Need Help Fast

[Alex Brown]

i just found my yellow boxfish (2cm cubed) stuck to a powerhead in my tank. I was out for the last 24 hours so no idea on how long he has been there.

his left hand fin is damaged and not moving, and his left hand eye is swollen (white tissue damage showing) but is moving.

i have moved him to a bucket with piece of rock and heater. i do have a powerhead turned on lowest setting but he cannot swim, so i had to turn it off.

i am 2 months new to fishkeeping, please, any help would be greatly aprechaited

alex.

 

[Alex Brown]

update, he is now back in display tank with only the spray bar creating any current. all powerheads are off.

i thought its going to stress the fish out less in normal environment?

 

[orange shark]

i'd guess that hed of been ill already as all fish can resist the powerheads unless they are unwell and dont have enough strength to swim away

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah I would agree there was probably something else wrong with him. Ideally I would take him out of the display tank and put him in a hospital tank (see if you can pick up a small 10g, normally these are fairly cheap and looking for info on setting up a hospital tank). Not sure what the best way to treat him would be, probably a broad spectrum antibiotic of some kind.

I would definitely keep him out of the display though as then you can treat him with meds that may be harmful to the other tank inhabitants and I if I remeber correctly boxfish release a toxin when stressed (or when they die) which could potentially nuke the whole tank.

 

[Alex Brown]

what type of meds am i looking for? anti bacterial?

i put my powerhead in quite tight with rocks and the protien skimmer pump, i do admit that the tank had major flow in areas, everything seemed fine with the flow however. the box fish is tiny, id say more like 1cm cube.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I honestly cant say what meds to use im afraid as I have no idea about what marine meds are available . I'm sure someone here will know though.

 

[Alex Brown]

no sweat, cheers for your help barney!

 

[ben1987]

Sounds like the fish was ill to me before the powerhead incodent. Fish are strong enough swimmers to avoid power heads. I wouldnt advise running your tank with the powerheads off if you use LR. You need the circulation to move the water round the rocks as your filteraion.
Post your water stats up. We need as much info as possible

 

[Alex Brown]

yes it has about 45kg of live rock. 250L tank, 100cmx50x60. there is still a good flow, i can see the particles in the water moving just as much as before, the coral is swaying and the sea weads are all moving good. plus there is surface movement.

water test:

temp 25c
SG
PH 8.3
Nitrite 0.05
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.022
Alkaline 2.0

box fish is now come out from his sleeping spot, and is pecking food from liverock.

 

[orange shark]

you should be getting a reading of 0 ammonia and nitrite, so i guess youve been going through a mini cycle and the levels are lowering again

 

[ben1987]

yeah they really could do with coming down. how long did the tank cycle for? When did the fish go in

 

[Alex Brown]

the humbugs (3 tiny) went in at around 2/3 weeks. the boxfish went in after 1.5 month.

to be honest though, i never noticed a cycle, my readings were always around those numbers, except the nitrate used to be higher, around 20.

 

[ben1987]

shouldnt really add a fish before ammonia & nitrite are undetectable. Did you buy cured live rock?

 

[Alex Brown]

yes, 40kg of it and 5kg dry rock. it came covered in calcium algee (pink, purpel etc) and loads of life.

 

[Alex Brown]

he is doing ok this morning, i put some brine shirmp in and he had a munch. when swimming he half uses his broken fin now. i dont want to leave the protien skimmer and powerheads off much longer, i have turned one powerhead back on already though.

he is keeping a low profile in the tank, he only came out after lights out yesterday, and hides around his sleeping spot during daytime.