Sailfin tang weird swimming

dactylo · Feb 17, 2021

Hi,
My sailfin tang started to swim differently in the last couple of months but nothing really concerning. Good appetite eats everything offered. (Pellets, mysis, nori). Today his swimming is really weird and he is hiding behind the rocks which he never did before.
He has been with me for 4 years now. I haven't added anything new to the tank in a long time. He is fat and I don't see any external symptoms aside from some small white lumps at the base of the pectoral fins. These lumps come and go. Any ideas about what could be causing this weird swimming behavior?
Water quality has been good all the time.

Help please,

Jay Hemdal · Feb 17, 2021

Hi, sorry - I don't know what is causing that. It is chronic of course. Could be behavioral - captive fish develop stereotypic behaviors. I have a longnose butterflyfish that swims until it reaches the tank wall, then it rides the wall up, does a back flip and circles back around - does that all day except when eating. It could also be neurological, possibly from a chronic bacterial disease such as Mycobacterium. Those sorts of issues really aren't treatable thigh.

Jay

dactylo · Feb 17, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
Hi, sorry - I don't know what is causing that. It is chronic of course. Could be behavioral - captive fish develop stereotypic behaviors. I have a longnose butterflyfish that swims until it reaches the tank wall, then it rides the wall up, does a back flip and circles back around - does that all day except when eating. It could also be neurological, possibly from a chronic bacterial disease such as Mycobacterium. Those sorts of issues really aren't treatable thigh.

Jay

Thank you Jay. You may be right and I hope it is just behavioral. He seemed fine today. Just this change in his swimming that I think is not characteristic of a Zebrasoma tang. I will update this post with any developments.