Fish Problem Dont know whats wrong

[pendergast]

I lost my dwarf lion last week. And my hawkfish is acting off now too. hes breathing heavy and shaking his head every now and again i dont know whats wrong???

[kien]

Originally Posted by pendergast

I lost my dwarf lion last week. And my hawkfish is acting off now too. hes breathing heavy and shaking his head every now and again i dont know whats wrong???

Head shaking is a sign of flukes, or possibly some other parasite. Check his skin for flukes (do a google and you'll see what m talking about). If you do spot flukes you should consider giving your fish a fresh water bath to temporarily alleviate his issues. The flukes could be in his gills which would not be good.. After the bath you will want to treat your tank with praziPro. Follow the directions on the bottle.

Can you take a picture so we can see what the fish looks like? We may be able to spot other possibilities. Also, what are the particulars of your tank? Size, equipment? Etc. How many and what sorts of fish? When was the last one added? Do any of them have ich ?

[pendergast]

i will send you a picture as soon as i can the camera on my phone doesnt work that well. i cant see anything on his scales at all. Tank is a 46gal bowfront, fulval 303 canister filter with carb in it only and a psk100 protein skimmer, and Led lighting, 16lbs of LR, the last fish added was my lion and a lawmower blenny and the blenny seems to be doing fine. the lion and blenny was added about a month ago.

[pendergast]

No ich

[pendergast]

i realy cant see anything on him that looks off hes just breathing realy heavily

[kien]

It sounds like we can maybe rule out ich and velvet then. Flukes can be trickier to see and can sometimes just reside in the gills. As mentioned before, do consider giving your fish a fresh water dip and keep a close eye on him during the process. If there were flukes you'll probably see them at the bottom of the bath.

[pendergast]

ok sounds good. never done that before. u just put fresh water in a bucket and giv them a fast dip in out kind of thing or do you leave them in for abit.... not sure what i do here.

[pendergast]

???

[kien]

If you google "Fresh Water Dip" or Fresh Water Bath" you'll find lots of examples and explanations on how to go about doing it. The gist of it is this.

Make up a bath of RO/DI or at least de-chlorinated water and bring that bath up to the exact same temperature and pH as your display tank water. Once you have achieved this, place your fish in a colander and lower it into the bath. Observe the fish carefully for signs of severe stress like convulsions. If the fish is in severe stress take it out immediately and abort. Opinions vary, but I like to bath the for 4-5 minutes. I also like to aerate the bath water with a bubble/air stone so that oxygen doesn't deplete to critical levels.

Hope that helps and good look. Got pictures yet?

[pendergast]

if i could get ur email adress i could send a video if it works from my black berry