My sailfin has been exhibiting some odd behaviour for at least a couple months now. I'm not really sure when it started. My main concern is that he is always breathing very rapidly, or at least it seems rapid to me. I watched several dozen videos of sailfin tangs and most of them were breathing noticeably slower. Note that none of my other fish are breathing rapidly like this.
Additionally, he swims into the glass as if he is trying to go through it sometimes, and does some other weird swimming motions. He sometimes does this when I'm not around, but I usually notice it occuring mostly when I am sitting in front of the aquarium...he seems like he is trying to swim towards me. His colour also changes to very pale or very dark for a few minutes sometimes. I thought that he might just be seeing his reflection, but again, none of my other fish do this (e.g. bicolor angel, azure damsels, wrasses, etc).
He also seems to have an insatiable appetite, especially for nori which I provide daily. He eats everything I put in the tank with such gusto to the point where I have to give him a lot of nori first so that the other fish can get enough food, and/or target feed some of my other fish that eat more slowly. He also goes crazy for and eats the feces of my other fish. Maybe he has a nutritional deficiency? I never see him grazing on the rocks either, and I suspect it's because I cannot manage to get any sort of algal growth for some reason. The only thing that grows on the rocks/glass is coralline, large cell amphidinium dinos, and an encrusting green algae and this weird fuzzy stuff on the glass that I both have yet to ID.
As far as I can tell, he is otherwise completely healthy. Beautiful colouration, fully intact fins, clear eyes, no signs of external parasites, swims around normally most of the time, etc.
Here is a video, he's extremely fat with nori at the moment, but note his rapid breathing and funky swimming patterns.
Additionally, here is all of the information suggested in the sticky post:
Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: reef, soft corals and lps
Aquarium water volume: ~300L (note for the tang police, I have a ~750L tank lined up for when he gets larger)
Filtration type: clarisea roll filter, great white skimmer, activated carbon in a media bag in the sump, and plenty of rock/sand for bio purposes
Lighting: 2x Blaze X Minis
How long has the aquarium been established?: 7 months
Digital image of the whole aquarium under white light: Will upload later
Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using, as well as the test kit brand)
Temperature: 26C
pH: unsure, will test soon but probably about 8.2
Salinity / specific gravity: 34-35ppt (refractometer)
Ammonia: n/a
Nitrite: n/a
Nitrate: varies from 5-30ppm (hanna checker)
Phosphate: 0.1 to 0.2ppm (hanna checker, currently battling Amphidinium dinos, so trying to keep my nutrients up)
Copper: n/a
Other: n/a
In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet?: No
Are any invertebrates affected?: No, but a lot of my corals have consistently seemed to be less happy than they before we had a 4 day power outage in Jan this year...everything survived though. (I also made a fully enclosed plastic lid about 3 or 4 months ago...maybe this is preventing gas exchange? Should I add some screen/mesh to it? Might it also be filtering out light from reaching the corals?? Questions for another time maybe...)
Respiration rate of affected fish (in gill beats per minutes, count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4): approx 250-270 gill beats per minute
Are the affected fish still feeding?: yes, very very well
What remedies have you tried so far?: none
Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light: can do this tomorrow if needed
A short video of the fish: link above
TLDR: Sailfin tang seems to be breathing really fast, swims erratically sometimes, and eats like he has never had food before...but otherwise appears very healthy. None of my other fish show any of these sympyoms. Is this normal, does he have brain damage, or should I take some sort of action to remedy his condition(s)?
Additionally, he swims into the glass as if he is trying to go through it sometimes, and does some other weird swimming motions. He sometimes does this when I'm not around, but I usually notice it occuring mostly when I am sitting in front of the aquarium...he seems like he is trying to swim towards me. His colour also changes to very pale or very dark for a few minutes sometimes. I thought that he might just be seeing his reflection, but again, none of my other fish do this (e.g. bicolor angel, azure damsels, wrasses, etc).
He also seems to have an insatiable appetite, especially for nori which I provide daily. He eats everything I put in the tank with such gusto to the point where I have to give him a lot of nori first so that the other fish can get enough food, and/or target feed some of my other fish that eat more slowly. He also goes crazy for and eats the feces of my other fish. Maybe he has a nutritional deficiency? I never see him grazing on the rocks either, and I suspect it's because I cannot manage to get any sort of algal growth for some reason. The only thing that grows on the rocks/glass is coralline, large cell amphidinium dinos, and an encrusting green algae and this weird fuzzy stuff on the glass that I both have yet to ID.
As far as I can tell, he is otherwise completely healthy. Beautiful colouration, fully intact fins, clear eyes, no signs of external parasites, swims around normally most of the time, etc.
Here is a video, he's extremely fat with nori at the moment, but note his rapid breathing and funky swimming patterns.
Additionally, here is all of the information suggested in the sticky post:
Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: reef, soft corals and lps
Aquarium water volume: ~300L (note for the tang police, I have a ~750L tank lined up for when he gets larger)
Filtration type: clarisea roll filter, great white skimmer, activated carbon in a media bag in the sump, and plenty of rock/sand for bio purposes
Lighting: 2x Blaze X Minis
How long has the aquarium been established?: 7 months
Digital image of the whole aquarium under white light: Will upload later
Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using, as well as the test kit brand)
Temperature: 26C
pH: unsure, will test soon but probably about 8.2
Salinity / specific gravity: 34-35ppt (refractometer)
Ammonia: n/a
Nitrite: n/a
Nitrate: varies from 5-30ppm (hanna checker)
Phosphate: 0.1 to 0.2ppm (hanna checker, currently battling Amphidinium dinos, so trying to keep my nutrients up)
Copper: n/a
Other: n/a
In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet?: No
Are any invertebrates affected?: No, but a lot of my corals have consistently seemed to be less happy than they before we had a 4 day power outage in Jan this year...everything survived though. (I also made a fully enclosed plastic lid about 3 or 4 months ago...maybe this is preventing gas exchange? Should I add some screen/mesh to it? Might it also be filtering out light from reaching the corals?? Questions for another time maybe...)
Respiration rate of affected fish (in gill beats per minutes, count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4): approx 250-270 gill beats per minute
Are the affected fish still feeding?: yes, very very well
What remedies have you tried so far?: none
Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light: can do this tomorrow if needed
A short video of the fish: link above
TLDR: Sailfin tang seems to be breathing really fast, swims erratically sometimes, and eats like he has never had food before...but otherwise appears very healthy. None of my other fish show any of these sympyoms. Is this normal, does he have brain damage, or should I take some sort of action to remedy his condition(s)?