Fin Mike
New member
Fellow reefers,
I am having trouble with my Hippo tang. I have had him for seven years, but it looks like its end may be near unless I can figure this out.
I have 25yrs experience and I don't know what to make of this. My tang just lays on either the sand (upright) or wedges himself in between the rocks and the glass. It does not swim and hasn't eaten in about three weeks to a month. He used to be the king of the tank, but now he is a shadow of himself. His color looks good, and his breathing is normal. He is a tank too. Very large 7-8 inches and very bulky although he has lost weight.
He has no visible spots on him although I have suspected some random spots I have seen in the past could be ich. I am not 100% sure the tank is ich free. Its been set up for 8 years. It could be ich, but I seriously doubt it. None of the other fish show any signs of ich and in his beaten down state, I'd suspect ich could would take him out quickly.
All new additions have been fully quarantined and no new additions have died since their introduction to the display. He has no visible sores to indicate any kind of a bacterial infection. I would guess that if it were velvet or brook, he'd be dead by now and the other fish would have it too.
Could it be flukes? If so, where would he have gotten it from? All intro's were put through prazi treatment. He does not head shake or shiver.
Ever since I added a foxface about 5 months ago (fully quarantined 6 weeks prazi'ed, and TTM'ed ), he just stopped acting like himself. After that addition, the very next day the tang would swim up and down the corner of the tank all day long. He never did that before. Honestly, it seemed like he was ****ed about another large fish coming into his domain. As I would add other fish, he would get even worst until we are where we are today.
He is in a 120 reef. Tang police please be gentle. I bought him seven years ago, and I have learned a lot since then.
One more note. It looks like he has holes in his head on his left side. They are pin hole sized and are right above the eye. This is not a case of HLLE. I don't run carbon and feed him only the highest quality self prepared seafood with plenty of Selcon infused nori.
I have to act, or accept his eventual death. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on?
I am having trouble with my Hippo tang. I have had him for seven years, but it looks like its end may be near unless I can figure this out.
I have 25yrs experience and I don't know what to make of this. My tang just lays on either the sand (upright) or wedges himself in between the rocks and the glass. It does not swim and hasn't eaten in about three weeks to a month. He used to be the king of the tank, but now he is a shadow of himself. His color looks good, and his breathing is normal. He is a tank too. Very large 7-8 inches and very bulky although he has lost weight.
He has no visible spots on him although I have suspected some random spots I have seen in the past could be ich. I am not 100% sure the tank is ich free. Its been set up for 8 years. It could be ich, but I seriously doubt it. None of the other fish show any signs of ich and in his beaten down state, I'd suspect ich could would take him out quickly.
All new additions have been fully quarantined and no new additions have died since their introduction to the display. He has no visible sores to indicate any kind of a bacterial infection. I would guess that if it were velvet or brook, he'd be dead by now and the other fish would have it too.
Could it be flukes? If so, where would he have gotten it from? All intro's were put through prazi treatment. He does not head shake or shiver.
Ever since I added a foxface about 5 months ago (fully quarantined 6 weeks prazi'ed, and TTM'ed ), he just stopped acting like himself. After that addition, the very next day the tang would swim up and down the corner of the tank all day long. He never did that before. Honestly, it seemed like he was ****ed about another large fish coming into his domain. As I would add other fish, he would get even worst until we are where we are today.
He is in a 120 reef. Tang police please be gentle. I bought him seven years ago, and I have learned a lot since then.
One more note. It looks like he has holes in his head on his left side. They are pin hole sized and are right above the eye. This is not a case of HLLE. I don't run carbon and feed him only the highest quality self prepared seafood with plenty of Selcon infused nori.
I have to act, or accept his eventual death. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on?
