Seeking advice on hippo tang that is failing to thrive

[Leaellynasaura]

I have in my fish quarantine tank 2 clowns, two Bengali cardinals and one hippo tang. They were put in and then after a few days given one week of prazipro and then two weeks of cupramine. They are scheduled to go into the display tank tonight after work. The 4 non tang fish seem very happy. The tang is not. I have not actually seen it eat since the day I got it from the pet store. It may be eating secretly. It has swam around more prior to adding the copper. It mostly hides now. It is kind of thin now and just looks rough.

I have three options now.

1. Put it in display tank with other 4 fish.
2. Leave it in quarantine tank, but over next week change water until no medicine is left and hope it regains strength.
3. Put it in my coral quarantine tank which has a lot of GHA available for it to maybe eat.

Any tips?

 

[aykwm]

My suggestion is keep all fish in quarantine and run carbon and possibly WC to remove any medication left. Then observe for any signs that might appear. Prazipro might suppress the appetite of the fish, then adding it to copper might have caused it to stress more that why it didn't start to eat yet. My suggestion to keep all fish in quarantine with the blue tang is that disease might be hidden and two weeks of copper wasn't enough, you don't want that to move to your DT, either through hippo or other fish. Hopefully when removing the medication from water it return to eating normally.
In general I believe hippos eat like pigs and you should notice that. Also usually when you finish treatment you want to observe them for two weeks before adding to DT.
Any reason to treat them with copper?

 

[Leaellynasaura]

They all seemed free of disease going into quarantine. This is only my second batch of fish and I am still new to this. I added the copper because this guide was calling for it: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/quarantining-marine-fish-made-simple

I useD this protocol with my first batch of fish with good results. It was hard on the fish however and they did not eat normally until being placed into to display tank either.

 

[aykwm]

I applaud you for taking the quarantining route, many people new to the hobby (including me) just place fish in the tank until disease pops up and learn the lesson of how important quarantine is.
Although I recommend don't treat with medication unless needed. I would suggest quarantining them for two weeks with no medication at all and watch for symptoms.
I don't recommend copper unless you see a disease that needs copper to be treated. Copper is basically toxin than at low enough concentration will kill the parasite instead of fish, and misusing it can either lead to poising and killing the fish or hiding disease symptoms until fish are put in DT.
When administering copper did you maintain the required level throughout quarantine by checking via a test kit? What level did you maintain.
You can use prazipro while quarantining, but I recommend two doses 5-7 days apart, because if flukes is present prazipro won't kill the eggs, so they will hatch and you will have flukes again, thus the other dose will ensure you got rid of the problem once and for all.
Also, the favorite quarantine method is Tank Transfer Method (TTM) + prazipro, its more stressful than normal quarantine, but using it does not require any medication and it will get rid of ich (most annoying disease) along with flukes.

You can read guides over in this forum and if you have any question you are always welcomed to ask. If anything is out of the ordinary appears on the fish I advise you to post it here just to be on the safe side.

Here are some guides I recommend you read:

How to Quarantine
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/

Tank Transfer Method
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-transfer-method.192655/

Fish Disease Index - Pictorial Guide
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-disease-index-pictorial-guide.285708/

Best of luck

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Although I recommend don't treat with medication unless needed. I would suggest quarantining them for two weeks with no medication at all and watch for symptoms.
I don't recommend copper unless you see a disease that needs copper to be treated. Copper is basically toxin than at low enough concentration will kill the parasite instead of fish, and misusing it can either lead to poising and killing the fish or hiding disease symptoms until fish are put in DT.

+1. Personally, I wouldn't treat a fish with medications unless it showed signs of illness. Every medication that has an effect in a biological system has side effects. In some cases the side effects are so small that the use is a "no brainer," but personally I wouldn't put copper fish medications into this category. Fish might survive copper better than the parasites, but that's not reason enough for me to treat fish prophylactically. Just my two cents.

 

[Humblefish]

3. Put it in my coral quarantine tank which has a lot of GHA available for it to maybe eat.

I would do this (for the Hippo only) IF no new corals have been added to your coral QT for 76 days.

Transfer the Hippo without lowering the Cu level first.

 

[Leaellynasaura]

The only thing that makes me hesitate for option three is the corals in that tank won't be out of their 76 days until next Thursday.

 

[Humblefish]

The only thing that makes me hesitate for option three is the corals in that tank won't be out of their 76 days until next Thursday.

You are probably safe; however it might be best to move the Hippo to a non-medicated QT instead. At least until Thursday.

FYI; 2 weeks in copper is not long enough when using only 1 QT. However, it sounds like the Hippo needs to get out of medication and utilizing a second non-medicated QT would allow for that.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Yes^ I would only recommend keeping them in the current QT if you can move them temporarily and take it down/sterilize then fill it back up with new water.

 

[Leaellynasaura]

I took the 4 happy fish out and changed 2/3 of the water to remove most of the medicine.