I wish I had a better report, but this morning we woke up to find the tang on his side, breathing hard, pale and splotchy in color. he can hold himself upright, but typically either lays on the bottom flat, or props himself up against a PVC elbow that was put in for a hiding place. parameters are correct. salinity is 1.009 and steady. Ph is being held at 8.1 using baking soda (pre-dissolved in fresh hypo-saltwater and dripped when needed) doing 30%-50% water changes daily, using RO/DI water and Instant Reef salt crystals. Spec. Gravity is being measured with a Refractometer along with Ph every 3 hours. we vacuum the bottom when we do water changes so it stays clean and are leaving the sponge filters alone. there is no other water movement in the tanks and we are keeping the lights dimmed (both biocubes have cool new LED light bars, picked up JUST for this rescue). the tanks are in the corner of the master bedroom where there is very little foot traffic. We are feeding a mix of frozen mysis, vegie flakes and pellet depending on time and day. just enough that everyone gets to eat. the rest is then skimmed out.
Everyone else is fine - and hungry. the two Gobies that are in with the tang ate readily this morning. the trigger, angel and other guys in the second hospital tank ate like normal and act like normal. They're not showing any signs of infection (of course, they never did show signs) or stress. just boredom now. the trigger has adopted a piece of pipe for a hidey-hole. the diamond goby is lost without some sand to sift. the lawnmower just sits at the filter intake giving me dirty looks (like he always does) and the angel patrols the front of the tank looking for whatever it is he is looking for. oh, and the damsel - well, I think he would survive a nuclear blast he is so hearty.
Any other time I've had a fish look as bad as the Tang looks right now, they didn't make it. I'm open to suggestions for other things to try with him, but I'm afraid he's really a gonner. I find it odd that no other fish is displaying the slightest signs of ick.
This is a TON of work, which would be fine if it had saved the Tang, but it appears that it did not. I am frustrated. I know this hobby is about 'time and money' - and this is the first time I've gone to these lengths to try and save a fish and failed. It's very disheartening.
