Urgent Yellow Tang disoriented..Urgent!

I have a Yellow Tang in a qt being treated with Cupramine. When I first got him he had ich so I started treating him. I stopped after 2 weeks and it came right back. So I started Cupramine again. He has been in the Cupramine for another 2 weeks now again. This week I started noticing he was disoriented and would swim into the side of the tank. Today he cant even swim without running into things. What is happening to him? He was eating yesterday too. Did a small water change and added carbon to get rid of the copper. I fear I am going to lose him need some advice ASAP!

 

All params are in check

 

Really need some help. I have no idea what I am up against here!

 

Ryland it sounds like you have done everything you can, I would have done the same thing, water change and carbon. You might consider adding some supplemental oxygen. Also I am just assuming that the lighting did not just come on.

Boy you and this tang have been through a lot, I hope it turns out ok. Sorry I can not be of more assistance.

 

YES the lights did just come on. I keep him in a storage room that is dimly lit. When I turned the lights on he just went crazy. Swimming all over the tank running into things. Went into a seizure like deal on his side on the bottum of the tank. He is up swimming now. Has become VERY jumpy in the last couple of days. What am I dealing with here???

 

IME tangs will sometimes react like that when spooked ( by lights) and be fine again in an hour. They are the best at looking close to death and recover like nothing happened.

Also they are extremely active swimmers and go a little nuts when confined in a QT.

 

Is it possible this is a symptom of being in a tank too small? I am going to continue with the carbon and do another water change. I want the copper out. What do I do when the ich returns? Malachite green? This is my daughters favorite fish...kinda attached to him

 

Formalin would be what you use instead of copper. But after two weeks the ich should be gone if the therapeutic level was maintain during treatment. Or hypo-salinity but never a combination of the 3.

Has he settled down now that he has become accustomed to the lights being on?

As far as the size of the QT, I can only report my own experience with tangs in smaller QT. One of mine started to swimming in a pattern over and over and over and then circles. Once returned to the display that behavior stopped.

 

what is the copper level in the tank?

 

I hope I'm not saying something stupid here, but isn't Methylene Blue also used in the treatment of ich, and also, importantly, a sedative/calmative when used on fish? I'm sure you'll want someone to corroborate this, because I'm still starting out (for the second time), but it seems like that may be useful in this situation because of the fish freaking out, as well as the ich.