Stable water param yet fishes not doing well.. pls help?

[Singspot]

It's been 2 months since we setup the tank after cycling ... but fishes not doing well.
1. Hippo tang has lost balance and breathing fast
2. Emperor angelfish is losing color
3. Lipstick is hugely bloated and has not eaten for 10 days.
4. Flame angel and Harlequin rubbing their back against rocks ...

Amit.

 

[Old Fritz]

do you quarantine your fish before putting them in the tank, if so do you treat them with anything?

 

[miPapareef]

Amit - Welcome to R2R
Very sorry to hear about your fish
Please read this to help you identify what the problem might be Fish Disease Index - Pictorial Guide

I’m not a fish disease expert so can’t help more.
Here’s some people that can help @4FordFamily @Humblefish @melypr1985

 

[Jmas4]

What are your parameters at?

 

[Singspot]

Thanks for instant response folks. Really appreciate it.

My hippo tang died. It was heart warming- she was a sweetheart of our tank and all fishes. I will try upload video of Emperor Angel trying to take care of her....

I initially tried quarantine and that became a bigger challenge (ammonia wont stabilize in quarantine new tank) so stopped quarantine process ..

Nitrate is 25 (down from 50)
Ammonia, Nitrite, Chlorine are 0
Salinity i had dipped to 1.009 since 10/14 to treat hypo .. since Monday i am relying to quit ... fearing it is not working.. on Monday night I raised salinity to 1.011 and today plan to up it to 1.014 and will raising to go back to 1.023 that I was at ...

I have 11 fishes remaining - any suggestion on what could I do to protect these remaining beautiful family of fish?

2 clown fish
1 orange shoulder
1 flame angel
1 emperor angel juvie
1 large forxfac1 small twinspot wrasse
1 small pink face
1 small porcupine puffer
1 small clown trigger
1 larger harlequin tusk
1 flame hawk

I will setup quarantine ... I have a 37G aquarium with heater, light, cover, powerhead and overhang filter .. will set it up as permanent tank ... any suggestions for good overhang filter for 37G or anything else that o can use for QT to make it filtration good or shud I keep a small skimmer in it too (what kind/model)..?

 

[Patrick.S]

That sounds like a huge number of fish for a 2 month old tank. Your bio filter is likely struggling to keep up. This leaves your fish open to parasites and disease. At this point I don’t have a lot of advice other than feed plenty of quality food and don’t make drastic changes that stress the fish

 

[BedrockIOMC]

Thanks for instant response folks. Really appreciate it.

My hippo tang died. It was heart warming- she was a sweetheart of our tank and all fishes. I will try upload video of Emperor Angel trying to take care of her....

I initially tried quarantine and that became a bigger challenge (ammonia wont stabilize in quarantine new tank) so stopped quarantine process ..

Nitrate is 25 (down from 50)
Ammonia, Nitrite, Chlorine are 0
Salinity i had dipped to 1.009 since 10/14 to treat hypo .. since Monday i am relying to quit ... fearing it is not working.. on Monday night I raised salinity to 1.011 and today plan to up it to 1.014 and will raising to go back to 1.023 that I was at ...

I have 11 fishes remaining - any suggestion on what could I do to protect these remaining beautiful family of fish?

2 clown fish
1 orange shoulder
1 flame angel
1 emperor angel juvie
1 large forxfac1 small twinspot wrasse
1 small pink face
1 small porcupine puffer
1 small clown trigger
1 larger harlequin tusk
1 flame hawk

I will setup quarantine ... I have a 37G aquarium with heater, light, cover, powerhead and overhang filter .. will set it up as permanent tank ... any suggestions for good overhang filter for 37G or anything else that o can use for QT to make it filtration good or shud I keep a small skimmer in it too (what kind/model)..?

How fast did you add all of these fish? when was the last added?

 

[BedrockIOMC]

WHat Patrick said is true and about the only thing that can be done. any time on a new tank you need to add fish slowly and dont over load your tank. You have to add one or 2 and let your environment in your tank level out to support everything then add 1 or 2 more and do the same thing each time you add more.

 

[Patrick.S]

Your list of fish are pretty big guys and some quite aggressive. I would strongly suggest not trying to stick them all in a 37g tank. I don’t think that would end well.

 

[Duffer]

way too many fish and way too fast.The above statements are all true in nature.

 

[LBReefer]

If you can return some (most) of the fish you will be much better off. I've found much more success in adding one or two small fish every month or two. I know this means giving up fish you may have become attached to, but you and the fish will be happier in the long run. And I'm speaking from experience - if you check out my build thread, I experienced two outbreaks of velvet in my first 6 months of starting a new tank.

I also struggled with quarantine until I started to think of it as essential a mini tank. I now maintain separate copper contaminated live rock and bio media on hand (in a bucket with a power head and heater) so I can setup a QT or hospital tank at a moments notice.

I know that this is all a lot to take in at once and not what you want to hear, but please learn from our mistakes.

- LBR

 

[Singspot]

Thanks for instant response folks. Really appreciate it.

My hippo tang died. It was heart warming- she was a sweetheart of our tank and all fishes. I will try upload video of Emperor Angel trying to take care of her....

I initially tried quarantine and that became a bigger challenge (ammonia wont stabilize in quarantine new tank) so stopped quarantine process ..

Nitrate is 25 (down from 50)
Ammonia, Nitrite, Chlorine are 0
Salinity i had dipped to 1.009 since 10/14 to treat hypo .. since Monday i am relying to quit ... fearing it is not working.. on Monday night I raised salinity to 1.011 and today plan to up it to 1.014 and will raising to go back to 1.023 that I was at ...

I have 11 fishes remaining - any suggestion on what could I do to protect these remaining beautiful family of fish?

2 clown fish
1 orange shoulder
1 flame angel
1 emperor angel juvie
1 large forxfac1 small twinspot wrasse
1 small pink face
1 small porcupine puffer
1 small clown trigger
1 larger harlequin tusk
1 flame hawk

I will setup quarantine ... I have a 37G aquarium with heater, light, cover, powerhead and overhang filter .. will set it up as permanent tank ... any suggestions for good overhang filter for 37G or anything else that o can use for QT to make it filtration good or shud I keep a small skimmer in it too (what kind/model)..?

That sounds like a huge number of fish for a 2 month old tank. Your bio filter is likely struggling to keep up. This leaves your fish open to parasites and disease. At this point I don’t have a lot of advice other than feed plenty of quality food and don’t make drastic changes that stress the fish

Agree it was too many fish too fast ... I started in August end (so about 3 months..) with 2 weeks of phantom feeding and Turbo start bacteria ... then added 3 fishes. .. everything was fine and then I rushed... last addition was 3 weeks back that included a square back anthias ... within 3 days of adding this fish I noticed a bump onnita side and white stuff (looked like fluke - pls check the attached and share what you think?) ...

I now just want to get remaining fish and yank to settle and get to healthy balance ... anything you suggest I do now to my current tank/fish to better establish the tank and get the fishes to health?

I have all kinds of frozen food and 2pellets (formula 1 and Angelfish pellets).. the fishes seem to like pellet more .. should I feed more of pellets?

 

[Singspot]

do you quarantine your fish before putting them in the tank, if so do you treat them with anything?

I have a 37G setup for QT but when I was QT-ing my purple tang and Flame Hawk - the flame-hawk was not doing well (probably due to Amonia spike and I was using copper) so I quit QT ... i was not able to keep amonia stable and do not have time to do any tank service more frequent than weekend ...

I did start "FW Dip" - i tried using FW with copper and prazi ... any thoughts on FW? Is this useful and any fish that is not suitable for FW?

What do you using in QT and do you use any medications?

 

[PatW]

There are two types of quarantine. One is you hold and observe fish for at least 8 weeks looking for the onset of symptoms.

The other type of quarantine is a prophylactic treatment such as copper for 2 plus weeks followed by prazipro for a couple of weeks followed by a recovery period.

There are long and detailed descriptions of quarantine in the disease section.

 

[joshbridges]

not to be harsh in anyways but in my opinion do some more research on the fish you have ,i have a 120g 5ft with only 3 fish and its been almost a year , patience is for the real fishkeepers who dont like to waist money on expensive fish ,you seem to be an impulse hobbiest that i see far too often for thier own good,, because a hippo tang shouldnt of been in a 37g to start with , :s , im very sorry to hear this and FW dipping is actually extremely efficient if done properly , 30 second intervals 1-3 times a day every 2 days depending on the severity of disease (FW dipping mostly kills parasites),, my suggestions is research your fish and give the ones that require more water volume back to the lfs where they can be treated and cared for properly

 

[joshbridges]

you could use a small 20g long for a qt and itll be easy for hob filters to be more efficient ,, but i really think you should get a bigger tank or give those fish back to the lfs where they can be properly taken care of ,, those fish here in canada would cost a pretty penny even just for one lol ,, a juve clownfish is 30$ and thats without taxes lol a flame angel is 99.99 and an emperor angel is 79.99 , those 3 alone is enough of a bioload for only 37G

 

[Fishfinder]

Where are you located?

 

[EmdeReef]

Any pics? Spots on other fish?

Unfortunately, sounds like you may have multiple pathogens in your tank. Flashing is most commonly a symptom of ich or velvet. At this point the safest thing is to quarantine and Be ready to treat. If indeed either ich or velvet you will also have to run your tank fallow.

Re. QT check this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/

You could try using seachem matrix in your QT to help the bio filter. I’ve had good success with it and adding biospira to seed. No problems in 5QTs that I had to set up overnight. Get a cheap marineland hang on back filter on amazon and you solve both filtration and flow. Don’t forget to remove carbon if adding any meds.

 

[Singspot]

not to be harsh in anyways but in my opinion do some more research on the fish you have ,i have a 120g 5ft with only 3 fish and its been almost a year , patience is for the real fishkeepers who dont like to waist money on expensive fish ,you seem to be an impulse hobbiest that i see far too often for thier own good,, because a hippo tang shouldnt of been in a 37g to start with , :s , im very sorry to hear this and FW dipping is actually extremely efficient if done properly , 30 second intervals 1-3 times a day every 2 days depending on the severity of disease (FW dipping mostly kills parasites),, my suggestions is research your fish and give the ones that require more water volume back to the lfs where they can be treated and cared for properly

My QT is 37G ... the main tank is 240 plus 65 Sump ..

 

[Singspot]

looks like my tank has Gill Fluke/ Fluke ... though not sure how they survived Hypo (1.009 for 3 weeks) ... I started Prazipro in main display and trying to salvage the remaining fishes ...