Kole tang with swollen belly

[CR712]

I need help identifying what is wrong with my kole tang. His stomach is quite large, it looks like a ball is trapped in it. He doesn't eat but seems like he wants to when I feed my other fish. He swims up to the food and tries to eat some but spits whatever he puts in his mouth out. He swims normally but he seems a bit lethargic and is breathing heavily. I recently just moved my tank on Sunday (1/2) to a different area of the house to make room for a bigger tank. Before the move he was doing just fine but when I came home from work last night (1/3) I noticed how large his stomach was and it doesn't seem to get any better. He is currently in a 40g with some clownfish, 1 cardinal fish, and a filefish. I also dosed some epsom salt just incase if it's a blockage in his stomach. He's been in this system for almost a year now with no recent addition of fish in the past 3-4 months. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Naso180!]

Maybe an intestinal blockage. Did u give him any caleurpa or cheato recently? I had that happen to a Naso I had for a few years. Unfortunately, he died from it. I don't really know of a fix. Maybe someone else can chime in. Hope that's not the case for you.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I need help identifying what is wrong with my kole tang. His stomach is quite large, it looks like a ball is trapped in it. He doesn't eat but seems like he wants to when I feed my other fish. He swims up to the food and tries to eat some but spits whatever he puts in his mouth out. He swims normally but he seems a bit lethargic and is breathing heavily. I recently just moved my tank on Sunday (1/2) to a different area of the house to make room for a bigger tank. Before the move he was doing just fine but when I came home from work last night (1/3) I noticed how large his stomach was and it doesn't seem to get any better. He is currently in a 40g with some clownfish, 1 cardinal fish, and a filefish. I also dosed some epsom salt just incase if it's a blockage in his stomach. He's been in this system for almost a year now with no recent addition of fish in the past 3-4 months. Any help is appreciated.

Can you post a short video? Linking to You tube works.

The fact that the fish isn't eating means this is very serious - I've seen tangs with swollen abdomens from eating algae that kept right on eating and eventually passed the blockafge3. This blockage is more serious than that.

Epsom salts won't be of any benefit, that is an old freshwater fish tonic. Magnesium sulfate is the fourth highest salt in sea salt mix anyway, so adding a bit more has no benefit for marine fish.

That said, internal problems like this really are not treatable in fish.

Jay

 

[CR712]

@Jay Hemdal i took this video yesterday https://youtube.com/shorts/jnbH1EyVkQQ?feature=share

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal i took this video yesterday https://youtube.com/shorts/jnbH1EyVkQQ?feature=share

In the video, I got a slight hint that this might be a air bladder issue - it looks like the tang is breathing hard, but also struggling to stay down. A hyper-inflated air bladder can cause this. That can be a result of an internal bacterial infection. Can you confirm that if the fish stops swimming, it bobs upwards?

jay

 

[CR712]

In the video, I got a slight hint that this might be a air bladder issue - it looks like the tang is breathing hard, but also struggling to stay down. A hyper-inflated air bladder can cause this. That can be a result of an internal bacterial infection. Can you confirm that if the fish stops swimming, it bobs upwards?

jay

I don’t really see him float upwards when he stops swimming or when swimming in place, if he is it seems more subtle. I do notice him pointing up more but not a huge angle. He did develop this what it seems like overnight and not over a couple a days so I’m not sure if it’s blockage in his intestines.

 

[Idech]

I've seen tangs with swollen abdomens from eating algae that kept right on eating and eventually passed the blockafge3.

Does this mean we shouldn’t feed nori sheets to our tangs?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Does this mean we shouldn’t feed nori sheets to our tangs?

I have heard most problems when folks drop a ball of chaeto into a tank and the fish gorge on it. I’ve fed out a lot of nori and never had an issue as long as it soaked well. Try to avoid roasted nori, I don’t think it is as nutritious as air dried nori.
Jay

 

[eVvoltura]

do people use peas like they do with freshwater fish?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

do people use peas like they do with freshwater fish?

That is a widespread recommendation, but really doesn’t apply to marine fish. For some reason it works really well on fancy goldfish with floatation issues, but not marine fish.
Jay

 

[eVvoltura]

That is a widespread recommendation, but really doesn’t apply to marine fish. For some reason it works really well on fancy goldfish with floatation issues, but not marine fish.
Jay

Is there research on that?

 

[CR712]

In the video, I got a slight hint that this might be a air bladder issue - it looks like the tang is breathing hard, but also struggling to stay down. A hyper-inflated air bladder can cause this. That can be a result of an internal bacterial infection. Can you confirm that if the fish stops swimming, it bobs upwards?

jay

What do you think i should do? Should i put him in a hospital tank with medication and hope for the best or is he basically done for?

 

[eVvoltura]

What do you think i should do? Should i put him in a hospital tank with medication and hope for the best or is he basically done for?

Give it a shot

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Is there research on that?

No - the guy who developed it was an aquarist at the Shedd Aquarium back in the 1960's Really old school fellow. He had this whole thing about feeding peas to fancy goldfish that developed floatation issues (they get that because their bodies are so deformed, that gas gets stuck in their intestines). The peas helped as a purgative. It was amazing how well it worked. People then heard about it and it got out there as a general treatment. Trouble is, it got over extrapolated - I've heard people trying to feed peas to moray eels, things like that (grin).

Jay

 

[CR712]

Update to any one who is interested, Jermaine Kole is alive and back to being healthy. Thanks to everyone for their help and input.

 

[Idech]

Update to any one who is interested, Jermaine Kole is alive and back to being healthy. Thanks to everyone for their help and input.

Thanks for the update. How did you treat him ?

 

[CR712]

Thanks for the update. How did you treat him ?

Decided to leave him in the main tank rather than stress him out and put him in quickly setup hospital tank. I didn’t want to stress him out after an already stressful tank move that was a couple days prior to his stomach swelling. After the 5 day mark he was back to eating small portions of food and now around a week later he is behaving normally.