Tomini tang hiding and not eating

[Zachary Hart]

Hi again, I recently bought a tomini tang online and had it shipped to me on Wednesday (4 days ago). On the second day I tried feeding him and he ate pellets and frozen. The next day and every day since he has hidden in a pvc pipe and not come out for food or anything. Basically I haven’t seen him at all since the second day. And he doesn’t come out to pick at rocks from what I can see. I’ve tried sneaking up on the quarantine tank where he’s held and peer round the corner but still haven’t seen him. I know he’s still alive because I’ve used my phone to record down the pipe. I’ve tried feeding seaweed, mysis, brine, pellets and flake but still nothing. At the moment he is in a quarantine tank with a tailspot blenny from the same shipment which is doing fine, out and about and eating whatever I put in with no signs of disease. Any suggestions on what I should try next?  Parameters are all acceptable and I have a Seneye constantly monitoring ammonia which is reading 0.001. Thanks

[Tired]

Got any pics of the tank? You might need more hiding places in there. Also, make sure no equipment is excessively rattling- no air pumps pressed against the glass, that sort of thing. Make sure the tank is only dimly lit; that can help to make fish feel more comfortable. 

 

What happens if you use a pipette to put food into the pipe? Try some food deliveries. 

[Zachary Hart]

It’s a 20 gallon long. I’ve made sure to add plenty of hiding spaces and also enough area to swim. U mention about a rattling air pump. I do have an air pump on quite high because the tank has a glass lid and I was worried about there not being enough gas exchange. I wonder if maybe that’s the problem? I have the led still from a fluval evo 13 which I’m using over the top of this tank with a couple paper towels underneath to block out the majority of the light as you say to not blast him with light. I’ve actually just seen he’s now swam into the whole terracotta pot on the left with the blenny which is an improvement. Still no interest in food however. 

[Zachary Hart]

Update: he’s now showing a feeding response to pellet and mysis, however he spits it back out again. Still, an improvement over hiding and showing no interest. 

[Tamberav]

FYI, I like that you picked dark pvc and pots. The bright white pvc can bother some fish. 
 

Tangs can be very shy and skittish. I would just keep at it, maybe try different foods. Keep a close eye on ammonia. Watch for any sign of disease including increased respiration and stringy poops. 
 

 

 

[Zachary Hart]

Ok will do thanks

[Tired]

Try setting the air pump on top of something, like a sponge, to cushion the vibrating. Heck, maybe also turn the pump entirely off for a few hours and see if anything changes- just remember to turn it back on after! Probably the poor guy is just spooked in general, but there's no harm in checking, and in cushioning the pump regardless. 

 

Have you tried soaking the food in any sort of supplements, Selcon or the like? 

[Zachary Hart]

Yeah I turned off the pump yesterday because I thought it may be that. And I think it was because as I say he is now slightly more confident and interested in food. I also made a Red Sea screen net for the quarantine and pointed a powerhead at the surface to keep the tank aerated. 
As for food supplements I live in the UK so we don’t get selcon. But I have soaked the food in garlic in the past when he was too scared to come out. I’ll try again tonight 

[Zachary Hart]

Just tried feeding some  algae flakes again which he is now eating. Not that enthusiastically but it’s better than nothing seeing as his stomach will have shrunk from not eating for 5 days

[Tired]

Excellent! Keep up with the food deliveries of anything he'll take, and hopefully he does well. 

 

Be sure to update if/when he comes out and starts looking healthy, that's always nice.

[Zachary Hart]

Update:

both the tailspot and tang are still eating a bit of mysis and flake however they are breathing faster than I think they should be. As part of my quarantine procedure I added fluke solve which is the UK equivalent to prazi pro as a precaution and put the air stone back on. it’s been about 3 days since I dosed the prazi and theyre still breathing heavy. Do you think maybe it wasn’t flukes? What else causes heavy breathing. I’m pretty sure there’s enough oxygen in the tank as I have a screen lid and powerhead pointed at the surface with an airstone. Ammonia is 0.001 and nitrates are 10. Thanks

[Tamberav]

Velvet does

[Zachary Hart]

Wouldn’t velvet show itself quickly? As in wouldn’t heavy breathing be accompanied by the white dots or is the heavy breathing like a warning sign of what’s coming

[Tamberav]

No, sometimes the only symptom is heavy breathing. Can you post a video?

[Zachary Hart]

ah no I didn’t realise that. I’ll post video tomorrow. It’s 1am right now so lights are off obvs

[Tamberav]

It's also possible the fish are still breathing poorly from flukes, even if the flukes are gone, it leaves holes in the gills. 

 

Ammonia is another cause of heavy breathing but seems you have a seneye to check that. 

[Zachary Hart]

Do you know whether those holes repair? Just been researching symptoms of velvet and like you say rapid breathing is one of the symptoms, aswell as lack of appetite and lethargy which they are both experiencing

[Zachary Hart]

Do you think to be on the safe side I should do a water change, run carbon etc to get rid of prazi and then do a run of copper treatment?

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, Zachary Hart said:

Do you know whether those holes repair? Just been researching symptoms of velvet and like you say rapid breathing is one of the symptoms, aswell as lack of appetite and lethargy which they are both experiencing

 

yes but fish can actually bleed out from the holes after the flukes detach IF infestation was bad. The fact that BOTH are having issues is concerning though. Like what are the chances they both had such a bad infestation? 

 

1 hour ago, Zachary Hart said:

Do you think to be on the safe side I should do a water change, run carbon etc to get rid of prazi and then do a run of copper treatment?

 

Prazi only takes 24 hours work.. so it has done it job for this round. You can technically do prazi, remove it then re-dose to get eggs. Here is a calculator to figure that out: http://www.marineparasites.com/paratreatmentcal.html

 

Neither of these fish are intolerant of copper. You do not want to ramp it up if you suspect velvet. If it IS velvet, that is worse then copper so you would go straight to therapeutic dose. 

 

Have you done any water changes since set up? Just in case seneye is wrong and the problem is ammonia. 

 

 

 

 

[Tamberav]

@Humblefish in case he has something to add. I noticed this isn't in the disease section so he might not see it.

[Zachary Hart]

I did a water change before I dosed prazi and am also testing for ammonia with salifert test kit to double check. I’ll do another one today and then dose copper. Thanks

[Zachary Hart]

the tangs still shy but here’s a video of the blenny. Tang isn’t breathing as fast 

[Zachary Hart]

Also noticing the tang sort of twitching its dorsal fins a bit. No scratching yet 

[Tamberav]

Ya, looks elevated to me. Twitching could be annoyance from a parasite for sure. 
 

The sucky part is that your fish show signs of parasites but nothing definitive of which parasite. 
 

Prazi does lower oxygen level as well although it looks like you have plenty of agitation. Your QT tank is set up better than most I see. 
 

 

[Zachary Hart]

Alright I ran carbon overnight and now I’m dosing cupramine. There are no visible signs like you say. Not even scratching just the twitching from the tang. Hopefully copper will sort whatever it is out.