New Borbonius Anthias lying on its side

[Jay Hemdal]

Here's a video from this morning. Both fish are eating and exploring the tank. Will go ahead and proceed with Prazi.

If you are using Prazipro, be sure there is good aeration (not just circulation).

Dosing Praziquantel (PZQ)

Using Praziquantel (PZQ) to treat flukes Overview In the early 1990’s, a researcher at the New York Aquarium published a paper on using Praziquantel (PZQ) to help control flukes, a parasitic flatworm. Also known as monogenean trematodes, these fish parasites can cause significant mortality in...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[christinna77]

Update: We finished our 3rd Prazi treatment and I haven't seen any flashing since the first one, so I decided to move the fish into DT. The swim bladder on the anthias never really cleared, however - it's still swimming with its tail up, and it's been around 7 weeks. It's otherwise very active and eating, and mostly sleeps under a ledge upside down (which I believe is normal for them).

 

[Damage12]

Mine had a swim bladder problem for months and it suddenly resolved itself for no apparent reason. Hope that happens with yours too.

 

[christinna77]

Mine had a swim bladder problem for months and it suddenly resolved itself for no apparent reason. Hope that happens with yours too.

Interesting, thank you for your insight!

 

[christinna77]

So unfortunately, this is heading toward a sad ending. After 2 days in the acclimation box with all the fish ignoring him, I released the anthias last night and everything seemed fine. This morning though, he'd fully claimed the main cave and became really aggressive toward my blue assessor and especially Sushi, my tilefish (that lots of you already know is the star of my tank).

I tried putting up a mirror, which he attacked for a few hours, but eventually he went right back to harassing other fish. I was also feeding heavy every two hours, so there was no way he was hungry, but that didn't help at all. Sushi had several full on panic episodes and hit the lid a few times.

Tilefish truly can't handle any aggression, even if it's not targeted at them, as he'd freak out if the anthias was chasing the blue assessor too.

Anyway, after watching things get worse and getting worried about Sushi hurting himself, I managed to lure the anthias back into the acclimation box (with the mirror, go figure). Sushi has been mostly staying in his cave, but overall seems much calmer now.

At this point I don't think reintroducing the anthias will work, and I'm pretty sure I should've gotten a smaller less boisterous specimen. I just read everywhere these anthias were peaceful fish, so I didn't think the size would matter.

Here's a video I put together so you can see how bad it got earlier today:

 

[mmorrison55]

Thats too bad. Thats on my “one day” list of fish I’d like to have.

 

[christinna77]

Thats too bad. Thats on my “one day” list of fish I’d like to have.

It's a great fish, very active, curious and feeding well. I definitely recommend getting one for a bit more aggressive tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So unfortunately, this is heading toward a sad ending. After 2 days in the acclimation box with all the fish ignoring him, I released the anthias last night and everything seemed fine. This morning though, he'd fully claimed the main cave and became really aggressive toward my blue assessor and especially Sushi, my tilefish (that lots of you already know is the star of my tank).

I tried putting up a mirror, which he attacked for a few hours, but eventually he went right back to harassing other fish. I was also feeding heavy every two hours, so there was no way he was hungry, but that didn't help at all. Sushi had several full on panic episodes and hit the lid a few times.

Tilefish truly can't handle any aggression, even if it's not targeted at them, as he'd freak out if the anthias was chasing the blue assessor too.

Anyway, after watching things get worse and getting worried about Sushi hurting himself, I managed to lure the anthias back into the acclimation box (with the mirror, go figure). Sushi has been mostly staying in his cave, but overall seems much calmer now.

At this point I don't think reintroducing the anthias will work, and I'm pretty sure I should've gotten a smaller less boisterous specimen. I just read everywhere these anthias were peaceful fish, so I didn't think the size would matter.

Here's a video I put together so you can see how bad it got earlier today:

What about using a whole tank, egg crate divider? My only fear with that is that if the tilefish still act flighty, eggcrate edges are pretty sharp. Maybe you can think of a softer tank divider?

 

[christinna77]

What about using a whole tank, egg crate divider? My only fear with that is that if the tilefish still act flighty, eggcrate edges are pretty sharp. Maybe you can think of a softer tank divider?

Thank you, Jay! It's a bit hard to divide things because my rockscape is two islands connected by a long branch that's attached to one of them.

I've been watching the anthias all day and it's still trying to get to the tilefish, and not in a friendly way. Weird, considering tilefish and anthias are supposed to swim together in the wild…

 

[christinna77]

Update: Anthias is still doing well, but after 3 days in the box he's still posturing and charging at the tilefish and sometimes the wrasses, so I'm not too happy about that. Interestingly, he completely ignores the clown and lets him swim very close to him and touch him (the clown swam into the box twice already and seems to be bonded with him).

I'm moving the box every few hours and took away his cover to force more interaction with the tilefish since he was hiding in there most of the time, but I'll put it back on for the night because I think it stresses him out.

 

[christinna77]

Small update: I rehomed the anthias - his behavior just wasn't improving in the acclimation box. He's now in a big tank with triggers and tangs, and apparently tried to bully a tang and an orchid dottyback the moment he was released, lol. The tang returned the favor though, so he's behaving now. Absolutely fearless fish.