Fish Illness Mystery: Can food induce epilepsy?

[Anonymous]

I've never seen anything like this in 6 years of keeping fish...or ever heard of it. I am stumped.

My fish have seizures after I feed them. At first I thought it was a coincidence until it happened two more times.

Background: 300 gallon tank, established 3.5 years. Fish of interest are a flame angel added one month ago and a foxface rabbitfish added 2 months ago. Both were quarantined and show no outward signs of disease. Both feed readily on OSI spirulina, Formula Two, frozen mysis, and the Foxface also eats dried wakame.

First incident. I fed the tank, all the fish were out and about, the flame was eating like normal and then starts freaking. Dashing back and forth across the tank, hitting live rock, shaking uncontrollably. Floats upside down to the top of the tank, and stops breathing. Gets pulled to the overflow grating, apparently dead. I pull it off, hold him in the water for awhile, and move him back and forth to get oxygen over his gills. Starts breathing in rapid spurts, followed by gill gaping, stops breathing some more, starts up again etc. After about two minutes he's breathing normal so I release him. He awkwardly swam to the rocks. Comes out briefly later, and the next day he looked like he was perfectly fine.

Second time: Same fish, next day, right after I fed. I see him floating upside down in the rockwork. Lands on the sand, stops breathing. Starts up again in spurts, with gills gaping. 2-3 minutes later he swims back into the rockwork, apparently fine. Next day appears perfectly fine.

Third time: 2 days ago, right after I fed. Foxface extends its fins out rigidly, starts to float upside down. Floats almost to the top of the tank while breathing rapidly and in short bursts. After about 30 seconds he looks fine.

So now I'm scared to feed the tank. I'm somewhat certain it was the OSI spirulina I fed each time. The can is only a month or two old. It does smell a bit funky, so I wonder if the food has gone bad and is causing this. I already threw it out, but does this sound like anything anyone has ever experienced?

Thanks for the help,
Matt

 

[Anonymous]

Have you observed them at times other than feeding time?

It's gotta be the food.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, and they appear fine as far as I can tell. I've never heard of a food inducing such an immediate response. And the lineatus tang that eats just as much of it seems fine even after eating.

You'd think the fish would stop eating it if it tasted bad.

 

[Anonymous]

Matt, could the food have had mold mixed in it? Maybe something on your hands?

I have never seen or heard of anything like this in a tank. I have read of some native people using certain plant of fish extracts to knock fish out for capture. Electricty can also cause a similar reaction.
Andy

 

[Juck]

Sounds like the food but a similar thing happened to me when I put a new powerhead on my skimmer,,, everything went nuts soon after I plugged it in,,, I yanked out the plug and it never happened again,,,, I assumed it was an electrical thing,, even though it didn't trip the gfci.

 

[Anonymous]

I was concerned about the electric thing too. Nothing is leaking as far as I can tell, and the other fish don't seem affected.

My suspicion is that I may have gotten some water into the food canister. That would certainly cause mold to form.

 

[Anonymous]

Certainly odd. I hope you figure out what it is. I love a mystery.

 

[Anonymous]

Since it's only effecting one of your fish I certainly wouldn't rule out a food allergy or brain anomaly.

mario

 

[rBeOeBf]

I had the same experience in a fesh water tank years ago. There were several fish in the tank, but only one particular tiger barb had this reaction. It happened in my tank just as you described in yours. The fish would eat, then start swimming and breathing erratically, then go belly up and float around for a short period. Then all of a sudden he'd seem to snap out of it and start swimming normally again. I know this doesn't help diagnose your problem, but at least you know someone else has had a similar experience.

-Bob

 

[Anonymous]

Are you sure someone didn't hide their stash in your fish food? :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, Matt, I've never experienced this. And I've fed a million fish Even if mold forms in the can, I don't see how it would affect the fish so instantly. Slow toxicity would be more my guess, if mold was the culprit.
You are feeding flake, do the fish take it from the surface? Would they be gulping down anything landing on the surface with it? Like household contaminants, and yes, I know, household contaminants would affect the whole tank, but if your circulation and skimming/filtration is excellent, it would be removed before any damage would occur. But fish gulping it directly into their system might be a different thing.
Is the flake pre-soaked in vitamins first? Is the flake soggy, or hard and rigid like Aquarian food? That Aquarian stuff could cause paper cuts 8O and fish eating rough food might cause them to try and shake it out of their mouths...banging themselves against glass/rocks would explain the concussions, too. Ouch.

Or hell, maybe the food just tastes read bad

Buy them some Ocean Nutrition Formula Two flake... Prime Reef is tasty, too.

 

[Fastmarc]

I had a similar situation with a yellow tang.
Shortly after feeding, it would fall to the bottom of the tank against a rock or something and remain motionlees and unresponsive to even being poked for a few mins. It would then slowly start to move around and resume eating (if there was any food left by the other fish) normal again.
It freaked me out the first time I saw it, but it happened all most every time, so it just became part of it's routine.
I asked around and no one seem to have seen this before.
I just figure it got too excited and gobbled up too much food too soon and just passed out.
Unfortunately I lost that fish due to power outages after a hurricane last year.

 

[Anonymous]

Matt, you weren't handling any chemical/soap/whatever toxic nasty with your hands prior to feeding that could have contaminated the food?

 

[Anonymous]

Nope. I haven't changed anything in my routine in the nearly 4 years I've fed the tank. I put some flake in my hand, then stick my hand underwater to get it dispersed. If I just lay it on the top it gets sucked up by the overflow quickly.

The flame angel died. Looked fine for the 2 months I had it until a few days ago. I felt sick when I saw it. I always do when I kill a fish. Sad thing was this guy had survived a 48 hour shipping delay that should have killed him.

 

[Mihai]

Matt, it's probably obvious, but nobody spelled it out, so I will: Change the food!

Even if you used it before for a long time maybe it went bad three days ago. Who knows what happened, maybe a stinky bug fell in it and decomposed, maybe the aliens got it abducted and genetically engineered it to see its reaction on the fish (or the reaction of the humans to the fish reaction ). In any case, change the food!

M.

 

[Anonymous]

Last line of my first post

 

[Mihai]

Sorry, didn't see it. I'm sorry for your angel, unfortunately I know how you feel.

M.