big belly on 6-line

[pyro]

My six line wrasse in my 30g reef has a larger than normal belly. I've had it for a little over a month, and up until this point it has been great minus a damage to its mouth during shipping that is almost fully healed now. It's belly has been expanded for I beleive 2 days or so now. I'll try and get a picture later today.
I feed flake food every day with a small feeding when the lights come on and before the lights go off. Every 2 or 3 days or so I replace the 2nd flake feeding with a frozen feeding varying from squid to mysis to brine and other mixtures. I also put in a pinch of cyclop eeze every 36 hours or so to alternate feeding the candys and the others.
NH3, NO2, NO3 are all 0, pH is 8.2. Temperature holds at 82F. The tank has been setup for about 3-4 months so far.
Tankmates are 2 percula clowns, a purple firefish, 4 hermits, 4 snails, 2 emerald crabs.
Coral wise, I have some green star polyps, a green rasta leather, some red mushrooms, and two candy corals (the one big one broke while I was putting it in).

 

[lefty]

How is your fish eating? It could be an internal bacterial infection, the beginning stages of dropsy, or perhaps he just swallowed some air. Typically, an internal bacterial infection is accompanied with a loss in appetite. If the swelling is only increasing, you may want to put him in a QT and use Maracyn-Two. M2 treats internal bacterial infections and dropsy. If you can't find the saltwater version, you can use the freshwater one, as the only difference between the two is the addition of B vitamins to the saltwater one. Terry B recommends double the dose on the box since they don't make it strong enough for SW fish. This means four tablets added on the first day and two for the remaining days (the treatment should last 7-10 days). Do you soak the food before you give it to them? I have heard of fish swallowing air when they come up to the surface to eat the food. But the fact that you say his stomach continues to swell leads me to believe he may suffer from the bacterial infection or dropsy.
My firefish's stomach became swollen about a week and a half ago and I treated it with M2 and it's now back to its normal size.
Hope this helps!
-lefty

 

[pyro]

Nope, he picks the flake off of the surface and is still eating strong. Is a 5g elipse good for a quarantine for him? He's currently about an inch and a half long.
I'll start looking for M2 and keep a close eye on him, I'll try and treat him within the next 3 days if there is no improvement.

 

[lefty]

A five gallon's fine. Just watch those water parameters real closely, as they can change quickly in such a small tank. Good luck with your fish!
-lefty

 

[pyro]

Been 2-3 day since I noticed it - no change for better or worse.
I think I'm going to setup the hospital tank just to be safe. It's a 5 gallon eclipse that I'll set on black paper and add a couple tablespoons or so to the bottom to help it cycle a bit. I'll fill it with display tank water, and just do a 5g water change. Then I'll change 2 gallons every other day vaccuuming up the tank. I'll look for any decorations we don't need either, I'm thinking just a piece of cut and sanded PVC.
Any advice before I go about setting it up? I dont' know how long it will have to cycle - it depends on the fish's condition.
Still no loss in apetite, but I'm looking for the M2 just incase.
Also, this tank has been running as a freshwater tank for a while. I can't replace the biowheel easily as they changed the biowheels a bit and the replacements don't fit right. Will the old biowheel be ok?

 

[lefty]

Sounds like you're good to go. Sand, heater, PVC pipe, filter, and PH. Just keep a close eye on your fish, and if he/she is getting worse, I would say you don't have time for a cycle. If that's the case, you have the option of doing large and frequent water changes to dilute the ammonia/nitrites OR adding a product like Amquel+ to eliminate them altogether (this is the route I ended up going since my large water changes couldn't keep up with the ammonia in my emergency QT). But since you have a five gallon tank, it should be relatively easy to perform large water changes.
The old biowheel should be fine as long as you don't think there's anything on it that would contaminate the water in any way.
-lefty