Naso Tang sick

[zenn]

Hi,

Yesterday I got a sweet deal on a tiny not-so-good looking naso tang. It's a fairly small juvenile. I got a deal on it with the intention of putting it into QT and attempting to nurse it back to good health. I've been successful at treating other fish in the past, so I am fairly confident I can do the same here.

However, so far, the naso has eaten very little. Last night, I had soaked some regualr flake food with Selcon, and the naso did eat a little bit of that. But not much at all.

Then this morning, I tried to offer the naso nori soaked in Selcon, dried pellet foods, and more flake food soaked in garlic. The naso did not except any of these. So now I'm a little worried.

I began to lower the SG to increase appetite, and help with what appears to be discoloration/bleaching spots on the tangs side, and a minor case of ich. The fish overall looks very discolored and white.

Any additional recommendations would be great!

Jeremy

 

[leebca]

Hi Jeremy.

I'm not one to encourage fish rescue operations. You are not a veterinarian, nor operating a fish hospital, I take it? Taking in sick fish sends the signal back through the fish collecting system that sending sick fish is still okay. We on the consumer's end want to encourage better transfer treatment and care rather than offering outlets for the the fish that aren't cared for.

A fish doesn't eat in captivity for one basic reason: stress. You need to find and eliminate the stressors. Some stressors, like inability to acclimate, you can't address. Others you know or suspect, you may be able to address.

"A minor case of ich" is like being a little bit pregnant. Being diseased is one very good reason not to eat.

Without a photo, those patches you mention may be anything from a color change from fear/stress to damaged skin to infection.

I've never heard of lowering specific gravity to increase appetite. There is no biological or physiological reasons to suggest this would be true, as far as I know. It is unknown to professional aquarists and ornamental fish veterinarians I associate with. It sounds like you may have been misinformed on this.

Lowering specific gravity does make life easier for the fish, in the sense the fish will spend less energy on osmoregulation. You may take it to 1.016 for this purpose. But if the fish truly has Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) you may wish to consider a hyposalinity treatment.

 

[zenn]

While I can appreciate your position on "not encouraging rescue operations", I feel like I'm doing a good thing. All the "send a message back through the collection system" talk sounds like a great idea, yet there are way more uninformed fish buyers than there are informed ones. In reality, it's going to take laws to protect fish from harmful collection methods and transport.

I do plan to lower the tank to 1.009 SG for hyposalinity. I'll do this gradually over a period of days to not shock the fish. The appetite thing may be a bit of a myth, but I've heard it from several sources. The good news is the tang accepted mysis shrimp today. His color as darkened significantly in the last couple of days as well.

If I get a chance to take a photo of it tomorrow, I'll do that. Thanks for the info.