Shipping took two days - Powder Brown Tang on Edge of Death

[bobkin6]

My powder brown tang took an extra day to arrive and was very close to death. Water was freezing and some damsels that were also in the package were DOA.

I got the temp up slowly for the tang and then began drip acclimating (water he was in had almost no alkalinity - my guess is dissolved CO2 but correct me otherwise). Anyway, he slowly starting twitching his fins and was able to support his weight vertically in the bag towards end of acclimation (I.e. his tail was pointing down and he was swimming with head near surface). His tail only regained some movement at this point and he was fully acclimated so I added him to my QT.

Anyway, the fish is still alive about 5 hours after arriving but has not got any better since taking him out of bag (not gotten worse though).

His fins and tail are twitching, breathing heavy, but I wonder if he has brain damage?

Any thoughts on how to help this guy / whether it’s possible?

 

[bobkin6]

Video here

 

[helmsreef]

I think the only thing you could of done different was too just temp him and drop him into clean water. Opening a bag with a build up of co2 will cause the ph spike when you open and thus making the water toxic from ammonia build up. Could of possibly suffered a bit more due to ammonia. Hopefully he pulls through