Kole Tang

[justingraham]

Hello people out there more knowledgeable then me. I have a story to tell and I'm hopeing u guys can help me. Thursday- I wake up get out of bed around noon check the tank as I always do all fish accounted for and for the first time ever my Kole tang is finnaly eating off the veggie clip boo yah I've only been trying to get him to eat off it for 2 months. Great start of the day. I go to work for the man come home at about ten pm the tang is breathing heavy and not moving at all. He has what looks like ich on him. Shoot bad day. Start the old google searching and formulate a plot to save my buddy Kole. The next morning break of dawn to the LFS to grab a ten gallon tank(my 30 gallon qt tank just broke) I come home he's still breathing (very heavily) and staying in one spot only swimming backwards. Quick ten gallon water change new qt tank is filled. I reach in with a one gallon bucket and he swims right into it no fight no nothing. Put him in his new home in darkness. The ich that looked like was on him was only sand. Three hours later I have read every which way to do a fresh water dip and decide that @melypr1985 way is going to be the way I do it. Water airated for 30 mins fish in for five mins and out. Look at the bottom of the container with a flash light nothing there. Kole is still breathing heavy but some of his color has returned. I dose the tank with these items fed him some food that he always ate before(frozen mysis and flake food topped with garlic extract) and let him relax for the rest of the night.
Saturday wake up run to check on him still breathing heavily no sign of eating any of his food. One gallon Water change. Put a couple of live brine shrimp in there didn't see him eat any of it and then I had to go out. Came back from prior obligations still the same swimming backwards breathing heavy. Could not find any brine shrimp anywhere tho. Freshwater dip again for five mins. Checked the bottom on the bowl still nothing in there. Give meds and let him relax again(at this time I added water stone in the tank) checking on my friend Kole periodically thru the night always the same. Wake up today run to check on him still alive breathing heavy unable to swim. Water change suck out all the food at the bottom of the tank. Gave him his meds went to work and that is where I am right now. I'm really worried about him I've had him for about two months. I have two clowns and a bi color blenny in the tank as well they do not seem affected at all. The last thing I added was a coral about three weeks ago I'm just at a loss. Literally everything was fine then eight hours later he was sick. No signs of anything leadin up to the point he is at now. He looks pale right now. The only thing I can think of that could have happened was a temp swing because of the heat. The night it happened No ammonia or nitrites in the tank 20 nitrates ph 8.2 salinity 1.022 which it always has been it doesn't fluctuate I have an Ato. I'm think it's his swimming bladder but I don't know I really don't. He's been fighting since Thursday and I don't want him to do it for nothing any help would be appreciated. Will upload a vide as soon as my girlfriend sends it for now here is how he looks right now.
Thanks for ur help and hopefully we can cure my friend Kole.
Justin

 

[justingraham]

Here is the video
It won't let me something about not having an allowed extension any help on this???

 

[4FordFamily]

That blotchiness and the quickness between seemingly healthy and in deep trouble makes me think velvet. It is hard to be sure, but the biggest killer on qt is ammonia you need an ammonia badge and to do water changes if it's anything other than yellow.

Coppersafe is your best friend for velvet in the 1.5-2.0 ppm range for 30 days... At this point I'm not sure he would survive this though.

A freshwater dip may provide immediate relief but I would like to hear what a couple other experts think.

@melypr1985 @Humblefish

 

[melypr1985]

Here is the video
It won't let me something about not having an allowed extension any help on this???

It always works better if you upload to youtube, then copy an paste here.

 

[justingraham]

Got badges So how do I upload the video tho? And he has been in my tank for about two months with no problems I know velvet is running rampant from what I read on here but it seems like it's everyone's guess lately I mean I'm not saying ur right or wrong and I thank u for helping me I just don't understand that. No signs of any sickness at all for two months and I watch my fish everyday instead of television I just don't know how that could be without it showing any signs prior. Can it lay dorement for 60days? And just decide to take its host out whenever it wants?

 

[melypr1985]

We just had a clownfish doing this same deal and it died pretty quickly. Has he responded at all the antibiotic? Shown any improvement? It seems like he ate some of those live brine which is a good thing. Of course it can take up to ten days (sometimes more) to show improvement. Oh, hey.... dont put the focus in the tank water it's meant to bind the meds to the food. I dont want you to waste it in case you need it later ya know?

 

[justingraham]

 

[justingraham]

We just had a clownfish doing this same deal and it died pretty quickly. Has he responded at all the antibiotic? Shown any improvement? It seems like he ate some of those live brine which is a good thing. Of course it can take up to ten days (sometimes more) to show improvement. Oh, hey.... dont put the focus in the tank water it's meant to bind the meds to the food. I dont want you to waste it in case you need it later ya know?

Yea was following that one with the clownfish and yes I was using the focus as a binder of the foods thank u

 

[melypr1985]

He certainly look stressed. Does he have a place to hide?

Typically I wouldn't expect velvet to lay dormant for two months, but it could have come in on a coral, invert, frag plug ect. It's still a possibility. If the antibiotics arn't showing any improvement, then I'd be tempted to have you do a formalin dip followed by copper or CP in the QT.

 

[justingraham]

Well his color comes back from time to time but he hasn't gotten better and he hasnt gotten better but he hasn't gotten worse

 

[melypr1985]

Well his color comes back from time to time but he hasn't gotten better and he hasnt gotten better but he hasn't gotten worse

So you have those two options. If it looks like he hasn't gotten worse, then the meds your using could be helping and you can finish out the 10 days of antibiotics. If it looks like he's taking a turn for the worse, then you might want to go the other route I mentioned. This is a tuff one, just like the clown. It always happens when humble goes out of town.

 

[justingraham]

He certainly look stressed. Does he have a place to hide?

Typically I wouldn't expect velvet to lay dormant for two months, but it could have come in on a coral, invert, frag plug ect. It's still a possibility. If the antibiotics arn't showing any improvement, then I'd be tempted to have you do a formalin dip followed by copper or CP in the QT.

Yes the black piece u see behind him he can hide in I have copper on hand to start what's a formulaic dip and is there like a test or anything to see if it is velvet? I've never seen it first hand so I wouldn't know what to be looking for and I don't want to treat him for something he doesn't have. I like the guy and I don't want to lose him

 

[Triggreef]

I'm going to stray from the crowd a little as i sometimes do. I highly doubt velvet after reading all that.

Last thing added was a coral 3 weeks ago. Had the fish for 2 months. Looks clean in the pic just a little washed. Normal for a stressed kole tang. You stated what you had thought was ich was actually sand. Based on those facts velvet seems very low chance.

Ich could be present sure but imo that would not by itself be grounds for emergency action. If it were ich, all fish would need to be removed from the display even if they are not showing any signs.

He may have some breathing issues die to the make shift hospital tank and the stress could cause a few days worth of color loss etc.

I would watch for a few days, discontinue meds, and place him back in if all is well.

Seems like your throwing darts at a wall right now. Just my opinion.

 

[Triggreef]

If it were velvet imo all 3 fish would have been dead in a matter of days.

 

[melypr1985]

Pictures of velvet, though sometimes it doesn't show the obvious symptoms. typically it kills very quickly and we would probably have seen him die by now if that were the case.

 

[Triggreef]

Mel didn't give you the time frame on those pics though... That second pic is 10 hours after the first. 12 hours later that fish was dead.

 

[justingraham]

If it were velvet imo all 3 fish would have been dead in a matter of days.

I literally was typing the darts at a wall thing about the velvet but I deleted it because these guys are trying to help me and I don't want to come off that I'm better then them cause I'm not by any means. It's just odd to me it really is I don't get it at all it was litterally a eight hour switch from healthy to what he looks like in the video and I already have a plan for ich take the tang out of the ten gallon if and when he starts eating and swimming normal then he will be going back in the display tank and my corals will be coming out I will hypo my DT to not stress him out any more. And the Corals will be in a 30 gallon tank. I just don't know what it is and it's killing me

 

[melypr1985]

I literally was typing the darts at a wall thing about the velvet but I deleted it because these guys are trying to help me and I don't want to come off that I'm better then them cause I'm not by any means. It's just odd to me it really is I don't get it at all it was litterally a eight hour switch from healthy to what he looks like in the video and I already have a plan where I took the tang out of the tank to the ten gallon if and when he starts eating and swimming normal he will be going back in the display tank and my corals will be coming out I will hypo my DT ro not stress him out any more. And the Corals will be in a 30 gallon tank. I just don't know what it is and it's killing me

This is a tuff one. You dont have to worry about sounding like your better than any of us. We are just people and doing this over the internet it very challenging. It leaves a lot of room for mistakes and misunderstanding. I'm going to tag @Humblefish here and get some help.

 

[justingraham]

Well if that's the case unless my fish is a god swimming among mortals he shouldn't have velvet it's been almost four days

 

[justingraham]

This is a tuff one. You dont have to worry about sounding like your better than any of us. We are just people and doing this over the internet it very challenging. It leaves a lot of room for mistakes and misunderstanding. I'm going to tag @Humblefish here and get some help.

And I do thank u for ur time and ur knowledge I'm hopeing Kole can stick around till mr humble fish arrives back so I will be working till Aprox 2 am what should I do when I get home anything? And if I don't do anything tonight what should I do tom?