Reef Discussion

[Lesley]

HI all, hoping that someone can help me. Got home from work tonight and a normally very active colorful confident Blonde Lipstick tang has lot a lot of color, isn't interested in food and is not swimming around is just planted in one spot. He looks terrible.
Last night when I put seaweed clip in he also wasn't interested it that, he normally is an absolute pig so I was little concerned last night, but today I am frightened.
Just did all tank parameters as follow
salinity 1.025 refractometer
Ammonia 0 Seachem
Nitrite 0 Sailfert
nitrates 0.2 Elos
Phos 0.04 Hanna checker
alk 8.6 Hanna checker
cal 454 Hanna checker
All other fish are eating and actively swimming and seem to be fine. I know this is a stupid question but we have had an issue with some (not sure which) cyno or brown snot algae recently, our rodi filters needed changing which we did as soon as the problem started arising, can this type of algae cause problems for fish ?
He wont eat anything tonight,
Please help I don't want to lose him he is an amazing fish with so much spunk, we love him
P.S all corals in tank are looking fine too.
thanks

 

[MagicJ]

Hi @Lesley , sad to hear about your fish.

All of your parameters seem fine and given that your other fish and corals seem fine it is difficult to suggest what the problem might be. I know that cyno can cause problems for some snails but I am not aware of a similar problem for fish.

How long have you had the fish? Anything else changed recently?

 

[Mantis Dundee]

Hi Lesley, I just lost my lipstick, check my thread. He was about 20cm, and he basically was what my tank was centred around. My wife and I have just stopped crying. Can you see anything else about its behaviour, twitching, hyperventilating, rapid panting of gills, any white spots, black spots, marks etc?
Mine stopped eating on Monday and was less active, by Tuesday he was mostly just hovering in same spot and panting heavily and having twitches. Wednesday I decided to try and remove to do a fresh water bath. I failed, could not get him out with out dismantling my reef so I gave up and decided to see if he would improve. Thursday I came home and was panting heavier, further to this I now noticed a few white flaky looking things hanging off the side around gills and pectoral fins. I had no time to dismantle reef and removal due to family arrangements. I raced off and bought a cleaner wrasse. My redline died couple of weeks ago. He started working on it straight away. Today I came home and panting was even more rapid and my mate was hanging right down half way into a cave with the cleaner wrasse going crazy on him, I now could see black dots over the rear of fish, not raised but just medium sized like black poker dots. After a couple of hours he moved into the cave. I had my freshwater bath set up with ph and temp all matched. I tried to poke something into cave to spook him out so I could net him. He barely moved and I ended up just pulling him out with my hands by the tip of his tail. I put him in fresh water bath and he was very active in there. Put back into tank and the white spots and marks on flesh were horrible. They just came out like chicken pox or something. He was very active for 15 mins and cleaner wrasse was stuck to him like glue. Then he very rapidly went down hill and died. I thought after the bath there was hope because he seemed better, however I think this may have been adrenalin. I am not sure but I think my mate had itch and just did not show the marks until it was well advanced. I have had itch in my system for a long time and never had a problem, fish have kept eating and just not been bothered by it, perhaps this time the parasite was just in a bad spot. Who knows, I am no expert might not have been itch.
Anyway my biggest regret is that perhaps I should have persisted and acted earlier with the fresh water bath, or quarantine if you have the facilities available and then medicate. I can not stress enough that you need to act ASAP. Get some advice, make a decision and go with it. Deep down I know I did the best I could for my guy given my work and family commitments I could not act as early as I would have liked, but I had a go I still feel like I failed him though:(. When I bathed him he was already going to die within hours anyway so if anything I made or break. Gave him the opportunity to possibly survive or, what eventuated was he passed quiker and less painfully. (I think)
Good Luck, sincerely hope yours pulls through.;)
P.s. I have made a pact with myself that I will not buy any further stock until I have a UV steriliser, people I know have them swear by them.

 

[Lesley]

No marks, spots, parasites etc that are visible. He hasnt eaten for 2 days yet he looks so thin, he seems to have lost condition so quickly. I watch my tank very carefully and know my fish individually and there was no signs of problems until last night at feed time. I have not ever lost a fish and being that he is like yours the center piece of the tank we are devastated
We dont have a QT available, when i feed the corals he is right behind me eating any left over brine and actually bites my fingers, i have tried everything tonight and not interested. He appears to be breathing normally, no twitching just not eating and very still.
I will do a water change (although parameters are perfect ) . Cross my fingers and hope for the best. I just wish he would eat ???
Thanks and I am sorry about your little fella, I am just so sad at the moment.
Thanks lesley

 

[Mantis Dundee]

"little fella" haha he was 20cm. Anyway, yes it is hard to tell to know whats best for them, especially when they not showing any marks but only emotional and colour. Mine was like yours, if I was doing any scaping or coral moving he would be swimming around my hand watching, and I used to feed him out of my hand as well, just so friendly. I guess that's how we can become so attatched.
I doubt the algae was a problem, when I first got mine I had cyano, bubble and hair algae all over my rock work. Mine destroyed it quicker than it could grow he never had a problem until now, about 6 months later. I no longer have that algae. Only bits of bubble algae at the very top of tank on rock work. Again, I am not an expert but I just don't think the algae would be issue.

 

[Lesley]

Hi @Lesley , sad to hear about your fish.

All of your parameters seem fine and given that your other fish and corals seem fine it is difficult to suggest what the problem might be. I know that cyno can cause problems for some snails but I am not aware of a similar problem for fish.

How long have you had the fish? Anything else changed recently?

We have had him about 3 months now, the only thing that has changed is that we have been playing around with the flow to try and combat the algae. The algae is only on the sand bed (no glass rocks etc )
We have not added any new fish, but a few new corals. feeding the same. We are absolutely stumped. All snails, anemones, even our abalone is fine. Just him. I will try to take a picture of him and post .

 

[Lesley]

Have attached photo, He has lost condition so quickly. He never had that line you can see up until 2 days ago. He has lost colour on his lips etc He looks terrible. He looks like he has been starving for weeks. How can this happen in 2 days.