What am I missing?

[Chitown tom]

I picked up 2 powder blue tangs and one purple tang.

Went directly into QT dosed with CP.

Unfortunately I had to leave town for 2 days.

Tank sitter noticed the one powder blue was not looking good. The next day i cam home and noticed the tang was looking super skinny. And started to laydown in the tank.

i did a freshwater dip for 5 minutes in the morning. I noticed possibly some flukes but was not sure. That evening the tang was still looking bad so i did a 90 minute acriflavine ms bath and the tang did not survive the bath.

The following day the second powder blue was not looking good but still swimming upright.
I did a 60 minute acriflavine ms bath, no freshwater dip this time.

The next day the powder blue is now laying down in the tank. I removed all the tank water to take out the CP and dosed with prazi.

I know they probably have ich but i think they either have flukes or some internal parasite? I am planning 2 doses on prazi then going back to CP.

Am i missing anything? Can the experts chime in?

No visible spots on any of the fish now. But the powder blue is now laying on its side for the second day in a row.

 

[EmdeReef]

Can you post pictures?

What prompted you to treat in CP? Did the fish show any symptoms?

Assuming ich or flukes, acriflavine would not be the appropriate treatment.

Laying on the side may be a sign of stress.
For now you should allow the tang to recover before trying anything else and then observe for symptoms before any further treatment.

 

[Chitown tom]

Can you post pictures?

What prompted you to treat in CP? Did the fish show any symptoms?

Assuming ich or flukes, acriflavine would not be the appropriate treatment.

Laying on the side may be a sign of extreme stress or worse.
For now you should allow the tang to recover before trying anything else and then observe for symptoms before any further treatment.

I don't have any pictures on hand but can get some tonight.

I run a proactive qt protocol and treat all new fish with cp for 4 weeks whether they show symptoms or not.

I left for 2 days right after I placed them into qt so I could not properly observe for any symptoms. I can confirm now however that I see no signs of ich or velvet. I did not see any head shaking either. The purple tang still looks good and is eating which is leading me towards some type of internal parasite.

 

[Mr. Limpid]

What size tank is your QT. Was your salinity the same as the bag water the fish came in? I assume your parameters were good. I usually wait on dosing till I see spots, you can do a fresh water bath (make sure temp. and PH are correct) for 15min B4 you add them to your QT. I use to use prazi, but some fish stop eating while treating, so I'm trying Spectrum Hex-Shield on my next fish.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Are there any hiding places in your QT? Tangs will lay down sometimes if there as a way of camouflaging, regardless of whether they are sick or not.

Also, are any of the other tangs in the same tank? That could also be causing additional stress/aggression, forcing it to lay down.

Not discounting disease as a factor too, but there could be other variables influencing the behavior too...

 

[Chitown tom]

What size tank is your QT. Was your salinity the same as the bag water the fish came in? I assume your parameters were good. I usually wait on dosing till I see spots, you can do a fresh water bath (make sure temp. and PH are correct) for 15min B4 you add them to your QT. I use to use prazi, but some fish stop eating while treating, so I'm trying Spectrum Hex-Shield on my next fish.

The fish came in at 1.021 and I matched my qt to that. I also use an ammonia badge and I am sure the water was good.

Are there any hiding places in your QT? Tangs will lay down sometimes if there as a way of camouflaging, regardless of whether they are sick or not.

Also, are any of the other tangs in the same tank? That could also be causing additional stress/aggression, forcing it to lay down.

Not discounting disease as a factor too, but there could be other variables influencing the behavior too...

its a 29 gallon qt tank. On the smaller side but the tangs are small too. Plenty of PVC elbows and places to hide.

the second powder blue was happy the day before eating from the clip and everything. then overnight I saw the big change in behavior.

 

[Big G]

@4FordFamily

 

[Chitown tom]

New thought.

The fish came from a tank that low level copper.

Can this be velvet in the gills and no visible exterior symptoms?

Might have been a bad idea to pull CP and dose prazi.

 

[4FordFamily]

New thought.

The fish came from a tank that low level copper.

Can this be velvet in the gills and no visible exterior symptoms?

Might have been a bad idea to pull CP and dose prazi.

This is possible.

A few things.

1) two PBT together in a small qt is a disaster waiting to happen. There’s a good chance they wore each other out and “grenaded” each other. Don’t mix powder blues, very bad idea.

2) this almost sounds like ammonia damage, acanthurus are more susceptible to it — how long had the qt been set up? Do you use dr tims or Biospira after large water changes?

3) were they small PBT? I find that under 3 inches are very fragile. The stress of having two alone could dust them, unfortunately.

Sorry for your losses!

 

[Chitown tom]

This is possible.

A few things.

1) two PBT together in a small qt is a disaster waiting to happen. There’s a good chance they wore each other out and “grenaded” each other. Don’t mix powder blues, very bad idea.

2) this almost sounds like ammonia damage, acanthurus are more susceptible to it — how long had the qt been set up? Do you use dr tims or Biospira after large water changes?

3) were they small PBT? I find that under 3 inches are very fragile. The stress of having two alone could dust them, unfortunately.

Sorry for your losses

Well sadly I lost the second powder blue last night.
I did a 100% water change and dosed CP again for the remaining purple tang.

The qt tank was new but I used a seeded sponge from my main display that has been stewing for some time. I also use an ammonia badge and the fish were in the tank for only a few days. I am certain that it was not ammonia poisoning.

All 3 tangs were under 3 inches but you probably hit the nail on the head with the stress. I was not home so I could no properly observe but I think my haste to get all 3 thru qt tighter might have played a role. Lesson learned and I wont make that mistake again. I was trying to save some qt space and only use 1 tank instead of 2.

 

[4FordFamily]

Sorry for your loss.