Tang in QT breathing fast, not eating, has mouth damage?

[Sablah]

I got a Whitetail Bristletooth Tang from LA's Diver's Den. It arrived yesterday and I put him in QT tank. It swam around for a few minutes and then has been hiding in the PVC ever since. I kept the lights out and so I didn't get to observe it all that well, but I didn't notice it breathing so fast yesterday. It hasn't shown any interest in food. It's lips seem a bit puffy and white, and it doesn't close it's mouth all the way when breathing. I haven't dosed any medications. I added a small piece of liverock from my DT and used Dr. Tim's One and Only to seed the HOB filter. I drip acclimated it yesterday (after reading these forums today I read that I shouldn't have done that, oops). It will try to hide around the corner of the PVC when I get close, so its still stressed. I included the picture of it from LA Diver's Den (no clue how old the picture is) for comparison of how it looked at some point in the past.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0-0.01
Oxygen: 6-7ppm
Temp: 78
Salinity: 35ppt

I didn't want to do any dips in case it would make the situation worse without knowing exactly what's wrong. I'm not sure if it hurt itself swimming against the glass, flukes, infection, or what. What should my next steps be?

 

[Sablah]

Any ideas from #reefsquad? I'm not trying to be impatient, I'm just worried about going to bed without taking any action. I did a 5g water change (it's a 20g tank) and I've got new water getting prepared to do further water changes too.

 

[Idoc]

Possibly just heavily stressed from the new environment, shipping with ammonia in the water (possibly worsened by the drip acclimation). He does look like he is breathing heavily, though. But, the rest of the fish seems healthy to me. Maybe just watch him closely in a dimly lit room with minimal movement activity outside the quarantine tank for a day longer with observation. Watch if he starts to head for the powerhead and start swimming directly into it...bad sign of velvet. Drop some mysis in with him possibly and let him rest a little tonight. Then, reassess the condition in the morning.

btw...this is the fish I want for my tank!!!

 

[GoVols]

Any ideas from #reefsquad? I'm not trying to be impatient, I'm just worried about going to bed without taking any action. I did a 5g water change (it's a 20g tank) and I've got new water getting prepared to do further water changes too.

From your current parameters, you have done what you can do.

If it's gills has been burned, by higher ph raising ammonia from drip acclimation, hoping for a full recovery.

It sure is a beautiful specimen, would think it came from Divers Den (WYSIWYG) from their Wisoncon facility.

It sure is panting hard, but hope it's just adjusting to your OT tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Any ideas from #reefsquad? I'm not trying to be impatient, I'm just worried about going to bed without taking any action. I did a 5g water change (it's a 20g tank) and I've got new water getting prepared to do further water changes too.

Sorry, I went to sleep early and didn't see your post until just now. That mouth is very worrisome. I've seen this in fish that have gotten caught in a net and had their teeth tangle - notably this genus of tang and angelfish. However, that doesn't account for the rapid breathing. As the others alluded to, and as I think you know, drip acclimating shipped fish is problematic for them - as the pH rises in the water, the ammonia is not diluted fast enough and it changes to the more toxic form, damaging the fish. Another issue is a salinity rise during acclimation. Divers Dens should have told you the salinity the fish was in prior to arrival, right? You always need to be wary of moving a fish from low salinity to high salinity. I don't see any course of action other than to keep the lights a bit dim, and wait things out....

Jay

 

[Sablah]

I wanted to post an update earlier, but things have been super busy around here. Good news though, the tang is doing much better. Breathing rate is down to a normalish amount, and it is closing its mouth much more. I've seen it come out of the PVC hiding spot a few times, and tried to eat some pellets I put in there. Hopefully things keep going well!