Powder blue keeps laying on his side

DrMMI · Sep 8, 2020

I purchased a PBT about a month ago. He was initially in quarantine in a 20g long because that's what I had available. I quickly realized that was way too small for him and upgraded to a 55g quarantine. He's been in copper for about 3 weeks. One morning he was laying on his side and breathing heavily. I did a fresh water dip and found he had flukes. I dosed prazipro and he was doing better. Over the last few days, he's been hiding in his cave more and not really eating. I did another freshwater dip and didn't see any flukes this time. Regardless, I went ahead with the second dose of prazipro. Today, he's back to laying on his side. When I walk up to the tank, he gets up and swims around but then goes right back to his side. I did a 50% water change again. Ammonia level is 0 on seachem badges and api ammonia test. I've been doing 50% water changes every 1-2 days just in case. Copper is 2.22. There's an airstones, sponge filter, hob filter, and wave maker pointed at the surface so there should be plenty of oxygen. I'm not sure what else to do at this point. Attached are videos of him now. There's a bullet goby, firefish, and royal Gramma in there with him all doing fine. I'm not sure what else to do.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 8, 2020

PBT doesnt look bad but It is getting under-nourished.
Feed it at minimum:
Spirulina brine shrimp
mysis shrimp
sm plankton
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen

Add garlic and selcon vitamin to its' food

DrMMI · Sep 8, 2020

Thanks. I've been giving it nori daily too. He'll nibble on it every now and then but nothing like my other tangs who will devour an entire sheet in 5 minutes.

Jay Hemdal · Sep 8, 2020

Is it still feeding? I saw what seemed to be some cloudiness on its pectoral fins, do you see that as well?
Remember, when you did the second FW dip, any flukes would have young and hard to see. How long has it been since the second FW dip?
Jay

DrMMI · Sep 8, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Is it still feeding? I saw what seemed to be some cloudiness on its pectoral fins, do you see that as well?
Remember, when you did the second FW dip, any flukes would have young and hard to see. How long has it been since the second FW dip?
Jay

I did the second freshwater dip on Saturday. I dosed the second dose of prazpro yesterday and did a water change after 24 hours when I saw him struggling. I thought maybe the combination of the copper and prazipro was too much. He nibbled on the nori here and there, but not much. He ignored the frozen spirula/mysis that i put in this afternoon and the pellets from this morning.

DrMMI · Sep 9, 2020

Unfortunately it didn't make it and died overnight

vetteguy53081 · Sep 9, 2020

DrMMI said:
Unfortunately it didn't make it and died overnight

Oh no !! Didn’t look bad in video

Qasimja · Sep 9, 2020

sorry to hear that from the video it wasnt lookin good once a fish starts layin down like that they generally dont make it in my experience except maybe a hippo tang they always lay down

DrMMI · Sep 9, 2020

Qasimja said:
sorry to hear that from the video it wasnt lookin good once a fish starts layin down like that they generally dont make it in my experience except maybe a hippo tang they always lay down

Yeah I figured it wasn't a good sign. Early on he did that but once I did the first freshwater dip, he was fine until the end of last week when he started hiding more and seemed to be breathing heavy. I did another one last Saturday and he seemed to perk up a little bit afterwards. I thought about doing another one yesterday, but I didn't see any flukes with the second dip I had given him. On top of that, he had just completed 2 rounds of prazipro so theoretically there shouldn't be any flukes left. Plus I'm not sure how often you can freshwater dip a fish and I didn't want to stress him out anymore than he already was. I'm not sure if maybe the combination of the meds was too much or maybe it was prazi-resistant flukes. Sucks to have made it this far just to lose him.

ReefHomieJon · Sep 9, 2020

This is why I personally don’t QT my fish. Nothing against people that do or their reasons for it, but I’m not certain that it’s doing any more good than harm. Tangs are sensitive as it is. And need rocks and hideouts and a natural environment to feel comfortable. I think stress is what exacerbates a lot of underlying conditions that a fish might have. Not saying I would never do it if a fish was sick and I had to see if I could save it with a treatment that I don’t want my other healthy fish exposed to, but $100+/- fish that never made it to the DT after a month which means wherever you got it from won’t even refund your money if you bought it from them already sick Doesn’t add up to me. Also why I’ll never order online. I want to see the fish in person to ensure it’s got strong color and is eating and not acting weird, from a trusted LFS. smh sorry for your loss. I lost a beautiful and healthy PBT once too. But a stupid sally light foot crab killed it trying to eat it(took months to catch that punk)

DrMMI · Sep 9, 2020

ReefHomieJon said:
This is why I personally don’t QT my fish. Nothing against people that do or their reasons for it, but I’m not certain that it’s doing any more good than harm. Tangs are sensitive as it is. And need rocks and hideouts and a natural environment to feel comfortable. I think stress is what exacerbates a lot of underlying conditions that a fish might have. Not saying I would never do it if a fish was sick and I had to see if I could save it with a treatment that I don’t want my other healthy fish exposed to, but $100+/- fish that never made it to the DT after a month which means wherever you got it from won’t even refund your money if you bought it from them already sick Doesn’t add up to me. Also why I’ll never order online. I want to see the fish in person to ensure it’s got strong color and is eating and not acting weird, from a trusted LFS. smh sorry for your loss. I lost a beautiful and healthy PBT once too. But a stupid sally light foot crab killed it trying to eat it(took months to catch that punk)

Honestly, I never used to either. I used to buy a fish and either throw it right in the display if it came from a LFS or watch it for two weeks in a quarantine without meds and make sure it was eating. But then I had a velvet outbreak in my tank and it almost wiped out my entire tank. Almost every single fish from my foxface, all of my tangs, and even my clown fish were covered in spots. So after that I decided maybe losing one fish in quarantine outweighs the risk of losing all my fish. I wasn't a big fan of prophylacticly medicating fish without symptoms until I saw for myself what the real risk was. But like you said, to each his own.

ReefHomieJon · Sep 9, 2020

DrMMI said:
Honestly, I never used to either. I used to buy a fish and either throw it right in the display if it came from a LFS or watch it for two weeks in a quarantine without meds and make sure it was eating. But then I had a velvet outbreak in my tank and it almost wiped out my entire tank. Almost every single fish from my foxface, all of my tangs, and even my clown fish were covered in spots. So after that I decided maybe losing one fish in quarantine outweighs the risk of losing all my fish. I wasn't a big fan of prophylacticly medicating fish without symptoms until I saw for myself what the real risk was. But like you said, to each his own.

See and that’s why I can’t knock the QT route. VELVET.