Help Need Mimic Tang!!

[tylr9m482]

So I just added a group of tangs to my waterbox 220, (I added Yellow, Purple, Naso, blue, kole, tomini, and the mimic), on Friday night and last night (Sunday) I noticed my mimic tang was swimming erratically, (more like flowing in the current fighting to stay straight). Took a closer look and his fins are all shredded as well, very weak and heavy breathing. I decided to toss him into an acclimation box on the side of the tank with some pvc for cover. He made it through the night but is still in the box, laying on his side breathing very heavy this morning.

So my initial thought is that one of the other tangs was bullying (purple is the current suspect). I saw the purple tang nipping at him on Saturday but didn't pay much mind to it at the moment.

Question finally is, is there anything I can do to help him pull through or should I just leave him in the acclimation box until he recovers some strength? Is this possibly something else? Although I feel the purple tang might have just been terrorizing him. All the other tangs seem to be getting along just fine since I added them all at the same time.

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome please. Doing my best not to knee jerk and pull him out and cause even more stress which is why I felt the acclimation box was a good safe haven for now.

Thanks!!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

If you could take a short video, it would help give me a better idea as to how serious the damage is. There isn’t anything to be done for the short term, the fish will either survive the initial damage or not. If it does, then you need to watch for signs of secondary bacterial infection, and treat with antibiotics in a treatment tank.
Jay

 

[tylr9m482]

@Jay Hemdal hard to get a good quality shot right now that would be worth posting, he's inside the pvc at the moment and I don't want to disturb him. Still on his side heavy breathing but was able to make it into the pvc for the first time since going into the box.

Top fin and tail fin were both heavily torn, not just little knicks. Going to leave him alone for now. Maybe try feeling some frozen with selcon later today? Not sure he even has strength to eat though...

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes, trying to feed it would be the next step n assessing how damaged it was. One possible thing, if your setup allows it, you can lower the specific gravity to around 1.020, this helps fish with damaged skin better balance osmotically with the water.
Jay

 

[tylr9m482]

@Jay Hemdal I was able to see him eat one or two pieces of frozen mix food that I let soak in some selcon just now. Also saw him trying to swim straight up again so it seems like a little bit of progress. Heres a short video to show the fins, hopefully it works! I've never uploaded video on here before. It might need to get converted.

Not sure if I really want to mess with the salinity of the tank as it is still pretty new and also thats a good amount of volume on my system. (220gal) Plus the corals in the tank might not agree to that either. IF needed I can always revisit this though.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That's what I meant "if your system allows it" - lowering the SG won't work with corals in the tank. You might be able to shade the box a bit to help keep it calm.

In looking at the video - the fish's fins aren't really all that damaged, and the pectoral fins look fine. I'm worried that the ripped fins are just a minor problem and that the rapid breathing is the key issue here. I didn't want to say it, but adding seven (I presume non-quarantined?) tangs to a tank is almost certainly going to result in some losses.

Jay

 

[tylr9m482]

@Jay Hemdal yup, just lost the little guy very unfortunately. I get all my fish from the same source for years. The store treats all their fish for over a week before letting them leave the store and these have all been there over 2 weeks, some about a month. I don't have the ability to have a quarantine set up right now but I did give them all FW dips before adding to the tank. Not sure what caused the death here but will be keep a close eye on things.