Tang 3 help please

[saltwaterwannabe]

I stocked my QT Sunday and all are eating except the blonde naso tang. This is the 3rd attempt with a blonde naso in a year. I have tried pellets, knori, mysis (with and without garlic), mini mysis, spirolina, formula2, and pods.

I have 3 different qt systems running and the blonde naso is in the one with copper. He is easily 10 x the mass of the next largest fish in the tank. I see no ich, but he is obviously deteriorating. His abdomen is shrunken and deformed.

I also have a blue regal tang in the same tank that looks perfectly healthy, is eating, but is rubbing on rocks. There are 8 fish in the tank and all but the blonde naso are juveniles.

I took a pretty good video of the blonde naso but cannot load it as an mp4. I posted one of the pics that is not too bad. Any suggestions?

 

[FutureInterest]

Was the naso eating at the store when you got him? What kind of copper treatment... are you using cupramine? Some fish will respond negatively when treated with cupramine and will lose their appetite or worse. Personally, I've had better luck when using mardel coppersafe. To use it effectively you just need an api copper test kit and you are good to go.

So anyways, if it was eating before and is not now... its best to move it to another QT without copper and hope it recovers. Best wishes.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

I should have mentioned the water parsms and that there is a mirror at the end of thr tank.
Salinity 1.023 Milwakee
Ph 8.4 Hanna
Ammonia 0 API
Copper 546 um Hanna
Running 8 gal bioballs and stability
Temp 77.4

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Should I move him to a qt by himself or a larger unmedicated qt with other fish?

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Setting up a 65....just call me TankMan....lol
210, 210, 60, 120, 29, 28, 65 plus sumps.

 

[FutureInterest]

Wow, you are tankman.

I don't think he's contagious as he's just having a negative reaction to the ionic copper. So he could prolly go in with other fish and it might help spur his appetite to see other fish eating as well.

 

[Adam]

I've had intermittent luck by adding vitamin c to the water too. After you get the fish out of the copper you might want to give it a shot too. Brightwell has a product I use. It's not going to cure anything but should give its immune system a little boost which hopefully will get its appetite to kick in. I agree with having it in a qt with other fish but preferably not another similar tang. Seeing other fish eating helps with the feeding response.

Also make sure you have a place big enough for it to hide in.

 

[urbanknight]

Whenever I have had an issue with fish that won't eat, I have used Nutramar Ova. It's a frozen preparation that is really small. In my experience, finicky eaters will usually begin to eat it within 1-2 days after introduction. I have fed this for a week and introduced frozen mysis with it.

 

[enderg60]

I gave up on the blond naso's. The only way I got one to live was to get a HUGE 8" one that was fat as hell. It didnt eat for over a week, then would only eat nori tied to a rock. Once I got it eating he was fine.

Then I added a regal tang over a year later, it upset the pecking order and the naso got so stressed it died. That was my 4th one. Not bothering with them anymore.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Thanks for the input. I will be stopping hy lfs for more food and vitamin today.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Just trying to identfy something odd I found when I got home so I can hopefully prevent others from the same fate. I expected the naso would not make it, but I have never seen this in a fish before. Between the pectoral fins it looks like something bored into or out of the body. I will attach a zoomed in pic so I would not be posting a passed fish. The remaining fish look healthy atm so I am just being cautious. Can anyone identify this?

 

[FutureInterest]

Wow never seen anything like that. It's like something out of Aliens...

If I had to take a wild guess though... its possibly due to bacterial decomposition where the co2/methane builds up and then blows up the body cavity.

Sorry it didn't make it man... Don't give up on the blonde. Mine is one of my favs in that particular tank. There are other QT procedures to look at... coppersafe or hyposalinity or tank swapping. I've not tried coppersafe with nasos but it is chelated copper instead of the ionic copper in cupramine and from what I've read... it seems better for tangs and butterflies.