New Fish - Lethargy and Not Eating

[Rutrag]

On Wednesday (8/2) , I go tin some fish from Live Aquaria (not DD) including a yellow tang, royal gramma, yellow-finned flasher wrasse, and a linespot flasher wrasse. All are in a 20H QT, but not doing well. I haven't seen any spots on any of them. None want to eat (they did at first). I lost the royal gramma last night or this morning (8/6). The yellow tang is the most active, but is clamping fins and looks pale. Both wrasses are lying on the bottom. The color of the yellow-fin I woud best describe as cloudy, maybe a little cloudy on the linespot. Not slimy like I've seen in some of the pictures for Brook. I have soem copper on hand (Cupramine and Copper Aid) and a little Prazipro. I actually doesed Prazipro Friday afternoon(8/4) , and think they actually got worse looking, so I did a 50% water change yesterday (8/5). I haven't added any other meds as of yet.

By the way, I don't think the Copper Aid is worth a flip as I can't get it to register on my API test kit. I have Coppersafe coming today (8/6) and some more Prazipro.

 

[code4]

Have you checked for ammonia?

 

[Maritimer]

By the way, I don't think the Copper Aid is worth a flip as I can't get it to register on my API test kit.

Spot-on observation. Kordon's "Safe Copper Aid" is heavily diluted, and the instructions are useless. It claims that one 4oz bottle treats 100 gallons, but in reality it takes three to treat 75.

Are the fish breathing heavily? Swimming into the flow of a powerhead, hiding from light? (Your description seems to indicate that they're not, but those are common symptoms for velvet.)

Did the 50% water change seem to help?

What's the filter situation like in the tank? Do you have a biological filter in place to deal with ammonia?

~Bruce

 

[Rutrag]

I have an ammonia safe badge that indicates no ammonia. 50% water change didn't seem to do much. The fish might be hiding from the light but do not seem to be breathing heavily. Filtration consists of a whisper 2 power filter and a Korallia 1050 pump. They are not swimming into flow.

 

[Barrett]

Did you add extra aeration after dosing prazipro?

 

[Rutrag]

Did you add extra aeration after dosing prazipro?

No, but I wouldn't think that necessary since I already have 53 times tank turnover per hour. Add to that a 50% water change, and the Prazi concentration should be pretty low.

 

[ngoodermuth]

What salinity did you receive them at, and how were they acclimated? It sounds like maybe shipping stress(ammonia) or osmotic shock.

Do you have methylene blue?

I recently got an order from live aquaria and the wrasse (flame wrasse) was very timid and ate only small amounts for a good two weeks. She's finally coming around and eating better. The ORA clarki in the same order was much more social.

The salinity of the wrasse was around 1.020 in the bag, so I had to set my QT lower.

 

[Rutrag]

The yellow fin was dead after church.

Nitrogen cycle tests:

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 10ppm

 

[Rutrag]

Video of QT and yellow tang:

 

[Rutrag]

Video of linespot (sorry it's upside down):

 

[Rutrag]

I temp acclimated and then dripped. I would have just matched temp and SG, but at the time I had to leave and do something else, so opted to drip.

 

[Humblefish]

Drop the body into FW to check for flukes: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

 

[melypr1985]

What salinity did you receive them at, and how were they acclimated? It sounds like maybe shipping stress(ammonia) or osmotic shock.

I agree with this, but always drop the dead body in some tapwater to check for flukes.. that's just SOP (standard operating procedure)

 

[4FordFamily]

To be sure -- you aren't dosing amquel or prime in there, right?

Reason being, it will turn the copper water poisonous for the fish. Water changes should be the only ammonia fighting method other than live bacteria addition perhaps.

 

[Rutrag]

I agree with this, but always drop the dead body in some tapwater to check for flukes.. that's just SOP (standard operating procedure)

I did this, but all I saw come off the fish were scales. I had thought they might be flukes at first, but they weren't white when they came off, and when you looked at them on an angle, they looked almost crystalline.

 

[Rutrag]

To be sure -- you aren't dosing amquel or prime in there, right?

Reason being, it will turn the copper water poisonous for the fish. Water changes should be the only ammonia fighting method other than live bacteria addition perhaps.

No. I use RODI water, so no need to dechlorinate for my SW tanks.

The linespot was dead this morning. All that's left is the yellow tang. [emoji26]

 

[melypr1985]

No. I use RODI water, so no need to dechlorinate for my SW tanks.

The linespot was dead this morning. All that's left is the yellow tang. [emoji26]

I'm sorry for the loss

 

[ngoodermuth]

I temp acclimated and then dripped. I would have just matched temp and SG, but at the time I had to leave and do something else, so opted to drip.

It could be something like a fast acting bacterial infection or velvet and the fish are being overcome too quickly to observe symptoms...

But more likely, it's damage due to ammonia build-up from drip acclimating :/

You can give the tang a MB bath to try to help with ammonia burns.

Unfortunately, when fish are shipped ammonia builds up in the water. However, because of limited O2 the ph is lower so it stays in a less-toxic form. When you open the bag, it is exposed to fresh oxygen which raises the ph and causes the ammonia to convert to a more toxic state. So essentially, once the bag is open you've "started the clock".

It's better to have a "landing spot", even a 5 gallon bucket that's been temp and sg matched...so that you can temp acclimate and then open and remove the fish immediately to clean water.

To match the sg, I stick a needle below the water line in the bag to pull a few drops of water to test, and cover the hole with scotch tape to prevent oxygen from getting in. Then I'll float the bag while I adjust the sg in the QT or landing place at my leisure.

 

[Montagne]

@4FordFamily @Humblefish @code4

Hey all, I rec’d an eightline flasher wrasse from LA’s CA facility and Timor Orange dashed wrasse from DD today around 11:30. I didn’t see this post before hand so followed the acclimation process below but now 5 hours later both fish are still clamped up under pvc pipes in QT so I’m hoping someone could advise if they should just be left alone for the night or if some action needs to be taken.

They both arrived in blackout bags so I kept the lights off during all steps.
- floated the bags in the QT tank for 15 mins
-opened the bags, transferred the fish to individual acclimation containers and added a couple drops of prime to each
-drop acclimated to my QT sg of 1.022 for ~20 minutes. The Timor wrasse was active during this time but the eight line only huddled at the bottom.
-added to the QT in divided sections and left alone with the lights out
- QT is currently unmedicated with a sponge filter, power head pointed at the surface and heater set to 78
- my QT plan was to give them some time under unmedicated observation to settle in and get eating before running a course of copper then removing it and running a course of prazi

Again, at this time they are both clamped under some PVC in stress colouration, looking around but otherwise unmoved for the past 5 hours. I haven’t seen this before but have limited experience with shipped fish so am not sure now if this is normal adjustment after flying around the country or if I pH burned or copper poisoned them on incoming. Ugh.