Sick purple tang!

[woodnaquanut]

Bought the fish two days ago. It has been in TT tank since then. Today it started swimming head down. It's swimming hard but not able to go down easily. It continues to swim hard. Any ideas what could be causing this? Cure?

 

[HumbleFish]

Sounds like a swim bladder issue. Is the fish swimming vertically with its tail up?

 

[woodnaquanut]

Sounds like a swim bladder issue. Is the fish swimming vertically with its tail up?

I'd say mostly a 60 degree angle. It's trying to swim down but has a hard time doing that.

Yesterday I moved it to a 5 gal. bucket with new water. Seems to be doing better today. Hard to be sure because the view into the bucket is only from the top!

It was in a tank with a Foxface. The tang was pecking at the FF and perhaps the FF fought back.

 

[HumbleFish]

Sounds swim bladder related. I'm assuming you can't see a gas bubble protruding from the swim bladder though?

If the fish is in QT, dose Metronidazole in conjunction with Neomycin. (You can food soak this combination as well.)

You can also try a 30 minute Methylene Blue bath.

But if a gas bubble shows up, your only viable option is to lance the air out using a 30 gauge insulin syringe.

 

[woodnaquanut]

Thanks for the replies.
No gas bubble that I can see.
I'm having trouble finding Metronidazole and Neomycin. Do you have any recommendations on product names that contain Metronidazole or Neomycin?
I have Methylene Blue as part of a product called 'Saftey Stop'. I'll use that today if I can't find the other two.

 

[HumbleFish]

Do you have any recommendations on product names that contain Metronidazole or Neomycin?

Seachem Metroplex and Neoplex are two aquarium brands.

 

[woodnaquanut]

Thanks!!!

 

[woodnaquanut]

So it's TT day. I'm looking at the tang and it looks a lot better. The frantic swimming to the bottom is gone, I think. It is no longer in a head down position all the time. It comes eagerly to the surface for food.

A bit more of the tangs history...
The store said their water was 1.025 but was actually 1.035! I was QT'ing with other fish from another store with a SG of 1.019 so I dripped the tang down to 1.023 or so before putting it directly into 1.019 water. Could this cause the swim bladder issues? Environmental issues not bacteria, etc.

Meds come today and I'm not sure I should medicate.
Oh woe is the indecision!! :lol:

 

[Uncle99]

Lower salinity usually is no issue, swim bladder is just a possibility.
If he is behaving normally, I would just watch him, In my world, I only medicate when I can diagnose what I am trying to fix.

That being said, I would follow Humblefish in this case, clearly the expert in my mind.

 

[ThRoewer]

Did you feed the fish, possibly with dry or flake food?
Some fish feed so greedily that they swallow a decent amount of air which then can lead to excessive buoyancy and the described erratic swimming behavior. This usually goes away quickly (couple of hours to a day) as the food and the gas make their way through the fish's intestines.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[woodnaquanut]

Thanks for all the replies. The swim bladder issue seems to have resolved itself. The tang is no longer trying to swim down.

Since I moved it to an aquarium I noticed it twitches quite a bit. Looks like me when I think I have a tick biting!
I've posted a vid on YouTube. Hope I can link to it here. Please comment on possible issue and treatment.
https://youtu.be/4sgGTtz0Wh8

 

[woodnaquanut]

bumpty, bump, bump

Anyone have any ideas what would cause the tang to twitch like that?

 

[HumbleFish]

I noticed around the :06 mark some air bubbles came out when he twitched. So, I'm thinking he's swimming over the air stone, getting air bubbles trapped inside his gills and then twitching to "shake" them out.

 

[woodnaquanut]

I'm thinking he's swimming over the air stone, getting air bubbles trapped inside his gills and then twitching to "shake" them out.

Good observation! I'll switch to a HOB filter and remove the air stone. Give it a couple of days and see if he's twitch free.

I did one dose of PraziPro and will do another today just in case it's some sort of flukes. I've already done a round of TT so there should be no ich.