Fish sick, not disease I think

[ltkenbo]

Well several months ago I could not get rid of dinoflagallates so I moved my fish (5 at the time) into a 20 gallon long tank. My goby died several months ago from the stress of changing. Anyways, now I have 2 clownfish, a coral beauty, and a scopus tang. Like 2 months ago my protein skimmer screwed up and there's a problem with the bubble problem, or something. So with school and all and me not having much money and time, my small tank is not in the best shape. Since I didn't have the protein skimmer I cut back feedings drasticly to not contaminate the water, though I'm sure the nitrates are pretty high now (though most of my corals are doing fantastic suprisingly).

Anyways, long story short this evening when I was looking at the tank I noticed my tang was on the floor of the tank like he was dead, but he didn't look quite dead, so I grabbed a net and nudged him and surprisingly he was still alive, but he will only swim around near the ground, he's not pale just extremely sluggish. (The other fish seem fine)

I fed the fish which of course he didn't eat cause he was laying there and moving around occasionally. I cut the lights to prevent further stress after feeding the other fish and am mixing up a new thing of saltwater.

So if you were me what would you do to try and save him? I'm sure his condition is mostly my fault which makes me feel bad but he seems like he might have a chance and it can't hurt to try. I've heard something about sugar water solution for fish that won't eat? Should I put him in the 5 gallon bucket with a bubbler and heater? Or just do a big water change?

 

[chiqui bb]

Are your water parameters okay? How big is the tang? Could he be stressed from the smaller tank size?

I have a regal tang and he did great for several months. One day I come home and he has buried his head between a piece of rock and the sand bed at the back of the tank. I thought he was dead and reached in to pull him out. Much to my surprise, he wiggled so I left him alone. He stayed like this for 8 days and during that time, did not eat (that I could see). I was sure he was going to die. On the 8th day, he came out and started swimming and eating, as if nothing had happened! I still have him and he's doing well. My tang is a little skittish at times and if anything freaks him out, he dives in a cave in the rocks.

 

[little_fish]

+1 chiqui bb

I think he is probably very stressed out from being in the smaller tank. Can you put together a large rubbermaid bin as a QT tub so that its a little bigger for him?

 

[ltkenbo]

Well unfortunately I woke up this morning and he has hermits crabs and stuff on top of him, he's dead :-(

Well I got a engineering co-op this next semester and am moving temporarily so I think I'm gonna trade the rest of my fish and corals into my LFS and get more whenever I come back. I kind of hate to give up some of my corals though, especially my xenia colony. Since putting the corals in the smaller tank a couple months ago the xenia went from like an inch long to like 8 inches across, it's probably almost the size of my hand.

 

[little_fish]

Ah, im sorry :(

Are there some local reefers in your area that can hold your corals until you setup another tank?

 

[ltkenbo]

I'll be gone for 6 months, I just traded all my fish and corals into the local fish store for credit today. I made sure they will sell my clowns as a pair. I'll just get more fish when I come back and order more corals online like I have in the past...