Yellow Tang's Gills

[drummereef]

My yellow tang seems to be acting a little funny the past couple days. Overall he looks alright. No Ich spots or fin damage and his color is bright yellow. He swims fine and is fat as ever. My biggest concern are his gills and mouth. I've noticed a whiteness to his gills the last couple days. Almost like they are irritated inside. It seems like his breathing is slightly heavier than normal and he keeps his mouth more open too.

He is in my 180g and has been doing great up until I noticed this. He hasn't been interested in food for days. I feed him Green Nori daily and tried Red Nori soaked in Garlic Guard today to no avail. I also changed carbon tonight to see if he's getting irritated by the old lignite carbon I was using. I'm using ROX 0.8 currently.

Thoughts?

Current Parameters:
1.025
80.4F
pH 8.22
Alk 8.0
Ca 400
NO3 1ppm
PO4 Undetectable - going through a hair algae cycle since the tank is relatively new so this test might be inaccurate.

 

[RBU1]

How long have you had him? Did you recently add anything new to the tank? Have you done a large water change lately? Do you QT your fish?

 

[drummereef]

How long have you had him? Did you recently add anything new to the tank? Have you done a large water change lately? Do you QT your fish?

I've had him close to 7 years. Nothing new to the tank except for a Lyretail Anthias added a few weeks ago. They never bugged each other and always get along great. I added some snails this past week but can't imagine that doing any harm. I do 10% weekly water changes. I did not QT the Anthias. He was in hypo and copper for a few weeks at the store so I didn't want to stress him more. The Anthias shows no sign of disease and is eating like a pig. I feed Rod's and PE Mysis daily but the Tang is never interested in that either.

 

[scubasteve06]

I'd think it would be flukes. Give him a freshwater dip with prazi-pro. I've been battling flukes in my 125 and I thought I had gotten rid of them only to find my male occellaris dead on the sand bed yesterday morning. He was exhibiting the sames signs you speak of irritation, twitching (but no scratching), heavy breathing and a little loss of color. I just dipped my snowflake eel last night and he seems to not be breathing heavy any more but I saw him shake his head again last night, so I don't think I'm getting all of them. I'm just going to keep dipping as they say its about the only thing you can do next to medicating the tank which I won't do.

 

[cdeboard]

Did you test for ammonia? Been a long morning but I didnt think I saw it in your params. Could be ammonia burn... just tossing out ideas.

EDIT: On a side note, scubasteve... where can I find more info on flukes? Just to inform myself mostly. Plus I recently added a foxface rabbit and he is acting strange like this. Flicking his dorsal and staying hid a lot, keeping a solid black stripe on his side. Please PM me the info as to not hijack this thread, plus would be easier for me to find at work. Thanks

 

[nanchil]

This might be odd... but you might have to test your oxygen level...

 

[drummereef]

I'd think it would be flukes. Give him a freshwater dip with prazi-pro. I've been battling flukes in my 125 and I thought I had gotten rid of them only to find my male occellaris dead on the sand bed yesterday morning. He was exhibiting the sames signs you speak of irritation, twitching (but no scratching), heavy breathing and a little loss of color. I just dipped my snowflake eel last night and he seems to not be breathing heavy any more but I saw him shake his head again last night, so I don't think I'm getting all of them. I'm just going to keep dipping as they say its about the only thing you can do next to medicating the tank which I won't do.

Sorry to hear about your clown. I thought about Flukes but he doesn't flick his head or twitch. He seems to swim normally. I researched it a bit and doesn't look like flukes but I'm definitely not an expert. I'll keep watching him though.

Did you test for ammonia? Been a long morning but I didnt think I saw it in your params. Could be ammonia burn... just tossing out ideas.

EDIT: On a side note, scubasteve... where can I find more info on flukes? Just to inform myself mostly. Plus I recently added a foxface rabbit and he is acting strange like this. Flicking his dorsal and staying hid a lot, keeping a solid black stripe on his side. Please PM me the info as to not hijack this thread, plus would be easier for me to find at work. Thanks

I haven't since the tank cycled a few months ago. I don't see why there would be an ammonia issue but I will retest to be sure.

This might be odd... but you might have to test your oxygen level...

I had a minor power outage (no more than 2 minutes) last week so oxygen was the first thing I thought of. It was so short I can't imagine it causing any major issues. It's a 180g display so I would assume it would take a couple hours before any significant oxygen issues happen.

 

[cdeboard]

Ammonia could be present at any time.. not only during cycle... something dies, ammonia rises. Filter lets loose of some gunk, ammonia rises, etc. Usually causes inflammation of the gills as a first sign. Could also see them "scratching" on rocks and things sometimes.

 

[drummereef]

Tested the ammonia and it's 0ppm (or as close to it as I can tell) with an API test kit. I also have a Ammonia Alert for free ammonia I put in the sump from my QT and it also reads 'safe'. I did have an Astrea snail die that fell into the rock work so I wasn't able to get it but I would have thought it wouldn't cause that much of an issue. Hmm...

 

[cdeboard]

Nah wouldnt have caused that big of an issue. Waiting for others to chime in. Im not sure what else to look for.

 

[drummereef]

I'm just wondering if he could be irritated by the old carbon or gfo I'm running. I turned back the gfo a little in the reactor to reduce the fines even more so we'll see if that helps.