Bangaii Cardinalfish

[bsap]

Hi. I just picked up a new Bangaii Cardinalfish yesterday from my LFS. I don’t have the available space for a quarantine setup so I went through the two part rapid fish quarantine product from SaltwaterAquarium.com. After which, I put him in the tank and he’s been at the back wall the entire time, I only saw him swimming once. He’s now laying on the ridges of my filter intake and breathing heavy. No signs of disease but I’m suspecting stress. I moved the light away from the tank and blacked it out as well since that’s one method of stress relief I’ve found in the freshwater side of things. I also have Seachem Stress Guard on the way tomorrow. Any other advice?

 

[Jekyl]

Hi. I just picked up a new Bangaii Cardinalfish yesterday from my LFS. I don’t have the available space for a quarantine setup so I went through the two part rapid fish quarantine product from SaltwaterAquarium.com. After which, I put him in the tank and he’s been at the back wall the entire time, I only saw him swimming once. He’s now laying on the ridges of my filter intake and breathing heavy. No signs of disease but I’m suspecting stress. I moved the light away from the tank and blacked it out as well since that’s one method of stress relief I’ve found in the freshwater side of things. I also have Seachem Stress Guard on the way tomorrow. Any other advice?

Pictures in white light and a short video will help this along.

 

[bsap]

 

[Jekyl]

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal

 

[Grumblez]

Did you use an Airstone with the Safety Stop? The first drug in it is Formalin which is somewhat of a harsh treatment and also displaces oxygen.

With that said what you need to do now is pull the fish out of your tank and put it in a bucket with an Airstone so it doesn't continually get stuck against your filter intake and can maybe recover but I would say less than 5% chance it lives regardless.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi. I just picked up a new Bangaii Cardinalfish yesterday from my LFS. I don’t have the available space for a quarantine setup so I went through the two part rapid fish quarantine product from SaltwaterAquarium.com. After which, I put him in the tank and he’s been at the back wall the entire time, I only saw him swimming once. He’s now laying on the ridges of my filter intake and breathing heavy. No signs of disease but I’m suspecting stress. I moved the light away from the tank and blacked it out as well since that’s one method of stress relief I’ve found in the freshwater side of things. I also have Seachem Stress Guard on the way tomorrow. Any other advice?

Nothing is rapid in this hobby and an improper acclimation relying on chemicals is the likely cause of a fish that may not make it. Stress guard will not do much and you will soon find that all these Dr. Juices and snake oils rarely work.
This is not meant to scold you. Below is a description of acclimation which ive been doing for 3 decades and works well.
My guess is Osmotic shock. Do add an airstone to increase oxygen giving this fish best chance of oxygen and recovery but it looks very distressed.

Float bag for 20-30 minutes
Transfer fish and water into a clean bucket

Then . . . .

Add a cup of tank water to bucket every 15 mins 6-8 times (almost 2 hours)
Then check salinity in bucket and compare to tank. If no match or very close, add a cup of water every few mins until youve reached salinity and trap fish in same cup and pour off water and release into display. Release under LOW light before lights out.

 

[bsap]

Yeah I did the drip acclimation and all that. I’ve added an air stone to the tank now. Hopefully that helps

 

[Grumblez]

Nothing is rapid in this hobby and an improper acclimation relying on chemicals is the likely cause of a fish that may not make it. Stress guard will not do much and you will soon find that all these Dr. Juices and snake oils rarely work.
This is not meant to scold you. Below is a description of acclimation which ive been doing for 3 decades and works well.
My guess is Osmotic shock. Do add an airstone to increase oxygen giving this fish best chance of oxygen and recovery but it looks very distressed.

Float bag for 20-30 minutes
Transfer fish and water into a clean bucket

Then . . . .

Add a cup of tank water to bucket every 15 mins 6-8 times (almost 2 hours)
Then check salinity in bucket and compare to tank. If no match or very close, add a cup of water every few mins until youve reached salinity and trap fish in same cup and pour off water and release into display. Release under LOW light before lights out.

It's a formalin dip which can be somewhat harsh but arguably no more so than copper. Will just one dip of formalin actually do anything? That I'm not sure on I would guess maybe flukes and maybe take care of latent ICH.

Second part methylene blue just treats ammonia poisoning so more helpful for fish that are shipped.

Is it a substitute for quarantine? No but better than nothing imo. I agree ether osmotic shock or improper administration of formalin dip.

 

[bsap]

So is a black out and air stone the best chance I have for this fish to survive?

 

[vetteguy53081]

It's a formalin dip which can be somewhat harsh but arguably no more so than copper. Will just one dip of formalin actually do anything? That I'm not sure on I would guess maybe flukes and maybe take care of latent ICH.

Second part methylene blue just treats ammonia poisoning so more helpful for fish that are shipped.

Is it a substitute for quarantine? No but better than nothing imo. I agree ether osmotic shock or improper administration of formalin dip.

Formalin is formaldehyde and if improperly used will send a fish haywire. I know what it is as long as I have been doing this - Since when do we acclimate or introduce with chemicals ? As a bath - agreed but to rely on it as a substitute for ACCLIMATION/INTRODUCTION is not protocol

 

[bsap]

Formalin is formaldehyde and if improperly used will send a fish haywire. I know what it is as long as I have been doing this - Since when do we acclimate or introduce with chemicals ? As a bath - agreed but to rely on it as a substitute for ACCLIMATION/INTRODUCTION is not protocol

I used it on my clownfish pair and they handled it well and are now doing well presently.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I used it on my clownfish pair and they handled it well and are now doing well presently.

If used properly- Yes. Formalin and ruby baths Not uncommon before intro

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi. I just picked up a new Bangaii Cardinalfish yesterday from my LFS. I don’t have the available space for a quarantine setup so I went through the two part rapid fish quarantine product from SaltwaterAquarium.com. After which, I put him in the tank and he’s been at the back wall the entire time, I only saw him swimming once. He’s now laying on the ridges of my filter intake and breathing heavy. No signs of disease but I’m suspecting stress. I moved the light away from the tank and blacked it out as well since that’s one method of stress relief I’ve found in the freshwater side of things. I also have Seachem Stress Guard on the way tomorrow. Any other advice?

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

My first thought is something went awry with the acclimation process. Lately, I’ve been seeing issues with people buying fish from dealers and then trying to acclimate them to full salinity in a day. The range I’ve seen is like: 1.018 to 1.025…that is a big jump and the fish tend to dehydrate and go downhill the next day.

I’m working off my phone so I can’t see your video, sorry.

Jay

 

[Cell]

Not a good sign that it's weakened to the point where it is stuck to the overflow. Try to move him off of it.

 

[Unitylover]

Jay is right, when I acclimate, im lucky enough that petco keeps their tanks at 1.023, and i have mine at ~1.025, but anything more than a 1.005 salinity change is bad without proper acclimation

 

[Breadbox]

*Salvage protocol for treating very sick fish*

Reposted with permission. @alprazo Salvage protocol for very sick fish. Almost daily I read a post from someone describing a fish sick from either ich or velvet and can predict that it will not make it to the morning. There are several techniques that can be employed to reduce the metabolic...

humble.fish

I think airstone is always a safe bet, fish fatality by disease is usually caused by infection of the gill, leading to suffocation or overworked heart.