarantined with. It has been in the system for over two weeks, and had been doing fine. It did square off with the angel at some point, but there is no visible damage. No visible external parasites, either.

Below is a picture and two videos, one showing the swimming (didn’t get to capture the perching very well), and the other the breathing rate (just want to make sure it looks okay). I will be testing params and doing a water change tomorrow morning.

Hawkfish Breathing Rate

youtube.com

fishguy242 · May 30, 2022

seems like he is swimming on the defense ?

Jay Hemdal · May 31, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
#fishmedic
Hello,
I’ve noticed over the past few days that my longnose Hawkfish ate less than usual (it usually eats the most among my fish), and today, it completely ignored any food that hit the water. Additionally, it cannot seem to balance itself while perched, and also swims more wobbly than usual. Something is definitely up.

It was previously quarantined and underwent full prazi, copper, and hexshield treatments. It now lives in a 40B tank with a clownfish, aurora goby, and a coral beauty angel, which it was quarantined with. It has been in the system for over two weeks, and had been doing fine. It did square off with the angel at some point, but there is no visible damage. No visible external parasites, either.

Below is a picture and two videos, one showing the swimming (didn’t get to capture the perching very well), and the other the breathing rate (just want to make sure it looks okay). I will be testing params and doing a water change tomorrow morning.

Hawkfish Breathing Rate

youtube.com

I can't see anything other than it is a bit thin. But of course, not eating is a serious symptom of something!

Jay

Sharkbait19 · May 31, 2022

As of this morning, the hawk is still alive and swimming around, although it still acts as though the flow is too strong to stay upright (even though the flow has always been the same). Something is definitely up, and at the moment I suspect internal parasites of some sort. I’m considering moving the hawk to qt to observe it more directly for visible signs.

Jay Hemdal · May 31, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
As of this morning, the hawk is still alive and swimming around, although it still acts as though the flow is too strong to stay upright (even though the flow has always been the same). Something is definitely up, and at the moment I suspect internal parasites of some sort. I’m considering moving the hawk to qt to observe it more directly for visible signs.

If you are going to move it, perhaps give it a 5 minute FW dip during the move? Might help with possible parasites - won’t be a cure, but if you see a temporary relief in symptoms, that tells you something. Of course, if the hawk fish is really weak, the dip could do it in, but as you hear me say, if that is the case, it would be dying soon without a dip.
Jay

Sharkbait19 · May 31, 2022

Checked params:
pH - 8.1
Mag - 1500 (I may have run that one wrong)
Nitrate - 20
Calcium - 500
Alk - 9.3
Phosphate - 0.75
Salinity - 1.023
A lot runs high but the corals are all doing amazing.

Put some more food in. Hawk ate one pellet, he goes after them but either misses or never attempts to eat.
Behavior is pretty normal, a bit less balanced than usual.

Jay Hemdal · May 31, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
Checked params:
pH - 8.1
Mag - 1500 (I may have run that one wrong)
Nitrate - 20
Calcium - 500
Alk - 9.3
Phosphate - 0.75
Salinity - 1.023
A lot runs high but the corals are all doing amazing.

Put some more food in. Hawk ate one pellet, he goes after them but either misses or never attempts to eat.
Behavior is pretty normal, a bit less balanced than usual.

What about trying something small and soft like chopped mysids?
Jay

Sharkbait19 · May 31, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
What about trying something small and soft like chopped mysids?
Jay

I’ll give it a try!
I’d guess it’s also worth attempting to feed crushed pellets?

Is it possible the fish hasn’t been getting enough for a while and is just now showing it?

threebuoys · May 31, 2022

I'm 4 weeks into a QT for a mail order powder blue. He was hard to get to eat early on. I was able to get him to eat San Freancisco Bay Brand Emerald Entree frozen cubes. So I started adding a pinch of New Life Spectrum Marine Fish regular size (1- 1.5 mm) pellets to the cup as the frozen cube thawed. After that, the powder blue started eating the pellets along with the thawed food. Now he will eat the dry pellets directly when I put them in the tank. I'm keeping my fingers crossed his improved eating habits will continue.

Edit: I've also had problems in the past where fish would play with the food but spit it out and as a result were malnourished to the point of death.

Sharkbait19 · May 31, 2022

threebuoys said:
I'm 4 weeks into a QT for a mail order powder blue. He was hard to get to eat early on. I was able to get him to eat San Freancisco Bay Brand Emerald Entree frozen cubes. So I started adding a pinch of New Life Spectrum Marine Fish regular size (1- 1.5 mm) pellets to the cup as the frozen cube thawed. After that, the powder blue started eating the pellets along with the thawed food. Now he will eat the dry pellets directly when I put them in the tank. I'm keeping my fingers crossed his improved eating habits will continue.

Edit: I've also had problems in the past where fish would play with the food but spit it out and as a result were malnourished to the point of death.

What’s weird is that up until recently, he’s been an amazing eater, grabbing pellets and other foods as soon as they hit the water.

I’ll definitely have to try that trick with my angel, he loves mysis and algae, and not much else.

threebuoys · May 31, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
What’s weird is that up until recently, he’s been an amazing eater.

I’ll definitely have to try that trick with my angel, he loves mysis and algae, and not much else.

I have a falco hawkfish that ate pellets from day 1. He's quite the character. He perches on top of a rock, surveys the pellets floating of the surface, races up to grab one, returns to his perch and starts all over again.

Sharkbait19 · May 31, 2022

So it didn’t eat a single mysid, and is struggling even more to stay perched in one spot (keeps falling over). Should I immediately assume something internal, and treat levamisole, or continue to troubleshoot? I don’t want to hesitate for too long, in the event that this goes from bad to worse.

Jay Hemdal · May 31, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
So it didn’t eat a singly mysid, and is struggling even more to stay perched in one spot (keeps falling over). Should I immediately assume something internal, and treat levamisole, or continue to troubleshoot? I don’t want to hesitate for too long, in the event that this goes from bad to worse.

IDK - levamisole is primarily used against roundworms, is there a symptom that is pointing you in that direction?
Jay

Sharkbait19 · May 31, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
IDK - levamisole is primarily used against roundworms, is there a symptom that is pointing you in that direction?
Jay

Mostly the sunken belly, lack of eating, and a rather inflamed anus. Strangely, the Hawkfish shows interest in the food and tries to eat aggressively, but just doesn’t.

Jay Hemdal · May 31, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
Mostly the sunken belly, lack of eating, and a rather inflamed anus. Strangely, the Hawkfish shows interest in the food and tries to eat aggressively, but just doesn’t.

The fish ive had with roundworms would eat great, get a bit thin and then die abruptly when a worm perforated the gut. I know discus roundworms give similar symptoms to what you are seeing, thinness, red anus, but they still feed (maybe a bit weakly). Not eating at all, but showing interest n food seems odd - I have seen it in fish with a mechanical blockage.
Jay

Sharkbait19 · May 31, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
The fish ive had with roundworms would eat great, get a bit thin and then die abruptly when a worm perforated the gut. I know discus roundworms give similar symptoms to what you are seeing, thinness, red anus, but they still feed (maybe a bit weakly). Not eating at all, but showing interest n food seems odd - I have seen it in fish with a mechanical blockage.
Jay

I also have metro and prazi, is that better in this case?

Jay Hemdal · Jun 1, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
I also have metro and prazi, is that better in this case?

Neither of those treat roundworms. Prazi only treats cestodes (tapeworms) and those typically do not show any other symptoms other than a thinning of the fish. Metro treats internal protozoan infections, so that might have some benefit here, but again, the diagnosis is pretty much open .....

Jay