Worried about new royal gramma

[Cjud7982]

Hey guys,
After almost an entire year of not getting any new fish, I finally decided to add some new fish .

I ordered a royal Gramma and a carribean blue Tang after doing a ton of research. I've been wanting them both for a long time and I'm excited that they arrived today.

Unfortunately, when I opened the box, the water was cold. So I immediately began temp acclimating them, both fish looked extremely lethargic weak. After temp acclimating and matching salinities, I was able to get them into my qt tank predosed with 40-50 mg/gal of cp. After about 30 min the blue Tang was alert and seemed good, he's already eating his selcon soaked foods after a few hours of letting him be.

Now the concerns, the royal Gramma when added to the tank was pretty unresponsive, still breathing, slowly. He would just get blown around and every now and again twitch like he was trying to swim but couldn't. I decided to net him and place him in a breeder box within the qt tank to keep him from getting hurt. I turned the lights off and just let him be. After about 5 or so hours I went back to check on them and he was just laying in the net, I wiggled the net a bit and it seemed he was able to swim normally but quickly laid back down. I figured he was able to atleast swim to avoid being blown around and release him from the breeder box. He swam for a bit, then found a little hiding spot behind an airstone, then eventually found his way into a PVC pipe I have in there. He really hasn't moved much since. Probably about 3 hours now.

I am assuming he is shocked and stressed from all the activity and I've read it's pretty normal for these guys to stress easy and just hide.

Do you guys think there is anything else I can do for him? I am trying to just let them be and not stress them out anymore than needed. I have a decent amount of experience with qt and treating fish, but I've never really had one act this dramatic or lethargic for this long with no visible signs of disease.

Thanks for any help in advance!!

Here's a pic of him laying in the pipe, sorry about the bad pic, my lense has a crack in it on my phone

 

[robbyg]

Getting flow over the gills is very important. I have had fish recover when I was able to get them upright with a bit of flow going past them. That might be hard with a fish like this but try to at least get some flow running into the pipe. Not enough to push him around just enough that he can breath easier.

 

[Cjud7982]

Thank you for the response!!

Getting flow over the gills is very important. I have had fish recover when I was able to get them upright with a bit of flow going past them. That might be hard with a fish like this but try to at least get some flow running into the pipe. Not enough to push him around just enough that he can breath easier.

This was my first thoughts, so I added a power head to the tank to increase water flow over all in the tank, there's two hob, and a maxijet moving water. When I first got him in the tank I was able to "cradle" him with a net in the water flow to make sure he was getting water though the gills. But was afraid this was stressing him out. Which led me to the idea of the breeder box.

I will look to see if I can confirm water flow through the pipe

 

[Cjud7982]

Just went and checked on him again, he must have made his way out of the pipe and to the back corner of the the tank and looks to be sleeping behind the powerhead now. Wiggled the power head a tad and he swam right along with the powerhead as I moved it. Swam up and down the corner of the tank for a bit, then back and forward a couple times before he went back against the corner.

He seems to be he's getting better, or at least I hope. I just need to make sure he doesn't try jumping tank and getting some foam over the intake for the powerhead so he doesn't get pulled in. Always something

 

[sfin52]

Try not to mess with it much. Added stress is not good. Mine hid for several days. I'm sure it will be fine

 

[Cjud7982]

Update from today, the royal Gramma seems to be all good, spends most of his time hiding/laying against whatever he can find, but appears to be breathing and swimming much better.

Thank you all for the input, I usually don't get worried about the acclimations, but this one had me nervous for sure.

 

[sfin52]

Update from today, the royal Gramma seems to be all good, spends most of his time hiding/laying against whatever he can find, but appears to be breathing and swimming much better.

Thank you all for the input, I usually don't get worried about the acclimations, but this one had me nervous for sure.

Good to hear. It's hard not to stress when adding new fish