Stumped, Need Help: Fish Not Acting Normal

mr&mrs.o

mr&mrs.o

Member
Today we noticed that our Blonde Naso is not acting normal. He is sitting on the bottom of the tank and only kinda swimming around occasionally, mostly when seemingly urged to by our Sailfin. The other fish are mostly normal, other than they do seem stressed (fins up, sometimes darting around).
Tank Stats:
180 Gal Reef
Yellow Tang
Sailfin Tang
Blonde Naso Tang
Mandarin
2 False Percs
Serpent Star
Pink Tip Anem
Several clean up crew inhabitants and also corals
Set up for approx 10 months (previously had a 55 gal)
Tested Today:
Ammonia: 0
pH: 8.4
Nitrate: 5 or 10
Nitrite: 0
We have plenty of poweheads and flow, metal halide lighting and T5 lighting.
We don't feel any shock in the water, however, we did have a little power surge earlier today when some work was being done on an electrical box.
Any any ideas on what could be going on or something we're missing?
 
ajroc31

ajroc31

Member
Maybe something got fried a bit. See the temp in the tank. From other fish, it seems that there is some stray there.
 
ajroc31

ajroc31

Member
Ok, if the other fish are acting normal, sometimes, tangs do this weird thing. But the naso is obviously the problem. Try to increase oxygen into the tank. Have you fed him anything green today? Sometimes, they are just constipated, and behave in such manner. How does his stomach look? If the shock was so bad, to knock the naso down, others would feel it also, so that should be fine.
 
mr&mrs.o

mr&mrs.o

Member
We have 4 big powerheads and 4 small ones, as well as the return pump. I don't see oxygen being the problem nor how to add much more. The fish's breathing is normal though. He looks completely normal, no bulges, not sunken in. The only thing we saw him eat was some flake food that floated to him. As he's not swimming around, he didn't go after anything else or algae sheets.
When we got up this morning, he is still alive but still sitting at the bottom of the tank still :(
 
6stokes

6stokes

Member
You should check for stray voltage. If you don't have any means to do so, just throw a grounding rod in to be on the safe side. By the way, you wan't feel any stray voltage if that's what you meant in your post. And if you did feel it, that just means you need a GFCI, GFI, or whatever they call them these days.
 
mr&mrs.o

mr&mrs.o

Member
Thanks! I just can't understand why one fish would be so drastically affected and not the others if that's what it is....
 
6stokes

6stokes

Member
You raise a good point and I'm just trying to give you other ideas. Obviously we can't be sure that it's stray voltage, but it's a thought... Some fish do get stressed easier than others though. One other thought. Do you run carbon once in a while and if so, how often?
 
mr&mrs.o

mr&mrs.o

Member
The fish has died :( But all others seem just fine. We used a volt meter to test for voltage and it was reading some. But we were getting different readings with different combinations of things plugged in. So, obviously there's some, but I'm thinking that is not the cause, as it's probably been there the whole time and not something new. We did have a carbon filter in addition to the other added filtration in the sump that had been there for a while (which was actually removed yesterday once the hunt was on to find causes. (My husband does all the "maintenance" so I'm not sure how long that has been in there. I know we didn't always have it though.)
I'm just really frustrated at this point :-(
I'm thinking this has to be something to do with only the one fish...since the other fish seem fine and are not so drastically affected. But there are no external signs of disease....there was no difficulty breathing (obvious).
 
6stokes

6stokes

Member
Yes, I agree the voltage has always been there. I've yet to see a tank that has zero stray voltage. It is possible though if no equipment is in the water. I read one time that it can become anoying to the fish and that it sounds like a jet airplane constantly to them. I'm not saying that's how he died, but it may relieve some minor stress with the others. As far as carbon goes, it's always a good idea to run it once in a while. Not only will it take that dingy yellow color out of the water, it removes toxins that continue to build with no way out. Even if you use RO water, you're still getting toxins in the tank from other environmental factors. Cholrine will also get by an RO filter system. It may not be very detectable, but they will continue to build up.
Sorry for your loss.
 
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