Lionfish floating around??

Hello,

I noticed that yesterday my volitan lionfish puked out 4 ghost shrimp. His once bulging stomach is now very thin. (the day before he ate one damsel). Than last night he began to float at the top of the surface water (as though he was gasping for air), today he is just floating around with the current (at time upside down as though he had no strength).

His color turned from the normal to a more brownish color.
I checked the ph/ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels. All seem test came back normal.

I read somewhere that said if lionfishes consume a large prey, they can they can develope stomache blockage which is fatal. (could this be the cause since he ate a damsel about 1/3 his size).

Now he is just floating around / ramming into the glass/ walls/ rocks.
should i just euthanize him or see what happens.

Any help should be appreciated.. thanks

 

Wow, not good. I would wait it out. You never know. We have had fish I thought were gone, turn around, so I always like to wait it out. Unless, that is it is an anemone or something that will kill the tank. I dont know much about the stomach blockage, I'm sure someone else will let you know about that. Best of luck.

 

I would wait it out too. Have you checked your water parameters?
Check your ammonia, If it's anywhere above 0ppm, I'd do a water change.
Try putting something small and live to swim about the tank to see if that would catch his attention and see if he would eat it prob a molly or a guppy.

If it is infact a stomach blockage, try putting him in a QT with some Epsom salts (I don't know about the correct dosage, I believe it may be 1tsp to 10gal)

 

thanks for the epsom salt tip.

however, today he appeared to be at the top of the tank gasping for air. Checked the salinity levels and all appears to be normal at 1.021 which means it is not a oxygen level issue. He still floats around with the current and rams into rocks and so forth. I'm in the process of setting up a quarantine tank to isolate the issue.

Ran several test again today on the water quality. No traces of ammonia, ph is balanced at 8.4, no traces of nitrite, small trace of nitrate (not harmful level).

All other creatures in the tank appears to be normal. my snowflake is behaving normal as well.

My question is what will cause the fish to swim up to the top of the water and gasp for air (is it possible the gut blockage -he ate a huge damsel 2 days ago) could of caused this behavior.

wish me and him luck... :-/

 

How is your water movement? Your dissolved oxygen may be low if he is gasping for air. If you don't have good movement at the surface of the water, there won't be good gas exchange and CO2 buildup in the tank can cause problems. Excessive CO2 can cause pH to drop. If that is the case and your pH is normal, then under normal circumstances your pH will be extremely high. I suggest doing a 20% waterchange anyway, just to get dissolved oxygen up. Pour the water through a plastic sift, like a spaghetti strainer to chop up the water when it enters the tank to get dissolved oxygen up higher. Remember that each fish have their own tolerances. Do a WC just to rule out any possibilities or bad stuff in the water.

 

do you ever feed it goldfish, i heard feeder goldfish will cause blockage and problem.

 

No I have never fed him goldfish, however i had 2 damsels in the same tank, and prior to him getting sick he ate a damsel about 1/2 his size(body length).

Today he is still at the surface of the water, floating around. At times he would stick his head out the water as though he is gasping for air.

Going to run a few test again..
Any ideas why he would stick his head out the water like that.

 

If he is going for air, I would definetly reccomend and air stone. You should pump as much oxygen in as possible.

 

just added a air stone..

However I am almost sure air supply is not the problem, because I am running 2 power heads with plenty of water flow movement throughout the tank.

This will be day 4. If the guy continues to get worse I am debating about taking him out of his misery.

 

the epsom salt thing only works with freshwater fish...not saltwater.

i'd do a water change and see how things turn out!!