PBT help

[Aparker2005]

Hey everyone. In my experience I'll be losing this fish soon, so I'm trying to see if there's anything I can do to help. We've had a PBT before and it was one of the best fish we've ever had, but was far too aggressive for us.

We got this one 2 weeks ago. No, I didn't Qt as it was stressed from delayed delivery. Into the main display it went.

Tooks a few days, but it finally started eating and has been doing wonderful. No signs of sickness, no ick, no others being aggressive towards it.

I thought it was just freaking out at its reflection, but the erratic swimming has me worried. Nothing I ever do helps when stuff like this starts.

Parameters are fine, and no other fish are acting strange as at all. Any ideas?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey everyone. In my experience I'll be losing this fish soon, so I'm trying to see if there's anything I can do to help. We've had a PBT before and it was one of the best fish we've ever had, but was far too aggressive for us.

We got this one 2 weeks ago. No, I didn't Qt as it was stressed from delayed delivery. Into the main display it went.

Tooks a few days, but it finally started eating and has been doing wonderful. No signs of sickness, no ick, no others being aggressive towards it.

I thought it was just freaking out at its reflection, but the erratic swimming has me worried. Nothing I ever do helps when stuff like this starts.

Parameters are fine, and no other fish are acting strange as at all. Any ideas?

What I see is the majestic aiming towards it and its swim behavior is their typical stance when annoying or avoiding other fish

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I agree - it seems REALLY nervous, and the majestic seems to be intimidating it. Lots of fish in the tank, lots of motion, it may just be overwhelmed with all that activity. It also seems to be breathing fast, but that may just be a function of it being so nervous.

One other possibility - when fish jut/dart forward like that, it can be a sign of flukes.

 

[Aparker2005]

What I see is the majestic aiming towards it and its swim behavior is their typical stance when annoying or avoiding other fish

The majestic has been afraid of it this entire time and hasn't been aggressive towards it at all which is weird. If anything, the pbt has started to be the boss of the angel.

 

[Aparker2005]

Still breathing heavy and just erratic, random swimming. The majestic is nowhere near it and it just freaks out and slams into the front glass

 

[Aparker2005]

It ate one small piece of food, spit another piece out, and now back to the erratic behavior. This is so frustrating

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

It ate one small piece of food, spit another piece out, and now back to the erratic behavior. This is so frustrating

Have you seen it flash or scratch on any tank surfaces? I'm still wondering if it might have flukes.

 

[Aparker2005]

Have you seen it flash or scratch on any tank surfaces? I'm still wondering if it might have flukes.

No scratching. Just woke up this morning to it doing this erratic swimming and acting like it was fighting it's reflection.

It is just almost dive bombing every time it swims in the front very fast. Goes to the other end and goes back to doing this erratic dive bombing action and acting like it's trying to fight a fish..... With no other fish trying to even acknowledge it

 

[vetteguy53081]

It ate one small piece of food, spit another piece out, and now back to the erratic behavior. This is so frustrating

What foods are you offering?

 

[Aparker2005]

What foods are you offering?

It's eaten everything I've given it except mysis:
Nori, brine, flakes, pellets, frozen algae

 

[Tamberav]

Have you tried putting cardboard across the front of the tank? See if it stops.

Fish looks ticked off.

 

[Aparker2005]

Have you tried putting cardboard across the front of the tank? See if it stops.

Fish looks ticked off.

I did printer paper... Haven't tried cardboard

 

[vetteguy53081]

It's eaten everything I've given it except mysis:
Nori, brine, flakes, pellets, frozen algae

Its needs more than this. Consider:
LRS Herbivore diet
Plankton
Formula two frozen
spirulina brine shrimp.

PBT is an overall nasty fish and cardboard and mirror will only be temporary

 

[Aparker2005]

Its needs more than this. Consider:
LRS Herbivore diet
Plankton
Formula two frozen
spirulina brine shrimp.

PBT is an overall nasty fish and cardboard and mirror will only be temporary

Yeah we learned how bad they can get with our first one. It destroyed a copperband. They're my wife's favorite fish though, and we aren't adding anything else after it, so we thought we'd try.

I did formula 2 as well, and my store was out of spurlina brine this time.

If we lose this one, I'm done with trying PBT as beautiful as they are.

We had an orange shoulder that did extremely well and acted nearly like a water dog. Would eat from our hands.

If we ever do another tang instead of a PBT, I thought about either a chocolate, or another orange shoulder.

Hoping this one is just having an off day or something though. It's a gorgeous fish and looks overall very healthy.

 

[Aparker2005]

Evening feed of the tank and it's not eating at all. Last night, it was an absolute pig

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Evening feed of the tank and it's not eating at all. Last night, it was an absolute pig

Darn - that's a really bad sign, but I just don't know what the root cause of this might be. It is less likely to be flukes, as those do not cause a fish to stop feeding until very late in the infection.

 

[Aparker2005]

So far this morning, the erratic swimming and heavy breathing has stopped. Acting much more normal. We'll see if it eats in a bit.

I dosed Prazi yesterday evening to try and help before it got any worse.

 

[Aparker2005]

And it's back to eating! So happy. Maybe the prazi helped or it just got less stressed. Either way the wife and I both are happy this one so far didn't go down the death spiral

 

[Aparker2005]

It's eaten almost an entire sheet of nori today. Thanks everyone!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

It's eaten almost an entire sheet of nori today. Thanks everyone!

Still, a weird case - sounds like it was improving even before the prazi?