Bluethroat Trigger Hiding Recently

I have a 6" Bluethroat Trigger for around 8 months in my 150 FOWLR tank.

Around a week ago during feeding, he did not come out and just hid in the rocks. He does swim around, but not during feeding for the last week. I am hoping he is still getting some scraps lying around, but not sure. I have fed extra this week. I feed Mysis, silversides, prawns, clams, and squid and soaked in garlic guard and vita-chem. I typically feed every other day, but this week been feeding every day. My concern is if he does not eat soon, he will wind up dying due to not eating.

I am not sure what started this. I have not seen aggression by the other fish. My first inclination is stress from the others is causing this, but I have no proof.

Other Fish in tank currently include:

30" Snowflake Eel in tank for 2 years 8 months
7" Porcupine Puffer in tank for 2 years 6 months
7" Red Breasted Wrasse in tank for 1 year 7 Months
6" Banana Wrasse in tank for 1 year
4" Blue Hippo Tang in tank for 10 months (had it in a smaller tank for 2 years before)

My parameters are:

Salinity 1.0235
PH: 8.3 to 8.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate over 80 with a Hach Test.
Temp 78-79

I think the PH is a bit high but it is not a sudden jump. My Apex probe says 8.5, but it is around 2 years old and I have never cleaned it so that can be false. With a hack test the PH is 8.3 to 8.5. With an Instant Ocean Test it was 8.2. With a Salifert it was dark green so I think it is 8.3 to 8.5 there too.

I have been using Instant Ocean Salt for around 6 months. I was using Coralife salt before that and plan on switching to Instant Ocean Reef Crystals (I have a 29 biocube so easier to do the same salt).

I see no signs of any ich, flukes, or anything else. The Tang does look a little beat up with frayed fins and the start of what I think is HLLE, but I have thought that was due to aggression by others. All fish were QTed and treated with cupramine or Quinine Sulfate as well as prazopro in QT. I have even treated the display with three back to back doses of prazipro back in July out of concern that the tang's frayed fins were due to flukes or something, but the prazi did not change anything so I concluded the tang is just getting picked on and the HLLE is probably diet or some other reason.

I change around 15% to 20% of water every week.

I have around 80 pounds of pukani LR (around 60 in display, 25 in sump in smaller pieces) and 20 Liters of Seachem Pond Matrix (in sump). I do use a filter pad in the sump on top of the rock that I change every week with water changes.

I have an Octopus XP2000sss skimmer. It never performed great. More crud on the sides of the walls than going into the cup.

I typically run a Jumbo Reactor mixed with GFO and ROX carbon and change every two weeks.

Any comments are appreciated.

thanks,

Mike
 
I have a 6" Bluethroat Trigger for around 8 months in my 150 FOWLR tank.

All fish were QTed and treated with cupramine or Quinine Sulfate as well as prazopro in QT. I have even treated the display with three back to back doses of prazipro back in July out of concern that the tang's frayed fins were due to flukes or something, but the prazi did not change anything so I concluded the tang is just getting picked on and the HLLE is probably diet or some other reason.

Any comments are appreciated.

thanks,

Mike


Just a curiosity, but was the DT treated with Quinine Sulfate and the Trigger exposed? Or has the Trigger been exposed to QS?
 
I treated the Bluethroat with QS and then Prazi is a 55 gallon QT around 6 months ago. Never treated the display with QS. He was fine during treatment and up till now fine in the display.
 
I calibrated my probes and I think My PH is fine. Not 8.5; rather around 8.1. However, the Bluethroat Trigger is still not eating. He hides plenty, but does swim around. When I feed, he seems not interested.

One odd think is he seems to be bumping into the glass and some rocks at times. I am not sure if this is a sign of anything.

All other fish seem fine.

A guy a the LFS said try to feed gold fish; however, I am concerned to introduce something into the tank that way plus I would think the Puffer, Eel, and Red Breasted Wrasse would gobble them up first.

thanks,

Mike
 
Even though its a fish only system, the nitrates are too high. Are you running bio pellets? If not then you should. My 220 is stocked to th brim and nitrates are at 5. Other than that the only other thing it really could be is its getting harrassed.
 
I tried running biopellets and after 4 months I still had constant cloudy water. I just gave up on it and have not tried again.
 
I did a 35 gallon water change yesterday. I could do another 35 gallon tomorrow to help lower nitrates. Is this too soon? Too close of water changes?

thanks,

Mike
 
Your water will be cloudy until nitrates go down. Also its a must to run a good protein skimmer. You can do all the water changes you want as long as your fresh salt mix matches the systems water parameters. Temperature and ph are the main thing.
 
well, I removed the Tang to my QT on Sunday and tonight the trigger is eating. For the last two weeks, the trigger would come out, but at feeding time, he hid.

I decided to remove the tang because I did not see the tang attack the trigger, but I did see the tang hover around and am guessing that was causing stress.

So hopefully the trigger will keep eating.

Also, I did start biopellets again last Friday to help lower nitrates but started with only 1/2 a cup thinking last time I just did too much. Hopefully I will not get bad blooms this time.

And I got a new PH probe (and calibrated it) for my Apex Controller. PH is around 8.0
thanks,

Mike
 
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