Niko's Reef Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Hello ARC. I just purchased a blue hippo tang on Sat. It was doing great in tank. Had been eating and always hanging with Clown Fish in the aquarium. Noticed Doria was hiding out in rocks last night, and again this morning. Today I noticed a few bites to her back tail fin. Not sure which fish attacked her, because they all get along great. Doria finally started swimming around a little b4 I left to work, but did not eat. Seemed to swim just fine though, even against stronger currents. Tried to read up on medicine and a hospital tank. Was reading a lot of different opinions, so I decided to go to an aquarium shop today. They recomended getting a filter for the hospital tank; but said I had to break it in for a week, then transfer the water. Told me no live rock and PVC pipe for hiding spots. Told me that I couldn't dose the tank cuz it would kill corals. Does all this sound correct and do fish usually recover from this? All insight would be greatly apprecaited. Currently only breaking new filter in. Thanks, NiKo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Tail should heal, my guess is the clownfish is the culprit. Feed nori soaked with garlic to hippo. Either way, you should feed it some nori even though the hippo tangs have more of a meatier diet in the wild. The thing to watch for with hippos is ich. The garlic soaked nori should help though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 +1 Nori and garlic is the key for hippos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Its possibly fin rot and if it is you would need an antibiotic to cure it. When the fish are stressed the bacteria is able to take over and cause damage to the fish. Could be the clownfish though. If the damaged fins have have a brown tinge to them I would treat asap with antibiotic in hospital tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 My Sailfin thinks he is a clownfish and plays in the anemone all the time (okay not actually in, but he swims closer to it than I am comfortable with). As a result he usually has some missing fin tissue from where I assume he gets light stings. Grows back in a couple days though.... and off he goes back into the nem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Thanks all. Really helpful hints. I purchased the nori and garlic. Hope that works. Doria thought it was a clownfish too. Didn't think about the anemone. That could be possible too. Doesn't have any sign of tail rot, but Im mointoring that. Bought a couple of chemicals that the shop recommended. The only problem is that I don't have a tank that has been running long enough to hospitalize it. They said the filter needed to run for a week in the tank I have it in. I'm just hoping it's a little scared right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBMarlin Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 You might also consider that it could be HLLE, as one symptom is fin erosion. See here for some extreme cases: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/sp/index.php . More info about GAC as a culprit: http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/activated-carbon-hlle-smoking-gun-found Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Thanks BBMartin. Doesn't really look like that. Just looks like something bit into it's tail fin. Whats the shortest time period that a hospital tank could be cycled? I was told a week. Don't know if I want to wait that long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Thanks BBMartin. Doesn't really look like that. Just looks like something bit into it's tail fin. Whats the shortest time period that a hospital tank could be cycled? I was told a week. Don't know if I want to wait that long. Doesn't need to be cycled at all. I could put 50 fish in a brand new tank tomorrow, I would just have to do more water changes than if it was an established tank. If you put that hippo in 10 gallons of display tank water you should be good for weeks without a water change, that's without a cycled tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Thanks Hydro. Seems like the simplest and smartest solution to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Another question on this topic. So I got the hospital set up and everything tested out fine. Tried to lure out the tang with garlic seaweed. So far this has been unsuccesful. I tried to move around all the rock and check the caves. Unable to locate him. What does this mean? Do they hide in places I cant see? It's only been a couple of days. Should I just give him some time? Turned tank upside down looking for him. Don't know where else to check. Same thing happened with my Royal Gramma when I got him. He went missing for a few days. Tried to wait it out, but moved rocks around. Within next couple of days, he was back and hungy. Only difference the tang fin has been bit into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 hmmmm, that's not a good sign at all. New hippo tangs are notorious for hiding and never coming back out. I lost 3 hippo tangs in a row before I figured out the trick, its QTing them. They need to be coddled for a few weeks before putting them in the tank, especially if someone is picking on them. There is a chance that its hiding somewere, they are good at hiding, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Your clean up crew may have gotten a good meal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 Thanks Hydro. Well, I would hate to loose him; but if it's something the cleanup crew will dispose of, guess it could be worse. I was worried about him decaying and messing up my water quality. Got the new QT tank all set up, so next time I'll go that route if this doesn't work out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 That's good that you set up the QT for the next one. When you get it make sure to cover part of the tank so it feels secrure, a dither fish would be helpful too. A yellow tail damsel would work fine, you can leave it in the tank to help keep it cycled. If it doesn't eat for a few days and hides don't worry about it as long as it doesn't have ich. Just make sure its alive and then leave it alone. After a week or so they will usually start coming out a little, then after a couple of weeks they are usually more confident and will hang out more. Then your ready to try the DT. Once the little tang finds a place to hide, usually just a minute or 2, turn out the lights on the tank. This will stop any fish from immediately picking on it and will give it some time to get used to being in the new tank. Just let the lights come on as usual the next day. I introduce all fish to my DT that way. Also I would have cupramine on hand or keep your QT in hyposalinity. Ich can devastate a small hippo quickly. For a hippo tang I would just either use hypo or cupramine (copper) immediately and wouldn't wait for the fish to break out before doing something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 Thanks a ton Hydro. I didn't know the majority of that. Keeping a damsel in the QT tank, intoducing it into the tanks and the hypo process. All will be really helpful next go round. Kind of amazed at the reduction of the salt level. Niko Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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