Blue Hippo Tang, Sick or prolonged stress?

HewFoE · Jul 19, 2020

Finally saw him swimming around. Might have been eating the brine (was moving around quickly).

Also put nori on a clip. Will grab it a little later tonight before bed and see if it's munched on.

Thanks again everyone.

HewFoE · Jul 20, 2020

Update: hippo is out swimming around all day long, not skittish to me being in the room the least bit. Although the swimming seems a little erratic... up and down more so than I've ever really seen any of my other fish do. This normal hippo swimming behavior?

I put nori in and he hasn't eaten it, couldn't tell if last piece was munched on or not.

fishguy242 · Jul 20, 2020

hippos are far from normal ...good to hear..just want to see eat now

NashobaTek · Jul 20, 2020

Hippo Tangs are very weird sometimes. Glad to hear it's eating and swimming around

Mkkari · Jul 20, 2020

HewFoE said:
Good afternoon everyone,

I have been reefing for the last 3 years with a successful sps/lps reef that includes many inverts as well as leopard wrasse, foxface, yellow tang, snowflake clowns, green mandarin, etc.

I finally decided to get a Blue Hippo Tang. He has been in QT for 2 full days at this point and has been sitting at the bottom wedged against different PVC pipes. Still alive, breathing, but seems to want to play dead. I have a camera setup to see if it was just when I was in the room but I haven't seen him active yet.

Parameters:
Temp: 77.1
SG: 1.025
Alk: 8
PH: 8.2
NO3: Less than 1.0
No levels of Ammonia or NO2 detected

I used water from my display tank to get the QT started. I have done 1 water change since the tang has been in there.
QT setup:
29g
Sponge filter
2 small powerheads for flow
HOB protein skimmer (had it laying around so I figured why not)
Plastic plants and pvc pipe
Bare bottom
Started lights on today for 8 hours.

In my experience with BLUE tangs, they are very very shy.

*My Experience*

A local hobbyist was getting rid of his blue tang around 5 inches in size because it was too big for his tank and he would usually see 1 or 2 dots once in a while on her.

Blue tangs literally has almost no slime coat on their body. When you try to catch them usually they get a sand particle or something on their body which looks like ICH, I would still quarantine no matter what.

I put her in the bucket, with air bubble thing going on, drove 2 hrs the temp outside was 110.

When I got home she was acting dead. I put her in the quarantine setup, she hid for 3 days, playing dead several times and then finally now she is swimming and eating well. She is in my display and is a beauty.

HewFoE · Jul 20, 2020

Mkkari said:
In my experience with BLUE tangs, they are very very shy.

*My Experience*

A local hobbyist was getting rid of his blue tang around 5 inches in size because it was too big for his tank and he would usually see 1 or 2 dots once in a while on her.

Blue tangs literally has almost no slime coat on their body. When you try to catch them usually they get a sand particle or something on their body which looks like ICH, I would still quarantine no matter what.

I put her in the bucket, with air bubble thing going on, drove 2 hrs the temp outside was 110.

When I got home she was acting dead. I put her in the quarantine setup, she hid for 3 days, playing dead several times and then finally now she is swimming and eating well. She is in my display and is a beauty.

Thank you for sharing!

Hoping all will be well with the baby. Not visibly seeing eating is worry some. Not sure how to take the shyness being gone. I hope it's a good sign of "let's get this qt over with so I can go play!" Vs a "I have no idea how to do anything because I feel ill"

fishguy242 · Jul 20, 2020

you have had only 3 days,any signs of illness,shrunken belly?? spots,breathing heavy?

HewFoE · Jul 22, 2020

fishguy242 said:
you have had only 3 days,any signs of illness,shrunken belly?? spots,breathing heavy?

Still no visible eating.

I can't see spots but the underside is lighter in color overall than the rest of the fish. Also, she is swimming near the top just above one of my powerheads pretty much all day today. Breathing seems normal, a lot slower than her first 2 days on her side at the bottom of the tank.

Mkkari · Jul 22, 2020

HewFoE said:
Still no visible eating.

I can't see spots but the underside is lighter in color overall than the rest of the fish. Also, she is swimming near the top just above one of my powerheads pretty much all day today. Breathing seems normal, a lot slower than her first 2 days on her side at the bottom of the tank.

Did you try feeding her brine shrimp? They love it!!!

fishguy242 · Jul 22, 2020

is her belly shrunken /looking?cannot hurt to just try flake ,sometimes the will start just because it floats around little longer

HewFoE · Jul 22, 2020

Looks like she is refusing to eat and possibly shrunken stomach (not 100% sure because the little shrunken spot I am seeing is also see n on other hippos, just not as pronounced).

I've tried nori, frozen brine, frozen brine with spirulina, flakes.

HewFoE · Jul 22, 2020

Here's the top corner she seems to always want to swim near.

I doubt it's oxygen. I have a powerheads the causes water agitation as well as a hob protein skimmer that stops water as well as a sponge filter with an air pump.

fishguy242 · Jul 22, 2020

are you medicating ,seeming like signs of velvet??not an expert on diseases

HewFoE · Jul 22, 2020

I am not an expert either. I looked stuff up and saw the possibility of velvet but I am not seeing any sort of lesions or spots on the tang.. I don't want to start medication etc if there is no need.. I was hoping for the tang to eat before medication.