Help Help Help Please

[NemoEnthusiast]

Hello fellow reef enthusiasts,

I hope this message finds you well. I am currently facing a distressing situation with the fish in my quarantine tank and am seeking urgent guidance from the experienced members of this community.

For the past 10 days, I have diligently monitored and cared for the fish in my quarantine tank. All appeared to be thriving - eating well, swimming normally, and exhibiting no signs of distress. My routine included significant water changes every other day to maintain optimal water parameters.

This morning, during my regular feeding routine, everything seemed perfectly fine. However, upon returning a short while ago, I was shocked to find my tang laying on its side at the bottom of the tank, seemingly unable to maintain an upright position. Additionally, my cardinal fish appears to be exhibiting erratic behavior, continuously turning in a full 360-degree circle.

Given the sudden onset of these symptoms, I am deeply concerned about the health and well-being of my fish. Please guide....

I kindly request your expertise in providing insights and recommendations on this matter. It is worth noting that I have other fish in the quarantine tank as well, and I am eager to take all necessary steps to ensure their health and prevent any potential spread of illness.

 

[Slocke]

Test for ammonia and make sure there is some good water movement. Also videos are hard to access. Post pictures
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

 

[NemoEnthusiast]

Test for ammonia and make sure there is some good water movement. Also videos are hard to access. Post pictures
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

Ammonia is at 0... and there is nice amount of water movement in the tank. I am attaching the pictures.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello fellow reef enthusiasts,

I hope this message finds you well. I am currently facing a distressing situation with the fish in my quarantine tank and am seeking urgent guidance from the experienced members of this community.

For the past 10 days, I have diligently monitored and cared for the fish in my quarantine tank. All appeared to be thriving - eating well, swimming normally, and exhibiting no signs of distress. My routine included significant water changes every other day to maintain optimal water parameters.

This morning, during my regular feeding routine, everything seemed perfectly fine. However, upon returning a short while ago, I was shocked to find my tang laying on its side at the bottom of the tank, seemingly unable to maintain an upright position. Additionally, my cardinal fish appears to be exhibiting erratic behavior, continuously turning in a full 360-degree circle.

Given the sudden onset of these symptoms, I am deeply concerned about the health and well-being of my fish. Please guide....

I kindly request your expertise in providing insights and recommendations on this matter. It is worth noting that I have other fish in the quarantine tank as well, and I am eager to take all necessary steps to ensure their health and prevent any potential spread of illness.

Your water is cloudy, bangaii cardinal is moribund as well as tang and I suspect due to limited filtration, an ammonia spike which may or may not be detectable with water test and I recommend water change, addition of a hang on power filter for water polishing and surface flow and in the future a top down video would be better at side view. If you havent already add oxygen via air stone and check ammonia again.
How are you testing water and oxygen seems to be the main culprit. Zero ammonia with a cloudy tank does not add up
What is temperature-salinity and are you medicating tank with anything?

 

[smalltownuser]

Something that happened to me when I lost my first tang, was lack of oxygen, or that was my best guess, and the best determination through this community as well. I bring it up from your last photo, the tangs mouth is open. Now you might have just had the incredible timing to catch the picture while it opened its mouth to eat, but thats so fast I am doubting it. The QT is known for lack of oxygen since its not a full set up. Do you have an airstone in the tank, OR do you have the power head aimed at the surface of the water to create surface tension to get oxygen in the tank? The open mouth seems like it could be having a difficult time breathing, and also in the QT its strange that the ammonia would be zero. a QT wouldnt have he bacteria to fight off that ammonia, if not for how early you put them in the tank, then at least because there isnt enoug surface media for the bacteria to grow. Just my two cents. I am by no means a pro at this, I can only give you advice from my own mistakes.

 

[NemoEnthusiast]

Your water is cloudy, bangaii cardinal is moribund as well as tang and I suspect due to limited filtration, an ammonia spike which may or may not be detectable with water test and I recommend water change, addition of a hang on power filter for water polishing and surface flow and in the future a top down video would be better at side view. If you havent already add oxygen via air stone and check ammonia again.
How are you testing water and oxygen seems to be the main culprit. Zero ammonia with a cloudy tank does not add up
What is temperature-salinity and are you medicating tank with anything?

The cloudiness in the water is maybe because of the air stones running at full. I am not using an HOB. The salinity is 1.023 and ammonia is at 0 ppm. I am checking the water parameters using api test kit. I have always used it to test the water parameters. Unfortunately I can't make a video from a side because I have quarantined the fish in 40 gal. bucket.

 

[vetteguy53081]

The cloudiness in the water is maybe because of the air stones running at full. I am not using an HOB. The salinity is 1.023 and ammonia is at 0 ppm. I am checking the water parameters using api test kit. I have always used it to test the water parameters. Unfortunately I can't make a video from a side because I have quarantined the fish in 40 gal. bucket.

Salinity a tad low- bump to at least 1.024. I now suspect you may be getting a false ammonia reading . I highly suggest taking a water sample to an LFS that does NOT use api kits and see what reading they come up with for ammonia. If not done precisely, api kits will give false reading.

 

[NemoEnthusiast]

Something that happened to me when I lost my first tang, was lack of oxygen, or that was my best guess, and the best determination through this community as well. I bring it up from your last photo, the tangs mouth is open. Now you might have just had the incredible timing to catch the picture while it opened its mouth to eat, but thats so fast I am doubting it. The QT is known for lack of oxygen since its not a full set up. Do you have an airstone in the tank, OR do you have the power head aimed at the surface of the water to create surface tension to get oxygen in the tank? The open mouth seems like it could be having a difficult time breathing, and also in the QT its strange that the ammonia would be zero. a QT wouldnt have he bacteria to fight off that ammonia, if not for how early you put them in the tank, then at least because there isnt enoug surface media for the bacteria to grow. Just my two cents. I am by no means a pro at this, I can only give you advice from my own mistakes.

I am running an air pump on the QT since day 1. I am doubting that this is an issue of oxygen level in the water. It seems to be a swim bladder. The fish is breathing normally that I can see. It's just lying on one side and not moving. When it moves it goes crazy and settle down in another corner. For the pajama cardinal. It's swimming but as soon as it goes near the airstones it starts circling.

I am doing almost 70% water changes every other day. As soon as I get some reading I get reading close to 0.25 ppm, I do 70-80% water change.

 

[NemoEnthusiast]

Salinity a tad low- bump to at least 1.024. I now suspect you may be getting a false ammonia reading . I highly suggest taking a water sample to an LFS that does NOT use api kits and see what reading they come up with for ammonia. If not done precisely, api kits will give false reading.

Thank you so much...I will do that...

 

[Uncle99]

The speed at which the 2 fish become distressed (and not others) makes me think of an argument or attack.
Is that possible?

QT are tight and fish good for 10 days.

 

[vetteguy53081]

The speed at which the 2 fish become distressed (and not others) makes me think of an argument or attack.
Is that possible?

QT are tight and fish good for 10 days.

fish with no damage and breathing heavy as they are with milky water is sure not aggression

 

[smalltownuser]

The cloudiness in the water is maybe because of the air stones running at full. I am not using an HOB. The salinity is 1.023 and ammonia is at 0 ppm. I am checking the water parameters using api test kit. I have always used it to test the water parameters. Unfortunately I can't make a video from a side because I have quarantined the fish in 40 gal. bucket.

Also to give some info from my own failures. The first tank I had set up I had two clowns in it, doing a fish in cycle, basically the same as you're doing with the QT, and I also used API, and the ammonia came in at under .5 for a while and even came in at 0 after a few weeks. My clowns got brooklynella and through hours of research found out my ammonia was actually much higher, and its widely known that API give false readings. You have to be VERY careful with API, and shake the hell out of the test bottles before using, and timing perfectly and even then its not full proof. I dont use API anymore, because theyre uneliable which makes them useless (IMO)

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

how many fish do you have in the QT?

 

[smalltownuser]

I am running an air pump on the QT since day 1. I am doubting that this is an issue of oxygen level in the water. It seems to be a swim bladder. The fish is breathing normally that I can see. It's just lying on one side and not moving. When it moves it goes crazy and settle down in another corner. For the pajama cardinal. It's swimming but as soon as it goes near the airstones it starts circling.

I am doing almost 70% water changes every other day. As soon as I get some reading I get reading close to 0.25 ppm, I do 70-80% water change.

With how certain you are about oxygen, I just want to ask, are you dosing the water with ANYTHING? Almost anything you add to the tank can alter the oxygen (another one of my mistakes I've learned from) I killed 6 fish adding vibrant to the tank because it kills the oxygen, even throwing in 5 airstones in my 75 gallon DT, it wasnt enough to save them. That mouth open part really looks like an oxygen issue. Also, I have heard that cardinals dont travel well. I bought two from my LFS, and they did exactl what you described, they circles around the heavy water flow areas. Tested everything in the water and it was all good, cardinals just dont travel well I guess. I currently have 3 more in my QT and so far so good, but the tang is worrisome.

 

[Seansea]

No hob filter means no filtration which means they are ingesting there waste with nothing to break it down. They are essentiially poisoning themselves. The best way to do a qt is to set up with a cheap hob filter and leave a couple fish in there you feed every day. I use mollies. But you could use a damsel or 2 or chromis. Cheap and poop alot. You might want to run over to pet smart and grab a cheap hob filter and add a bottle of fritzs turbo start. Will seed your filter instantly.

This situation is tough and good luck.

 

[Uncle99]

fish with no damage and breathing heavy as they are with milky water is sure not aggression

Actually, in what I can see (very fuzzy and blue) the Cardinal has what appears as a nip out of the dorsal fin, and the other, a possible faint bite mark about 1/2” from the eye.

So IMM, some damage may have occurred, not maybe reason, but possibly a contributor.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Actually, in what I can see (very fuzzy and blue) the Cardinal has what appears as a nip out of the dorsal fin, and the other, a possible faint bite mark about 1/2” from the eye.

So IMM, some damage may have occurred, not maybe reason, but possibly a contributor.

I too saw that and it is not in alignment with aggression. The cardinal cannot do this damage and the tangs mouth not consistent with tail. With aggression, there will be more than a tail issue. I see hundreds of tail issues/damage and the fish is not falling down without injury to body and bite marks.

 

[NemoEnthusiast]

fish with no damage and breathing heavy as they are with milky water is sure not aggression

 

[vetteguy53081]

These fish are becoming Moribund and are rapidly declining. Was this tub rinsed/cleaned prior to use?
Other than airstone, i see no means of biological or mechanical filtration and am convinced on water being the issue-low oxygen- likely elevated ammonia- lack of water movement and surface air exchange and foaming at surface is noticeable

 

[NemoEnthusiast]

Thank you so much everyone... I am taking all the measures as suggested... I hope the rest of them survive