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Raccoon Butterfly sick

SamHa

SamHa

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Hi guys
I am kinda new to hobby and few days ago I bought a Raccoon butterfly which was eating well for first few days and swim normally. Now he is just opening closing his mouth rapidly and do not swim that much and does not eat food. Any clue? Is he sick? I put his picture here as well. Is it ich?

Thank you very much I will be really appreciated your opinions.
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Your pic is not showing up for me for some reason.

I had a tomini tang that did that in QT. Eat very well for almost 2 weeks, and then start gasping one day (checked and ruled out ammonia). Unfortunately it didn't make it. No visible sign of sickness on body.
 
Thank you very much for your feedback.
Before coming to work I saw him struggling and floating, and it was sad I could not do anything. I think he will not make it by the time I come back home.
I wish I could understand the reason and find any symptom to avoid. Do not know why picture does not show up. I uploaded again.
Please take a look.
 

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How did you do acclimation?

I'm assuming you did not treat for parasites or disease?

What other fish do you have in it?


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Unfortunately I don't have the guarantee tank. So just left the bag on top of water for couple of hours for temperature adaptation and then introduced him.
Everything happened so fast that I could not find do parasite treatment.
I have few clown, one yellow tang and dog face puffer.
 
It is really salinity issue? Since it was ok the first few days? I do freshwater dip post drip acclimation before introduction which probably even harder on them.
 
Going lower in salinity is much much better than going higher. I can introduce a fish if the water they are going into is lower that what they are in right now. If the new water is higher than 0.01sg, I will drip acclimate till it's matched.

Salt burn will not kill immediately. Their gills can get damaged and they will deteriorate over time.

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Does not look like ich to me, but photo is fuzzy.

Check Ammonia levels ASAP.
Is this the first fish you have added? Did you cycle the tank?
 
Yeah I think it is Ammonia as well. I agree with gradually changing the salinity before introducing but it looks more serious problem I guess.
I have cycled the tank for one month. My nitrite is 0 but still I have a little bit of ammonia.
I measure with API drops and the color is something between 0 and 0.25. I can not find the exact number but does not look zero zero.
 
That is a lot of fish for a 1 month old tank?? Are your rocks "live" or were they dry? sand? If you have 0 nitrate but still have ammonia then you have not fully cycled?
 
Are other fish showing signs of distress?
Keep a close eye on them.

That ammonia level does not seem high enough to cause that after just a couple of days.
But the fact that it is not zero, and you have several fish in a new tank,
makes me suspect tank has not completely cycled. Not uncommon.

My suggestion:
Water changes always help.
Make sure to only feed what they eat right away.
Take a sample of your water to a local fish store, and have them test all the basics.
(Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Alk, Calcium, Salinity)

If the fish dies (not unlikely), make sure to get it out right away!

There are really only a few fish problems that are easy to diagnose.
Ich : because you can see what looks like grains of salt.
Water problems: because you can test the water.
Most others are a guess, even for experts.
 
Thank you guys for the reply.
Sadly he is gone now and could not make it.
I was thinking that after few weeks of cycling and when ammonia/nitrite spikes finished I am done with cycling but apparently not.

I am going to do few water change and hopefully others survive.

And is two times a day feeding too much? Maybe tank was not fully cycled and I gave them too much food.
I feed them frozen shrimp, krill, seaweeds, pellets but they were eating them all.
 
Normally when a tank is new you want to start really slow introducing livestock so the system has time to catch up each time. So a couple fish to start -- wait three or four weeks -- rinse repeat. I still believe based on the pic and how the fish died that nothing you could have done would have saved him. As noted by someone else it's all a guess at this point, but it sure sounds lik it was a cyanide effected fish and you couldn't change the outcome. Where's you get the fish from?
 
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