slief
RC Sponsor
It's amazing how stressful this hobby can be. I've been rather fortunate over the years to have very very few issues with fish or my tank. One case of an ich ourbreak in 25 years and only one crash. The crash was the result of an avoidable bleach incident last year, which if you have been following this thread you may remember.. The ich issue was about 4 years ago. Also covered in this thread and completely avoidable as it was the result of a large water change with water that was much colder than my tank. End result was a 4-5 degree drop in tank temp in a matter of a half hour or less.
This last Sunday I noticed the new Atlantic Blue Tang had a case of pop eye in one eye.. At first I chalked it up to a possible run in with my Fox Face. I'd seen a similar issue once before with another fish which resolved itself in a week or so. In the first pop eye case, I assumed it was the fox face because there were no other variables that were an obvious root cause. There was also a mark near the eye of that fish. As such, I figured that was the cause with the Atlantic Tang. On Sunday I noticed both eyes were popped and naturally I began to worry a bit. Well, maybe more than a bit. The new tang came from a tank with 1.022 salinity and mine runs between 1.024-1.025. The fish also came out of 78* water where as mine is hovering at or just below 82* because of our summer heat. I allow my tank to get that warm during the summer figuring that most of the fish and corals originate in oceans that easily hit those temps during the warmer months. As such, I use fans to keep my temps below 82 and have my chiller set to come on at 82.5. My chiller hasn't come on in a couple years now which I like. Needless to say, with both eyes pop eyed and reviewing the variables, I was starting to stress.
Anyhow, with both eyes pop eyed, I began to worry that it was stressed induced likely caused by a few factors. Temp change, salinity change and my Vlamingi and Unicorn tang being a bit aggressive towards the new fish. What worried me most was the potential for ich and I got kind of paranoid. I did acclimated him slowly over the course of a couple hours but sometimes that isn't enough. My last ich outbreak was fairly catastrophic in that I lost a lot of fish but at the same time, all fish were exposed to the temp drop so I'm not surprised that nearly every fish got it. Given that my tank is a reef tank, there was no treating the tank with copper. I tried every reef safe remedy but nothing really helped. I never went fallow. I just let it run it's course and eventually it went away never to been seen again although I believe the ich parasite is in my system but I also believe my fish are not really susecptable to it unless I really stress them. I don't maintain QT tanks and in over 20 years of having this tank, I've never had an issue with that except for the one exception which was clearly induced.
Now back to the tang. Many thoughts went through my head from dropping him back off at Daves or bringing it to Jims for some med treatment. I opted to hold off on fishing him out of the tank (literally) and watch him for a day or two more. Last night I decided on addiing some garlic to the food in an effort to be proactive although I'm not sure than would have done much good. Today, much to my relief, I came home and found him pretty much back to normal. One was eye was 100% normal and the other was about 95% back to normal. I think it just needed some time and don't think the one garlic dosing hard anything to do with his speedy recovery. He never did stop eating but today he had a serious appetite. The Vlamingi and the Unicorn are now fine with him and he's calmly swimming around with the rest of the tangs. I refrained from posting this the other day so that I could quietly deal with it and report after the fact. At this point I chalk it up to stress induced with the remote possibility of a run in from with the fox face. There does appear to be a little mark over one of his eyes so I will always wonder. While I will never know the reason, I am happy he rebounded in a real hurry.
This last Sunday I noticed the new Atlantic Blue Tang had a case of pop eye in one eye.. At first I chalked it up to a possible run in with my Fox Face. I'd seen a similar issue once before with another fish which resolved itself in a week or so. In the first pop eye case, I assumed it was the fox face because there were no other variables that were an obvious root cause. There was also a mark near the eye of that fish. As such, I figured that was the cause with the Atlantic Tang. On Sunday I noticed both eyes were popped and naturally I began to worry a bit. Well, maybe more than a bit. The new tang came from a tank with 1.022 salinity and mine runs between 1.024-1.025. The fish also came out of 78* water where as mine is hovering at or just below 82* because of our summer heat. I allow my tank to get that warm during the summer figuring that most of the fish and corals originate in oceans that easily hit those temps during the warmer months. As such, I use fans to keep my temps below 82 and have my chiller set to come on at 82.5. My chiller hasn't come on in a couple years now which I like. Needless to say, with both eyes pop eyed and reviewing the variables, I was starting to stress.
Anyhow, with both eyes pop eyed, I began to worry that it was stressed induced likely caused by a few factors. Temp change, salinity change and my Vlamingi and Unicorn tang being a bit aggressive towards the new fish. What worried me most was the potential for ich and I got kind of paranoid. I did acclimated him slowly over the course of a couple hours but sometimes that isn't enough. My last ich outbreak was fairly catastrophic in that I lost a lot of fish but at the same time, all fish were exposed to the temp drop so I'm not surprised that nearly every fish got it. Given that my tank is a reef tank, there was no treating the tank with copper. I tried every reef safe remedy but nothing really helped. I never went fallow. I just let it run it's course and eventually it went away never to been seen again although I believe the ich parasite is in my system but I also believe my fish are not really susecptable to it unless I really stress them. I don't maintain QT tanks and in over 20 years of having this tank, I've never had an issue with that except for the one exception which was clearly induced.
Now back to the tang. Many thoughts went through my head from dropping him back off at Daves or bringing it to Jims for some med treatment. I opted to hold off on fishing him out of the tank (literally) and watch him for a day or two more. Last night I decided on addiing some garlic to the food in an effort to be proactive although I'm not sure than would have done much good. Today, much to my relief, I came home and found him pretty much back to normal. One was eye was 100% normal and the other was about 95% back to normal. I think it just needed some time and don't think the one garlic dosing hard anything to do with his speedy recovery. He never did stop eating but today he had a serious appetite. The Vlamingi and the Unicorn are now fine with him and he's calmly swimming around with the rest of the tangs. I refrained from posting this the other day so that I could quietly deal with it and report after the fact. At this point I chalk it up to stress induced with the remote possibility of a run in from with the fox face. There does appear to be a little mark over one of his eyes so I will always wonder. While I will never know the reason, I am happy he rebounded in a real hurry.
Last edited:
