Sail Fin Tang Heavy Breathing.. Food intake Minimal

[LA4lyfe]

Hello,

Yesterday into this morning My Sail Fin tang Started to exhibit heavy breathing. I did a few test of the water and Things seem fine.

Ammonia - 0.25 PPM
Nitrate - 0
Salinity 1.025
PH 8.2

The only thing that I changed in the last week was try brine shrimp which I think could have elevated Ammonia levels.

I have done a 10% water change and am waiting to test the parameters again.
Also am using the waterfall function on my aqueon 400 Canister with overflow to create more bubbles in the water as well as turned on the wave maker to the top of the water to create more area for aeration.

Is there much anything else that you would recommend?

 

[threebuoys]

How long have you had the Sailfin and did you quarantine the fish before adding him to your display tank?

Pictures and even a short video will help with diagnosis. I am unable to open the video you posted.


The video is using a different codex than what is provided with windows.

 

[LA4lyfe]

I have had it for about a month now. Got no it from Petco which stated they had it for 4 months.

 

[LA4lyfe]

How long have you had the Sailfin and did you quarantine the fish before adding him to your display tank?

Pictures and even a short video will help with diagnosis. I am unable to open the video you posted.


The video is using a different codex than what is provided with windows.

 

[MnFish1]

1. The pictures have so many spots, etc it's difficult to see - at first I thought there was HLLE, but that doesn't effect breathing? (I can't view the movie) 2. It's hard to tell what your ammonia is -since the lighting is wrong. 3. Your nitrate color does not match the card at all (to my vision) i.e. I think something is wrong with your testing?

However, the heavy breathing is not likely due to the testing - How old is your tank - as @threebouys said, did you quarantine the fish? Do you have other fish - are they sick or having symptoms. IF you didn't quarantine the fish I would tend to treat with copper per protocol for 30 days followed by Prazipro. Of course flukes are possible with the breathing - but - velvet would be more serious. If the fish would get worse, you could consider adding prazipro. These recommendations also depend on the answers to your questions

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I agree, the tang DOES have HLLE, but that isn't really fatal, and won't cause rapid breathing. I saw some invertebrates in the video, the feather duster looks o.k. at least. That tends to rule out water quality issues.
Are there other fish in the tank, are they breathing at all faster?

 

[LA4lyfe]

I agree, the tang DOES have HLLE, but that isn't really fatal, and won't cause rapid breathing. I saw some invertebrates in the video, the feather duster looks o.k. at least. That tends to rule out water quality issues.
Are there other fish in the tank, are they breathing at all faster?

Currently NO Inverts in the tank. Well non that I know of.

The other fish (2x CLown 2 x yellow tail blue Damsel are doing great)

The spots on the fish were from when I first brought it home and introduced it to the tank it was abused by one of the damsels.

I did not QT the Sailfin tang because it had been with the store for 4 months.

 

[LA4lyfe]

How long have you had the Sailfin and did you quarantine the fish before adding him to your display tank?

Pictures and even a short video will help with diagnosis. I am unable to open the video you posted.


The video is using a different codex than what is provided with windows.

I can see the video using Google Chrome. If that helps

 

[LA4lyfe]

Update,

Did another water change 10g on my 90g thank and checked amonia seems I was wrong on the reading yesterdays ammonia reading compared to today it is down .5 - .25

The fish is still alive but is still breathing heavy and still has yet to to eat in front of me.

The HLLE is gotten worse since the last couple of days of it breathing heavy.

I plan to do another water change tonight before i put the fish to bed to try and get the ammonia further down.

I also changed the Salinity to 1.024 from 1.028

Everything else in the tank seems to be eating well and not breathing like the Poor Sail Fin tang.
@Jay Hemdal @MnFish1
Should I treat with Copper anyway? Will that Harm the Copapod population in the tank?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Update,

Did another water change 10g on my 90g thank and checked amonia seems I was wrong on the reading yesterdays ammonia reading compared to today it is down .5 - .25

The fish is still alive but is still breathing heavy and still has yet to to eat in front of me.

The HLLE is gotten worse since the last couple of days of it breathing heavy.

I plan to do another water change tonight before i put the fish to bed to try and get the ammonia further down.

I also changed the Salinity to 1.024 from 1.028

Everything else in the tank seems to be eating well and not breathing like the Poor Sail Fin tang.
@Jay Hemdal @MnFish1
Should I treat with Copper anyway? Will that Harm the Copapod population in the tank?

Ha! I now see that the "inverts" are just a printed background. I was working on my phone before....

Raising the salinity to 1.028 is not a good idea, where did you hear about doing that? Raising the salinity by 4 specific gravity points needs to be done slowly, 2 points per 8 to 12 hours or so. Then, this level is stressful to fish and only partially controls one disease (Uronema) which your fish does not have.

Copper will do two things - it will bind to the calcium stones and rocks, making them possibly unfit for use with invertebrates later on, and it will kill your copepods and other tiny invertebrate life.

I cannot tell you if the rapid breathing is caused by water quality issues (ammonia) or one of three gill diseases; bacterial, protozoan or flukes.

 

[LA4lyfe]

Ha! I now see that the "inverts" are just a printed background. I was working on my phone before....

Raising the salinity to 1.028 is not a good idea, where did you hear about doing that? Raising the salinity by 4 specific gravity points needs to be done slowly, 2 points per 8 to 12 hours or so. Then, this level is stressful to fish and only partially controls one disease (Uronema) which your fish does not have.

Copper will do two things - it will bind to the calcium stones and rocks, making them possibly unfit for use with invertebrates later on, and it will kill your copepods and other tiny invertebrate life.

I cannot tell you if the rapid breathing is caused by water quality issues (ammonia) or one of three gill diseases; bacterial, protozoan or flukes.

LOL that Print Fools even me.

Sorry for the confusion. I am bringing the salinity Down. From 1.028 to 1.024 I did that over a 24 hour period with addition of 5 Gallons at a time hence the Water change. Not sure if high salinity could have been a part of the problem.

Thank you for the note on the Cooper May have to establish a quick QT tank with and start copper for just this one guy as the others seem to be doing well and I do not want to kill the microb life in the DT.

One last observation on the Sail Fin tang I saw some redness around the lip area of the tang. Will look into the your suggestions to see if I see anymore obvious symptoms or to rule out one of the three possible disease types.

Thank you again for your time.

 

[LA4lyfe]

Update:
Day three still breating heavy although Ileft a large sheet of Nori Over night and it looks to have been eaten The Tang is the only one who would likes it so making an assumption that it had a go at it. Not ruling out that the Copapods also attacked the nori.

I put another sheet in today to see if there is any change.
Keeping lights dim if not off as I do not have corals to worry about.

 

[LA4lyfe]

Update,

Good news Tang is back to eating.

Not sure what happened but from all my research this was a case of blockage casued by overfeeding pellets and not enough Nori.

Will not be making that mistake again.

Fish is eating normally and behaving as before. Looking to keep it that way

Thank you again for your replies.
@Jay Hemdal @MnFish1 @threebuoys