Help! Sick fish and can't disgnois from what......newbie.......

[Marie.P]

:headwally:I have a 125g tall with a 30g overflow wet/dry, and a protein skimmer for a 250g tank. My water parameters are in check. I can only think the fish came sick.

I have had several "reputable" aquarium stores to come to the house and all of them have told me a different sickness. I have had my water taken to two different stores and tested the water. Everything is fine. Also, the tank is barley stocked. It's FOWLR.

I bought an adult batfish (my husbands preference, not mine) off a customer I met at a store. The fish was good for a couple of weeks. He even eats from my hands. Since then I've only added the sailfin tang and did two water changes.

THE BATFISH IS NOW SICK. HE IS STILL EATING BUT IS LOSING WEIGHT, COLOR LOOKS GROSS AND SICKLY, AND HIS EYES ARE WHITE. THE EYE LIDS APPEAR TO BE BALLOONING. AT FIRST THEY STARTED LOOKING CLOUDY WITH WHITE SPECKS. I THOUGHT IT WAS ICK BUT THERE ARE NO WHITE SPOTS ON HIM AND NONE OF THE OTHER FISH ARE SHOWING ANY TYPE OF SICKNESS OR SIMILAR SYMPTOMS. :headwally:

I'm prepping the tank to eventually go reef and don't want to treat it unnecessarily.

[Newsmyrna80]

Are either of them scratching, breathing heavy, etc? Have you done a FW dip?

[EnderTurtle]

That fish and that other black object if it is a fish are too big for that tank.

[Marie.P]

The black object is a smaller batfish. Not sure which one but it has the bottom fin the curves forward.

I've watched the fish. None of them seem to be under any stress. No scratching, no itching.


Any other possibilities?

In another thread someone said the sick one lives between 5-30 meters depth and there is too much light for him. I don't think he can see because I just fed him three sheets of seaweed, he ate it all, but bumped in to the rocks. I'm considering releasing him but want to eliminate the possibly of the problem being a sickness first. He is big but I'm not planning on stocking the tank much more that it is.

I haven't tried a FW dip. Never heard of that before.

I'll post a close up of his eye.

[karp12]

Not sure if saltwater fish get popeye but look into that. My Africans got it a lot.

[ca1ore]

Well, two cloudy eyes generally means a bacterial infection. Sometimes they clear up on heir own, other times something like furan2 can help, and still other times fish is a gonner.

It is too big for the tank though ....

[Marie.P]

I think I'm going to treat him then take him to the store. I initially didn't want him, but grew to like him. Now I feel bad because he's sick.

I want a bigger tank now! Let me start working on Hubby.