Emperor Angel Emergency!

[snarkes]

Hey guys, I've got a baby Emperor Angel in my tank... probably about 1.5-2 inches long. He's always looked great. At the LFS he had been there for about a week and half, was swimming, eating, and had some good personality. I bought him QT'd him for a few days and again, was awesome, not shy at all, eating and in general good health. Yesterday I moved him from Jacksonville, FL to my home in Atlanta, GA... took about 5.5 hours during which time I had him in about 3 gallons of water with a bubbler. Put him in the tank after an hour and a half of acclimation and he looked fine. Today I came home from work and I found him laying on the sand in the back of the tank... alive but not in good condition at all. My other fish are doing awesome (small blue tang, false clown, shrimp goby, and one green chromis) I have checked my levels:

pH: 8.06
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Trace? I have a hagen test and it seems like if there is any color to the result its the lowest possible
Specific Gravity: 1.025
Temp 78.9

What in the world could possibly be wrong with him? It looked like his gils may have been inflamed, and I dont have an amonia test, but everything is doing awesome otherwise. If amonia was the problem wouldnt my cleaner shrimps be dead and my red sea star, hermits, urchin etc?

I have moved the little guy to a five gallon bucket with a bubbler, some live rock, and some carbon so that the current and any opportunistic crabs dont get at him, but is there anything else I can do? Is this all in vein? Help a guy out

Thanks in advance.

 

[snarkes]

Any ideas?

 

[bertoni]

This type of situation is tough to diagnose. I'm moving the thread to the fish disease forum for more views.

 

[bertoni]

The parameters you list are fine, but an ammonia test might be interesting. Different animals have different tolerances to ammonia, although I am not at all convinced that ammonia is the issue.

Does the fish appear to be gasping?

 

[snarkes]

No... he seems to be breathing normal... just his gils may be inflamed. I say may be because they arent huge or anything and it could have just been the angle I was looking at him. When I went to get him with the net to move him to a QT bucket he swam around some. But in the bucket without any flow to push him around he's just laying there. I really want to help this little guy out. Dont know if the bucket was an altogether great idea, but there's carbon, live rock and a bubbler in there to help him out.

 

[bertoni]

Well, I just don't know enough to help more. Sorry!

 

[snarkes]

Thats alright, thank you for your help anyways. The little guy died last nite