Tried to rescue 2 hippo's

[ronj]

well, i saw some baby hippo's that were on the brink of death today i seem to have a soft spot for tangs!! ...i got them for a few bucks..i put them in one of my spare tanks and one of them died about an hour later..i told the girl at the lfs that the one would die on the way home, and it wasn't long after that...the other one looks a lot better..it is swimming around, but it is very skinny..i don't know if it will live , but at least i gave it a chance!!! the water that they were in was filthy...there was a huge yellowbelly in the tank underneath these two..it too was very bad shape....i complained to the owner and told him that his tanks were horrible...i really don't think that he cared!!!.here are some pics of the fish..one of them is the dead fish

 

[Brenden]

Good Luck. I have done that before but realized all I was doing was encouraging the fish store to get more. If they are that sorry maybe they will lose enough and go out of business.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

You didn't say which is which, but I wouldn't be trying to feed a penny to the live one. I heard Copper can be toxic.

Seriously, Brian is 100% spot on. They need to realize that they shouldn't be selling marine. Your time would be better spent driving away their Saltwater fish customers LOLOL

 

[Krish]

Bummer...Stuff like tat always sucks! I have a friend here that use to be in the hobby and no lie lives less than 1 minute from the shore line and instead of taking his fish he didn't want there and release them, he'd either flush them or throw them in the yard! Some people just shouldn't be in control of animals period.

 

[spongebob lover]

ahh dood that's horrible .
are you gonna treat the little one with hypo?
what are you feeding Dori right now?
it's sad to see those little baby tangs die .

 

[ronj]

i am feeding nori and Formula two...it hasn't eaten anything that i have seen yet...it is swimming around...i am going to give it a few days and see what Steve thinks i should do also!! right now, i am just trying to get it some vitamins in the food!! it probably won't eat for a day or two, but i will put some food in just in case....the other one was laying on the bottom and then swimming upside down, so i took him out and let him go quickly instead of drawing it out any longer..it was going to die anyway!! i felt really bad!!

 

[Scooterman]

If it is in shock you may want to cover most of the tank to help from spooking it any more, just don't let it get hot. If you can blend up some shrimp they love it maybe a little garlic juice to help get it eating.

 

[ronj]

the bad thing about it is that the heater in that tank just goes haywire every few days..it will be like 84-85 degrees...i am going to try to get a better heater this week...Brian also suggested garlic.i have never used it, but i may need it in this case!!

 

[ronj]

well, i broke up some of the nori and let it float around..the fish is eating some now..it may have a spot on its' head though!! i am most likely about to have to treat it for ich(i think)

 

[Scooterman]

Give it time, let it eat & rest some, don't stress it too quickly, unless it is no choice.

 

[ronj]

i want to give it a few days...if i see any more spots, i will have to put it in hypo treatment! i don't want to stress it any more than i have to..it seems to be doing fine..i am going to do a very large water change tommorrow!! i want some crystal clear water for the fish..i already put in some carbon and vacuumed the bottom some..i never really kept this tank very clean, until last week..i cleaned it up and got it looking pretty clear..i also added a skimmer when i put the hippo in..i really want the fish to have an opportunity to heal up!!

 

[spongebob lover]

i'm glad to hear it's eating some.
i heard garlic helps to encourage eating.
i agree with Scooter dood you should give it some time to get acclimated to your tank, but i hope you got a quarantine ready to go just in case you have to treat him for ich.

 

[Scooterman]

Great Job Ron!

That is just awesome Ron, keep it up!

 

[ronj]

it's sad to say, but i am not expecting it to live..i have seen these tiny ones go really quick!!! hopefully, i will see some improvement in a few days..Brian(Brenden) and i were talking, we think it would be a good idea to lower the salinity to around 1.018-1.019 to help reduce the stress.....i have some mushrooms, toadstools, and polyps in there..would that salinity affect the corals??if so, i am going to have to get another qt tank up and running!!

 

[shallowreef]

"Paging Dr. Ron......Dr. Ron Please report to the emergency room immediately"

Ron has a PHD in BT and Ts alike.

(for those who are trying to figure out what BT and T stand for its Blue Tang and Tang)

 

[spongebob lover]

yeah dood lowering the salinity affects corals ... you better get that quarantine going dood.

my bets are that the tang is gonna live because you're taking care of him .

 

[shallowreef]

I tried a baby BT once well needless to say i didn't have good luck but he was like the size of my thumb nail. It was cool to see one that small. During a certain part of the year you see a lot of the babies and other times if you see two in a store its a lot.

 

[Brenden]

Lower salinity will def affect the corals.

 

[ronj]

i know low salinity will affect them, but i didn't know if 1.019 would do it or not...the little guy is eating today..i broke up some nori and also added some frozen Formula 2..i saw him picking around at stuff...

 

[ronj]

the tiny hippo is hiding most of the time now....i saw a clown nip at him once or twice...i did a 50% WC today..the water is really clean and clear..i still have the carbon in there and the protein skimmer is doing a bit...i am going to continue to keep this water in top condition...hopefully this will help the overall health of the fish!!!! i am hoping the fish will grow fast like my other hippo's..i worry about it being that small...it only eats tiny,tiny peices of nori and Formula 2..how can i get this fish the vitamins that it needs????