saddleback butterfly

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When I woke up today, I noticed that my saddleback was breathing very heavy and not as active as normal, I recently did a waterchange on thursday, and tested my levels yesterday and everything was fine. The other two fish, a lion and an angel are fine and normal, does anyone know what could be wrong?

I have around 50lbs of live rock in the tank, a protein skimmer, two powerheads, and a top fin hang on back filter.

I also added a marine buffer on thursday, and some calcium yesterday


:bum:

[leebca]

I'm afraid I only have more questions, than answers.
Some additional information that may be useful:
How old is your tank? When did it originally cycle?
What kind of system do you have (tank volume, dimensions, any carbon or chemical filtration, etc.).
Are those the only specimens in the tank? (fish, inverts, corals, clams, etc.).
Do you use a quarantine tank and procedure?
Foods you use and feeding schedules.
How long have you had this fish? You didn't say --- is it eating now?
Do you use any vitamins? any additives? Please list all.
Chemistries – please give actual numbers AFTER you made those additions (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate, Silica, Ca, Alk., and any others you have)
Water parameters – please give actual numbers AFTER you made those additions (pH and your pH range, salinity or sp. gr. & range, temperature range)
Water changes (how much and how often).
List what you added or taken out of your aquarium system (living, decorations, and equipment) during the past 6 weeks.

With the above, I may be able to spot something.

Good luck! :)

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My ammonia level was at zero, my ph is 8.3, salinity level is between 1.022 and 1.023, I have a cleaning crew including starfish crabs and snails, I have 50lbs. of live rock. I don't know the exact number of my other levels, but they were in the normal range.

I have two powerheads for water movement, a protein skimmer for up to a 100 gallon tank, operated with a powerhead. I have a top fin filter with activated carbon.

My tank was set up late march of this year. I spoke with a professional at a local marine only store, and he told me the saddleback butterfly was very difficult to keep in captivity.

I feed my fish twice a day with a variety of foods to include the dried out green algae, formula one frozen cubes, and frozen mysis shrimp. I use the garlic drops to entice the fish. the fish has been in my tank approximately 8 days.

I do not have a quarantine tank at this time. My tank is 55gallons. I do a 10% water change every week. I do not use any vitamins currently. I have had the cleaning crew for three weeks with all the critters still alive except for the occasional hermit crab attacks on the snails.

I am thinking it might just be a difficult fish to keep, my other two fish a singapore angel and a dwarf lion are perfectly fine and show no systems as that of the butterfly fish.

[leebca]

Regarding the difficulty of keeping the Saddleback. . .Even fish of a species known to be easy or moderate may have the occasional variant that is hard to keep. In general the Saddleback butterflyfish is a moderate to easy fish to keep. I've kept a few dozen of them over the past 36 years.

The older ones may be a bit more finicky and set in their ways, but most of them will 'come around.' So, unless your fish is over 5 inches in length, you should have no trouble with it.

I understand a bit more now about your fish and tank. If you find that the butterfly is not alert (a little bit unaware of what's happening around it) then I'd put its condition as a reaction to stress.

You still didn't mention if the fish was eating. Was it eating at the place you got it? Was it eating at all in your aquarium?

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the fish was eating, it semed all of a sudden, because he was fine and eating on saturday, then today is when the fish ended up breathing laboriously. He wasn't really swimming around and was allowing himself to get sucked up to the powerheads, as well as the filter. then he was resting on the ground and it has probably passed away, but I am not for sure because I am at work. I have no clue what could have happened. I will have to keep an eye on the other fish to see if there are similar symptoms. I had three other fish before this without a cleaning crew, and they passed away, so I added the cleaning crew and then bought these specimens, I guess only time will tell

:(