My yellow tank is scratched up? I saw him scratching, checked the water and realized the pH was low (>7.4) so I put some baking soda in it and got the pH back up to around 8 but my tang has an orange spot on his tail where he was rubbing against the rocks. I read that as long as the wound does not fester, I need not intervene. Its now been a couple days all water parameters are good but my tang is still scratching pretty aggressively? I have checked him quite closely but I see no indication of ick and none of the other fish are having difficulties. What do I do?
Help! I think my fish is sick! Idk what to do?
- Thread starter sappho
- Start date
billdogg
Well-known member
More information would help figure out a plan.
Tank size and age
filtration
sump?
lights
reactors
ro/di?
actual numbers for parameters
other inhabitants
Regardless, it probably should be removed to a hospital/qt tank until it gets better, if for no other reason than the fact that whatever might be going on could very well be passed on to other fish. It is also much easier to medicate (if needed) a smaller volume of water.
Tank size and age
filtration
sump?
lights
reactors
ro/di?
actual numbers for parameters
other inhabitants
Regardless, it probably should be removed to a hospital/qt tank until it gets better, if for no other reason than the fact that whatever might be going on could very well be passed on to other fish. It is also much easier to medicate (if needed) a smaller volume of water.
Bent
I got nothin'
Ok stop dude.
1: throw the ph tester in the trash, you don't need it. And stop buffering the water, sudden changes are stressful for all the animals. This isn't about chasing numbers.
2: the animals behavior is from an opportunistic pathogen. Exactly which one is hard to say. We need some pics to form a diagnosis here. The spots you see are from the organism and not from the scratching.
3: yellow tangs are prone to bacterial infections.
4: not having visible white spots does not rule out ich, but given the other descriptions given, it's likely bacterial.
Answer some questions here.
1: how old is the aquarium.
2: what size is the aquarium..
3: how long has the tang been in your aquarium.
4: is this a fish only tank or a reef?
5: what other living things are present in the tank. (Tankmates)
6: what is the last thing you added to the tank.
7: did you put this tang through a QT process.
8: is the fish eating? If so, what have you been feeding it.
9: where does your source water come from?
10: recent parameters other than the pH.
Answer those as detailed as possible and post a pic of the subject, we will try to fix him.
Aquarium is 6-7 months old
55 gal (I know the tank is too small, the person i got it from told me it was 90 gals and im working on getting a more appropriate sized tank)
tang went in just after cycle finished (4-5months)
FOWLR plus a shrimp
Dogface puffer (again, she is very small and im working on a new tank), flame clownfish, strawberry dottyback, starry blenny, peppermint shrimp
blenny was the last thing added to the tank, didnt qt him as he was in a copper treatment tank when i got him
tang was the first thing in the tank so no qt
all fish are doing great and eating just fine
I feed them shrimp, calamari, octopus, clams, scallops
i have an RODI system
ammonia:0, nitrite:0, nitrate:0, phosphates: 2ppm
i did a water change and the tang doesnt have any redness anymore but is still rubbing
Thank you!!
55 gal (I know the tank is too small, the person i got it from told me it was 90 gals and im working on getting a more appropriate sized tank)
tang went in just after cycle finished (4-5months)
FOWLR plus a shrimp
Dogface puffer (again, she is very small and im working on a new tank), flame clownfish, strawberry dottyback, starry blenny, peppermint shrimp
blenny was the last thing added to the tank, didnt qt him as he was in a copper treatment tank when i got him
tang was the first thing in the tank so no qt
all fish are doing great and eating just fine
I feed them shrimp, calamari, octopus, clams, scallops
i have an RODI system
ammonia:0, nitrite:0, nitrate:0, phosphates: 2ppm
i did a water change and the tang doesnt have any redness anymore but is still rubbing
Thank you!!
firefly73
LOVE HANDLE JACKAROO
ahhh dont know whether id trust 0 n03. what kit? a fo tank you must be changing alot of water to keep it that low. id double check that at a store or mates kit. you may find levels are much higher . leading to immune system issues etc. other than that may just be one of those things but out of all your fish he is the most sensitive.
Coming from a copper environment is the worst possible situation. Most likely he brought in ich.
Yep.
billdogg
Well-known member
What he said. The reason is that because the amount of copper in the water was almost certainly less than that which is need to kill the Ich parasite all it did was mask the disease in the fish, and possibly eliminate some of the parasites. The problem with that is that the ones that are left will be more resistant to copper, making it's use even less likely to solve the problem.
At this point, your best (only, IMHO) option will be to catch all the fish, QT them and using the Tank Transfer Method (TTM, see sticky at top of page) get past the problem. It will require you to run your DT fallow (completely fishless - inverts are ok) for a MINIMUM of 72 days.
The moral of this story is:
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS QT YOUR NEW ADDITIONS!!!!
There is no such thing as a LFS that does it properly - it is the new owners responsibility to do it, and do it the right way!
nitratepetra1
New member
another good option would be to take a picture to your lfs and see if they can help.
I made a mistake in my info, the clownfish was the one in the copper not the blenny. the clownfish was added just a month after the tang. Does this change anything?
also the ammonia level keeps spiking? it seems to correlate with the tangs rubbing. Idk whats wrong. I know i cycled the tank correctly and i havent been having any problems with ammonia until a few weeks ago. i reduced the feeding and that helped a bit.
Could the heat have something to do with it? The room has been very hot recently due to the weather but i have kept a close eye on the water temp and it stays 80 or below. It doesnt fluctuate much but it was consistently 75 before
also the ammonia level keeps spiking? it seems to correlate with the tangs rubbing. Idk whats wrong. I know i cycled the tank correctly and i havent been having any problems with ammonia until a few weeks ago. i reduced the feeding and that helped a bit.
Could the heat have something to do with it? The room has been very hot recently due to the weather but i have kept a close eye on the water temp and it stays 80 or below. It doesnt fluctuate much but it was consistently 75 before
jbvdhp
Active member
COULD be ammonia burn, but maybe not.
Have you checked for anything that is dying/dead? Ammonia shouldn't spike if your bio filter is appropriate.
shifty51008
12-5 Chiefs record
the ammonia spike could be from feeding to much, not enough filtration, ect. how much rock do you have? do you have a skimmer, any other type of filter?
as for your rodi unit unless it is produceing 0ppm TDS it is hard to say what it is putting into the tank. do you have a TDS meter?
as for your rodi unit unless it is produceing 0ppm TDS it is hard to say what it is putting into the tank. do you have a TDS meter?
