buoyancy problems with tang

[reefiness]

So im trying to treat an outbreak of ick I had in my tank. I moved some of the infected fish into a 29 gallon HT. Currently treating with cupramine.

the HT was set up about 4 days ago using water from a water change and a sponge from the DT for bacteria.

Everyone has looked fine in there except the yellow tang, last night i noticed he seemed like he was breathing pretty hard. Did some water tests to find what seemed to be high ammonia levels. I quickly did a 10 gallon water change, and redosed the cupramine to get back the levels I was at. After this i read online that cupramine may appear to be ammonia so i think that may have been the ammonia i saw on the test as all the other fish seem totally happy and healthy.

Well this morning I woke up and see the yellow tang on his side laying on the ground when i turned on the light. At first i thought he was dead, but it seems like hes fine, just he cant float. I watched him for a while as he righted himself up, strugged to gain some altitude, then quickly dropped to the bottom of the tank again once he stopped putting effort into the swim.

Hes currently still alive, laying on his side, still pretty labored breathing which i assume is from over exertion, as the other fish all still appear fine.

Is there anything I can do to help this poor guy?

 

[salpet]

put him back in your main tank but im afraid that its probably too late

 

[reefiness]

put him back in your main tank but im afraid that its probably too late

any idea what the issue is?

 

[reefiness]

well the fish died...

i'm still curious what the problem may have been... anyone have any ideas?

I figure it was something with the swim bladder, but most things I read about swim bladder syndrome, it causes the fish to be stuck at the top of the water column, not the bottom.

 

[marrone]

The fish was dying and didn't have the power left in it to swim, or at lease swim like it normal would have. This is very common and has nothing to do with a swim bladder syndrome, it was the Ich in the fish that cause this to happen.

If you're treating your fish with copper make sure you have a test kit to measure the level, as if it's not at the right level it's not going to work, and too much will possible kill everything.

 

[reefiness]

yeah i have the cupramine, and the seachem copper test kit, testing once a day.

All the other fish im treating look very healthy right now. some have a spec or 2 left, but otherwise eating like little monsters.

Poor yellow fella...

 

[salpet]

next time your fish get ick which is always present in your main tank try to feed them frozen food dosed with garlic and selcon if your fish are strong they will get over it ,its a lot more stressfull to them to be caught and transferred than to just try to get them back to health and remember a strong fish will not get ick even if its present also get a uv light it will kill the ick spores that are suspended in the water but not the ones that are in the sand or rocks as far as which garlic to use go to the supermarket and buy minced garlic and use the juice in the jar.usually if a fish gets ick and survives it it will be that much more resistant to it

 

[reefiness]

I feed my fish garlic and selcon every day... so there wasnt really much else I can do besides take them out.

About the UV light... thats questionable. everyone has their own opinion on its effectiveness.