erratic behavior

[leggzzz]

I have a sailfin tang which is now swimming extremely erratically, very fast, bumping into things, etc. I had 2 other fish who have died after this behavior, a trigger and a damsel....

I tested the water, and everything seems to be ok...what could be wrong?

[Breef]

What all did you test for. I'm thinking that it could be a chemical,or too much of some additive.There are also some internal parisites that could be the problem.All of the common parameters that we test for are not the total of what are able to effect our fish.About the only other thing I could think of is certain types of bacterial infection within the fish.

[Flame*Angel]

Current in the water? Do you have a grounding probe?

[rshimek]

Hi,

I think you will get better information on fish care and problems here than I can give in my forum.

[leggzzz]

ammonia, pH, nitrite and nitrate

[Breef]

The only thing that I could do now is ask what,if you can remember,additives and changes were done to the tank in the close days before the problem appeared.Maybe a fish that wasn't quarantened rightly,or some LR even a piece or two.Or a new coral.:(

[JohnL]

Originally posted by Flame*Angel
Current in the water? Do you have a grounding probe?

How about a GFCI outlet with a grounding probe?

[Breef]

From what I can feebly recollect,this current theory comes to mind,with me also.I think I saw it on a previous thread in combination with these same symtoms.

[hcs3]

stray electricity is definantely a possibility, but i thnk you'd feel a bit of it when you put a hand in the tank if this was the case. another option might be heavy metal poisoning. or possibly high salinity.

are these fish breathing heavy? do they have any open sores or unusual markings on them when they died?

henry

[leggzzz]

there were no open sores or heavy breathing. they did start brathing heavily of course when they started darting around like maniacs. couple of pieces of live rock were put in over a month ago.

i did just have to replace the on/off switch to the light on the hood yesterday.

[Breef]

Did the problem begin before or after the switch replacement?

[leggzzz]

problem began before switch replacement, about a week ago. the switch didnt die until 2 days ago, replaced yesterday.

Sailfin tang is now in small hospital tank and doing ok, but worried about other fish in tank, not acting erratic yet, but staying close to the bottom more than usual, and not eating as much as normal.

[Breef]

Conserning the switch replacement,was it shorted by maybe water and or salt leeching?Also how close to the intank water was it? There is also copper in most wiring which could be a concern,but if no snails or anything similar were effected then as the original poster stated it could just have been a minor current leakage.As Flame Angel commented it would be very smart to add a grounding probe if you don't have one installed.

[leggzzz]

help me out here.....never heard of it before, are they expensive or easy to make?

[Breef]

Very simple,just punch up search,and punch up this "Want to make my own grounding probe"

[JohnL]

Past threads about grounding probes and gfci outlets (http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=14131&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending). You should use both, imo.

[Aquamans Reef]

the grounding probe will eliminate any stray voltage in your tank. :)

[Gene Brewer]

Same sort of activity from my Yellow Tang .... I just added a med size Yellow (appx playing card size, little smaller) to my recently cycled 100 gal reef tank on Saturday. It is the largest fish in there next to a Jewelled Rockskipper (i.e. Lawnmower Blenny). It seemed to be doing just fine swimming around and in and out of the gaps in the rocks. I noticed this evening that it seemed to be stressed. It was darting around and stopping to lift its head and sort of tail waggle (lack of better description). I had read that Yellows are a good indicator of water quality and everything had seemed to be right on (pH ~ 8.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates < 5, Calcium ~ 420 - 440, Phosphates 0 - use RO/DI water) on Sunday. I checked my books to see if I could identify the symptoms and read in one of them that Yellow Tang preferred lower light levels.

On a 'haven't tried that yet' chance, I switched off the pair of 96W 10K PC's and ran only a pair of 96W -03s. Within a few minutes (10 - 15 minutes) the Yellow Tang calmed down and within an hour or so (by coincidence when the -03 timer shut off), I noticed that the Yellow Tang 'went to bed'. It went to the little cave between the rocks that it seem to have chosen as 'home' and has been in and out of there a few times in the past couple of hours, but has not done the jerky swimming or erratic tail waggling.

My question to more experienced reefers than I is "Are Yellow Tangs susceptible to stress from very bright lights?" No I don't have a current probe either but rest of the fish and inverts don't seem to have any problems.

Thanks

Gene

[collossus]

I have had the very same problem with my yellow tang ...it darts around the tank then does whats like an emergency stop then wiggles its tail not always scraping on the sand then carries on it journey repeating the process a little later.

there are no visible signs of parasite infection and all the other fish are ok, i dont have grounding strap but cant feel any buzz from water and have turned off my heater just today due to warm english(rare) summer!

Steve

[Gene Brewer]

Collossus,

I did notice this evening that the Tang seem to be just swimming around when I got home. I observed it for a few minutes and it didn't seem to be doing the shimmies as bad as last night. When I feed it some frozen algae (thawed of course), it ate quite alot and then after a few minutes (AND while I was close to the aquarium front glass) it started doing the shimmies again. I also noticed that it seem only to do it in the lower region of the water column where the current is focussed between the rocks and glass.

I'm wondering if it is some sort of gesturing or warning movements?

Anything similar there?

Gene

[collossus]

Gene,

Yep thats a carbon copy of my tangs behaviour, the lower reaches of the tank is where it goes on but most of my water current is a little higher.

I must admit that since last posting he does not do the tail wiggle as much i have just added some Octozin in the belief that their could be a parasitic infection ( Octozin is safe to Invert tanks)

There are no visible signs of parasite

Steve