Anyone every had a fish knock themselves out before??

omykiss001 · Dec 19, 2015

Still a bit freaked out as they just happened a few minutes ago. My fish are all in hospital right now due to a visit from Mr. crypto [emoji853].
I have been bringing the copper up nice and slow and none of the fish have been acting strange or acting distressed other than than being moved from a roomy 180 gallon display to multiple small tanks that are cycled, but only have PVC caves.

So I had just pulled a water sample to check the copper as I added the 2nd to last dose about an hour earlier to bring it to 0.5 mg/L didn't stick my hands in the tank or do anything odd. Started to lean down to get the sample from the tank below it and heard what I can best describe as a thunk! looked back up to see the yellow tank with all fins standing straight up not moving it gills and laying on its side on top of the PVC elbow. Thought it was dead was not moving anything. At that point grabbed the tang and cradled it with its mouth facing a powerhead to get water flowing over its gills. He then started to breath again and began moving his pectoral fins,but couldn't swim or hold himself upright. After about 5-10 minutes doing fish CPR he began to want to swim away still wasn't full alert yet so had to grab him a couple more time keeping the water flowing over his gills. Eventually he was holding his own again, but breathing pretty fast, don't blame him I guess. Other 2 fish in hospital with him show no stress or anything else. Copper is still a tad below 0.5mg/L so doubt it's an overdose of copper. Ammonia badge is yellow so don't think it's that. Only conclusion I had is the fish either tried to jump or swam head first into the wall of the tank.

Hope this guy makes it as I really like his character and for a yellow tang he's not to aggressive, he makes it clear he's boss, but does not bully anyone.

Anyone ever see anything like this before?

omykiss001 · Dec 20, 2015

Sadly fish did not make it through the night [emoji20]. Not sure if it was a bad reaction to the copper or the fish just did not take the transition from large tank to small hospital tank.

Triggreef · Dec 20, 2015

I had a potters wrasse once that I was watching as the lights came on, wrasse freaked out and swam hard into that glass. Instantly went belly up and died in front of my eyes. He was totally fine before hand I was watching him hunt in the low light just before the lights came on.

omykiss001 · Dec 20, 2015

Triggreef said:
I had a potters wrasse once that I was watching as the lights came on, wrasse freaked out and swam hard into that glass. Instantly went belly up and died in front of my eyes. He was totally fine before hand I was watching him hunt in the low light just before the lights came on.

Good point maybe the tang injured himself worse than I thought and took awhile for the injuries to be lethal.

saltyhog · Dec 20, 2015

I have mesh screens on my tank and still several fish have jumped while they were off to feed or other maintanence. Usually it's at feeding time because they are excited and it's the one time of day that minor aggression might be manifested in a peaceful tank.

Every time it's happened to me it's been one of my wrasses. My yellow wrasse has actually done it twice. Without exception they appear dead when I put them back in despite usually being out of the water on for a few seconds. When first placed in the tank they fall to the bottom and look very lifeless. Occasionally I hold them near a power head to do "fish CPR) but usually they right themselves in a few minutes without intervention. Every single time it's happend that fish goes into hiding for 24-48 hours only coming out to feed. By the 3rd or 4th day they are back to normal.

We'll never know what happened with your tang. He may have just been ill but it's not unreasonable to think he injured himself enough to cause him to succumb.