Hippo Tang acting strange

[ramblnpony]

Hi Albert

I have a 4 1/2 year old 7" Hippo Tang I received from a friend in the spring. My tank is a 180 gal 2x2x6. (He was in a 90) I know he needs to be in a 220 minimum one day. I do weekly water changes, check perimeters, and all of my fish are healthy. He looks healthy and has good color.  He is fat and a pig when it comes to feeding consuming most of the food. I feed New Era Aegis, Algae flakes, PE mysis soaked in Kent Zoa, Spirilla shrimp, pellets and 2LF purple seaweed. (Still  looking for zoecon)
A few minutes after feeding he starts to jerk around severely as if in pain. Head into along  the glass and the gravel. I have looked for worms but have not seen any. The rest of the time he is mostly calm.  This has been going on for a few months now so I have tried varying his diet. Do you have any ideas of what might cause this?

[albertthiel]

Hi Albert

I have a 4 1/2 year old 7" Hippo Tang I received from a friend in the spring. My tank is a 180 gal 2x2x6. (He was in a 90) I know he needs to be in a 220 minimum one day. I do weekly water changes, check perimeters, and all of my fish are healthy. He looks healthy and has good color.  He is fat and a pig when it comes to feeding consuming most of the food. I feed New Era Aegis, Algae flakes, PE mysis soaked in Kent Zoa, Spirilla shrimp, pellets and 2LF purple seaweed. (Still  looking for zoecon)
A few minutes after feeding he starts to jerk around severely as if in pain. Head into along  the glass and the gravel. I have looked for worms but have not seen any. The rest of the time he is mostly calm.  This has been going on for a few months now so I have tried varying his diet. Do you have any ideas of what might cause this?

Could it be that you are feeding him too much in one feeding session ?  He will continue to eat as long as there is food (at least most do) and may have issues digesting the food fast enough, creating an internal blockage that may result on odd behavior due to the blockage.

Of course those Tangs do have odd behaviors anyway, like pretending to be dead and lying on the substrate, or changing color at times especially when stressed ...

What I can suggest is give him a medicated food and see whether that helps or feed him food with Probiotics in it ... that may help as well.

Let me know how he does and hope this helps you along ...

It seems though that except for that odd behavior after eating that he is OK which is a Good sign

Albert

[ramblnpony]

Thanks for the advice Albert! I will try the food with probiotics and spread out the feedings more. I'll let you know in a few weeks if there are any signs of improvement. Thanks again for your help.

Frank

[albertthiel]

Thanks for the advice Albert! I will try the food with probiotics and spread out the feedings more. I'll let you know in a few weeks if there are any signs of improvement. Thanks again for your help.

Frank

With pea sure ... the other thing you could do if you have a spare aquarium is isolate the fish there and use some other meds to threat him

Check this article that gives a real good overview of many possible diseases and how to treat them ...

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/disease.html

Albert

[albertthiel]

Thanks for the advice Albert! I will try the food with probiotics and spread out the feedings more. I'll let you know in a few weeks if there are any signs of improvement. Thanks again for your help.

Frank

So how is the Tang doing  ?

Albert

[ramblnpony]

Nothing has changed yet. He still goes into erratic swimming a few minutes after feedings but normal at other times. I still have to get some probiotics this weekend as I have been busy moving my mom. I'll keep you posted of any changes. Thanks for asking!

[albertthiel]

Nothing has changed yet. He still goes into erratic swimming a few minutes after feedings but normal at other times. I still have to get some probiotics this weekend as I have been busy moving my mom. I'll keep you posted of any changes. Thanks for asking!

Thanks for letting me know. At least the positive thing is that he is fine and not diseased in some way ... and I think that once you start feeding the medicated food that erratic behavior should stop after a few days.

It kind of sounds like there may be an blockage by some undigested piece of food in the digestive tract and when he feeds that creates pressure and results in that behavior ..

The food should help him dislodge that piece if I am correct in thinking that that is what is going on

Albert