Gills appear red and may be a sign of flukes. IF flukes, other signs will be elevated breathing rate, sudden darting across tank, loss of appetite and hiding. Its hard to tell from a dead carcass but helpful would be a video under white light intensity of the powder blue tangI have my blue tang of 3 years not eat for the last week. It is breathing normally, but doesn't swim as actively and has stopped eating. At the same time that i noticed that it had stopped eating, I did have a Lamarc angel die "suddenly" (with no signs of injury or infection- picture below for reference.)
Should I be worried?
Any time a fish stops eating for more than a day or two (except for eels) it is pretty serious.I have my blue tang of 3 years not eat for the last week. It is breathing normally, but doesn't swim as actively and has stopped eating. At the same time that i noticed that it had stopped eating, I did have a Lamarc angel die "suddenly" (with no signs of injury or infection- picture below for reference.)
Should I be worried?
I’ve never seen an ammonia spike in a long established tank unless something killed off the beneficial bacteria.
The tank’s surface is really still , that allows for more carbon dioxide to build up and the pH to drop. Algae pulls carbon dioxide during the day, so you’ll see a shift in pH from low in the morning to higher in the afternoon.
The skimmer s in the sump? It may be supplying enough aeration, the pH shift will tell you. Another trick: take a cup of water out of the tank and measure the pH. Then, aerate the heck out of it for a couple of hours and see if the pH rises. If it does, you have a carbon dioxide issue. If it stays at 7.4, you need to either do more water changes or add buffer to get the pH closer to 8.
