!!!! FISH SEIZURES !!!!!! pLEASE HELp!
 

So I've had my tank for about a year and a half now.

Lately some crazy thing have been happening.

So background for my 29 gallon tank with 10 gallon sump.

Tank Occupants:
Clown Fish
Yellow Tang
Clam
various corals
Mandarin Goby
Cleaner Shrimp
snails and hermits
2 x peppermint shrimps
various macro algaes in sump

New additions
Pinstripe Wrasse
3 x poreclain crabs
neon dottyback

Equipment:
Aqua C Remora hang on back protein skimmer
CPR overflow
2 x T5 HO lights on main tank

Readings:
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
pH = 7.9
Salt = 1.022
I dose with purple every 3-4 days.

What's happening:
In months prior, I've seen my Yellow Tang go into what seems like an Epileptic seizure. It will fly across my tank knocking corals and bumping into glass walls for about 10 seconds. Then it will lay still wherever it ends up for about 30 seconds with all its fins flexed, and just breathe without moving. Then as if flicking a light switch, it will come back to life (although quite lethargic) and hide in his sleeping spot with his fins all droopy for about 10 minutes, after which point he is swimming and eating again like normal. I looked it up and tried to find any info i could on it but nothing seemed to fit my description of the problem. I've seen this happen a total of 4 times now over a period of a 6 months. Weird thing is that none of my other fish (clown, mandarin goby) have ever had this happen to them, or that I've seen.

So anyways, I came to the conclusion that my fish was epileptic and had accepted it for that. Now what's scaring me is that after a recent addition of the creatures listed above, 2 porcelain crabs have died (after about 2 days of being in the tank, they aren't swinging their little filter feeding claws at all, just sitting in a spot), and today (2 days in), my pinstripe wrasse had a seizure. His seemed much more violent and he was also gasping at the top of the tank and spazzing. He laid upside down on the sand just breathing for about 5 minutes. Now he is slowly "coming to". He doesn't look nearly as lively as the tang did after his shock. I'm very concerned as to what could be causing these seizures and why my crabs are dying. The neon dottyback seems very healthy and has had no issues.

I'm using tap water for water changes (decholrinated with Prime) and have been doing them, mostly every 2-3 weeks, for the past 3 weeks i've been doing it weekly. I feed my fish mysis/brine shrimp/and spectrum.

I don't think its an electrical issue because then all my fish would be reacting if it were.

Has anyone heard of such a problem?

thanks in advance for your help.

I think this is your problem right here, your tang needs allot more room to swim. 29G filled with live rock corals and other fish are stressing him out.
Levi

am I really that overstocked?

all my fish are quite small right now. and I have about 30lbs of live rock.

What Levi's getting at is that a yellow tang shouldn't really be in a tank that small...they need swimming room...and lots of it. Doesn't matter if he's small, it's best to get it into a longer and larger tank. It will help him a lot and the other inhabitants as well.....

Not really "overstocked" but take a look at this,
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8426/photo2igt.jpg
Your missing about 70G of swimming space.
Levi

Thing is I"m in on a 9th floor apartment building... ahh i'm gonna have to pull some strings to get a bigger tank up here.

a 72 gallon with less rock would be okay yes?

What about the pinstripe wrasses seizure?
is that also due to a lack of space, are they having mental breakdowns or something?

ahh i feel awful.

my pH seems a bit low

Porcelain crabs:
* Temperature of water: Seventy-two to seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit.
* Specific gravity of water: 1.023 to 1.025.
* pH of water: 8.10 to 8.40.

what's the best way to keep my pH up?

could any of your equipment be shorting out? Stray voltage will make a fish spaz.

as BorderJumper said - I woujld check my heater first....make sure it is not broken!

Otherwise, I know that my foxface goes CRAZY!!!! if I approach the aquarium with an orangy/yellow tshirt!!! he would behave just as you've described! So I leant not to get close to my tank if I wear yellow or orange colours! who would have thought that they see in colour?!?!?!?

I also don't think that your fishes' seizures are related to the deaths of your crabs.

I keep my pH at 8.2-8.3 when the lights are off....

I would have to agree that a re-homing of the yellow tang, or an upgrade is probably the best thing for the fish.....What brand and how old are your test kits? It does kinda sound like you may have stray voltage "leaking" into the tank. Crappy Tire sells small volt-meters for about $15 that can test that for you.

I'm on board with the tank size for sure. I tried to keep a very small Foxface in my 45 until he got big enough to go in my main tank. All he did was freak out (the mottled black look :lol:) the whole time he was in there. After 3 days I was worried that I might lose him so I put him in the big tank.
After ten minutes he was swimming around like he owned the place. A 70 might not be big enough unless you could get one built that was long and narrow. And then you would have to start worrying about gas exchange with a smaller surface area.
Just my two cents :biggrin:

Hi, try installing a grounding probe for stray voltage. Voltage measuring in milliamps can cause stress among livestock. regards Ken

What is your calcium reading? You said you dose with purple up every 3-4 days. How much?

I'm not sure what my calcium levels are, I'll have to check when I get home.

The purple up bottle says one capful for every 50 gallons. no more than once per day.


I'm doing one capful every 3-4 days.

Could my pH be causing unecessary stress?

No, the tank is causing the stress. It's too small for the tang so it goes nuts which in turn makes all the other fish go on edge.

I have to agree, a 90g should be the absolute minimum for a yellow tang. I know you're a good guy so I hope you do the right thing and re-home the tang asap.

So I talked to my building manager, The most I can get in is a 70 gallon tank. The Tang is still small, and if I can get a nice long one, it should provide enough swimming room for the guy.

Thanks everyone for your help. Really appreciate your input!

70g is a pretty good size for now, keep in mind that your tang will grow like a pig and requires a ton of swimming room (5-6 feet if you can get it!).
Levi

Nexus it is obvious to me that you did not house a tang in such a small tank on purpose.
Please follow the advice of almost everyone and rehome the tang immediately.
It is suffering.

yes, that tang needs a new home NOW! not when you can afford an upgrade. Also, it WILL outgrow a 70g in about 6-8 months as well. Best thing is either take it back to the fish store, or sell/give to someone who has a large enough tank. I housed a Yellow Tang in my 45g corner tank for 4 months. He is a totally different fish now that he's in a 150g. They get bursts of speed and need room to run. You wouldn't house a racehorse on a city lot back yard, would you?

FYI, this thread is from last May

:lol: ... no comment.