Help please!!!
 

I just picked up a small blue tang and acclimated him for a few hours before adding him to my tank. He seemed great during this process. I iadded him to my tank and he swam at the very corner for a few hours so I thought he was just getting used to things. I thought there was too much flow for him cause he was so small so I turned off one of my powr heads . He swam down but keeps floating to the top. He really has to fight to stay down. Can anyone help me and let me know if theres anything I can do, He doesn't look so well and I don't want to lose him

How big is your tank. When did you start up your tank

My tank is 90 gallons and it's been up fo about a month I used rock from someone elses tank that was well cured went through my algae growth and diatoms I also went through the ammonia spike and all my levels were good so I added the clean up crew and then the fish. The other fish are fine and going to do a water change and see if that helps. He's really small though only about the size of a quarter

What is your ammonia reading now, your salinity reading and the temperature?

What is the Salinity of the tank?

Salinity is 1.024 temp is 79 and ammonia is zero but my test kit is older and could be wrong....

could it be a swim bladder problem?

Your tank has likely not cycled and your tang is suffering.
Do a water change if you have salt water prepared but do not do it suddenly. Turn your powerhead on as well. and place it near the top of the water line.
If it is ammonia the water change will dilute it and the powerhead will add oxygen to the water.

Not likely as the problem you are having occurred immediately when you placed the fish in the water.
You need to get a proper test kit. Don't add any fish until a month after your tank cycles and one fish at a time per month.

Your rushing things will cause you lots of problems. Please be patient.

Just noticed you have more fish in the tank? What do you have and when did you add them?

I have 2 clowns a bangaii cardinal and a sailfin tang all juveniles and very small all as healthy and happy as can be. I didn't think adding a fish the size of a quarter would add much to the bioload

What is the the tang doing now?
I do not think it is an ammonia problem otherwise you other fish would show problems.

It has to be the transfer or just the shock.
Shut off all the lights on the tank and in the room. Stay away from your tank. It is OK to watch from a distance. Leave the lights in the tank off for a day and observe the fish from a distance. Approach the tank only to feed.

Swimming downwards in one of the branched rocks....constantly swimming and facing down.

ok I'll try it the lights are off now

and dont cut the green wire it will blow everything..

sorry it just sounded like something was going to blow :) i hope it relaxes i had one that did the same thing it was stress regretfully no matter what i did the caribean blue tang didnt make it:( do as he says lights off and leave it be i was so freaked and kept watching checking turning lights on and off flashlight. i now know i made it worse.

well the lights are off in the tank and the room and the power head is near the water line as suggested. Do I turn on the lights to feed? maybe just the actinics?

The fish is stressed so avoid the tank and keep the lights off for 24 hours.
My monkeying around the tank to check its conditions you simply stress the fish more so observe from a distance. The dark tank soothes the fish.
Hope he makes it.

Thanx for the advice and well wishes I'll keep you posted

well he's still alive and has wedged himself in a rock so he wont float up....hopefully he'll be ok.....didn't feed today hopefully that will help

If he keeps floating to the top it sounds like swim bladder.
I dont know if salt water fish can get this kind of problem but fresh water fish can.
Peas seems to cure this problem.

I had the same problem with a maroon clown. It sounds like during the aclimation time it got too much air in the swimming bladder. I actually witnessed the frantic swimming down then all of a sudden a large air bubble came from the fish and everything was fine. Clam and normal swimming

J

Feed her garlic soaked food. Are the lights off and are you avoiding the tank?

The lights are off and i looked from across the room. Should I wait till morning to feed them or should I feed now?

Add a few drops of that Garlic Extreme to his food that i gave you yesterday. It may help.

S.

Well I turned on the lights this morning to feed them after a little more than 24 hour blackout and the little guy is nowhere to be found so he's either hiding in the rocks or he didn't make it :(

I just checked on him/her and she's alive!! AND SWIMMING NORMALLY!!!!!!! It's all good now Nate! :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Just got home and he's swimming at the front of the tank with my sailfin tang and looking happy. The lights and garlic workiked great. Thanx for the help everybody :biggrin::biggrin:

Thats awesome!!

Just an FYI for anyone interested... I just got a book in the mail today called "The Marine Fish Health & Feeding Handbook" On pg 194 to 197 there is a section on swim bladder disorders. Seems to be related to decompression issues, or viruses, bacteria, sporozoans, trematodes, protozoa and fungi. If the problem is because of decompression, there are some instructions on how to recompress the fish properly (nothing too unrealistic for a home aquarist too). When the fish is swimming upside down is when you have a real problem. When the disorder is not as severe it will swim with nose pointed down.

Everyone was giving you great advice on making sure no added stress was placed on the fish. Seems like with a mild case of decompression issue, over a period of time the gas exchange between the blood stream and swim bladder will even itself out. If there were added stress this process could be affected pretty easily, and complications / additional diseases could overtake the fish.

Glad everything worked out!