Blue Hippo Tang Needs your help! ASAP

[mcummings1205]

Hey all.

I am new to this forum. After asking many people without answers, they recommended I try posting on here because of the great knowledge you all have. Sorry this is a little long, I just want to be very specific so we can help my poor hippo.

I bought a hippo tang (about 2/3 inches) a few months ago. I put her in my QT to treat for ich with cupramine. She was eating at first then all of a sudden she would not eat. For 3 weeks I tried to get her to eat in QT with no luck. While in QT she started to do flips and spin violently like she was being flushed down a toilet. She could not swim nor hold herself up. After her QT time I moved her back into the main tank (hoping this would maybe solve the problem). She hid in the tank for a few days (I just assumed she was dead). One day she came out trying to swim around and that is when I caught her and put her in a breeder box in the main tank. My main is a 120 with all normal water param with no other issues with any of the fish. Before putting her in the box in the main tank she would still fly around in circles like being flushed down the drain. In the box she was able to lay on her side. I used a syringe and would hold her up so I could put food in her mouth. I did this for the first few days. I also put vitamins in her food. After a few days she can still not sit up or swim, but I can feed her with the syringe while she lays on her side. I thought maybe it was a bladder issue, so I started to feed her peas. She did eat them. Now when I pick her up to see if she can swim, she still spins like being syphoned down drain. I also noticed she has not pooped after a week of feeding her. So I lightly pushed her stomach to help her poop.

I do not know what else to do. I tried many hours of research online, with nothing close to what she is doing. I also asked all my LFS and they just said to keep giving her vitamins. I did try a few FW dips, but that did not seem to help much.

Here is a video:


Please please please! I hope someone can help me. You all are the best!

 

[HotRocks]

Can you take a video? Upload to youtube and post the link in this thread.

This sounds like a spinal injury of sorts. Not commonly seen in tangs at all.

 

[4FordFamily]

This sounds like cyanide poisoning or poisoning of some sort (or a fish out of equilibrium in a wya other than the swim bladder). Cyanide collection is not very common, or at least most of us don’t think so.

This could be an example of copper poisoning. Very uncommon but I don’t think this fish will pull through, unfortunately.

Clean water and low stress are about all you can do at this point.

 

[Big G]

Sorry for your troubles with your little Hippo. If it was my fish, I'd give the fish a bath everyday for 30 minutes in methylene blue. This sometimes helps with fish with swim bladder problems and aids with internal injuries that are not serious in nature.

 

[mcummings1205]

Can you take a video? Upload to youtube and post the link in this thread.

This sounds like a spinal injury of sorts. Not commonly seen in tangs at all.

Yea:

 

[drstardust]

This looks neurological. Deposition in the brain of copper, cyanide, carbon monoxide, a handful of other toxins, or severe osmotic injury can cause this. It's generally not reversible

 

[HotRocks]

I agree after seeing the video that this is probably not reversible.

It does not appear to be spinal.