Question about new Saddleback Butterfly

[cdrewferd]

Quick question guys. Do you know what migh be going on with my new butterfly? It was fine right after being introduced to the tank, then noticed this mouth thing yesterday.

http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/...A-A761-D6D882320E2B-4263-000004AEC9F3D767.mp4

Filter is an Emporer 400 with new carbon pads and no biowheels
Flow is Korlia 750
Salinity is 1.025

Will be testing everything else tonight. This QT was setup and filled on Sunday. Fish went in on Tuesday. The dwarf angel looks to be fine, though it hides a lot more. The butterfly is always out and swimming.

Any ideas would be awesome.

 

[cdrewferd]

Sorry, don't know how to embed from photobucket.

 

[fiji4118]

Oxygen issue? Can't tell if his gills are going rapidly along with the mouth. Is there a separate air source? I had an issue with my QT last week where I pinched the airline that was on the power head and the HOB wasn't getting enough air in. Added a separate air pump. Probably not the issue but sometimes the easiest things are.

 

[cdrewferd]

Yes, his gills are moving just as fast. Was thinking about picking up an air stone tonight. Should I do that, or just create more surface aggitation?

 

[fiji4118]

Agitate until you can get an air stone in. Mine was pinched over night and one fish was almost dead while the other seemed pretty normal but both were still gasping. I ended up floating the worse off one in a hospital container at the surface for most of the day and he rebounded. You could always do the hydrogen peroxide trick to get by for a few hours til you get an air stone in.

 

[cdrewferd]

I'll have my wife go look and see how he's doing. Easy enough to point the power head up more to agitate the water.

 

[fiji4118]

One other identifier. Look at his eyes. If the pupils start to get small and their eyes look different than the way they normally look it's a sign of oxygen deprivation.

 

[ReefCheif]

Drew, agitate the surface for sure, get an air stone in there ASAP. Im leaning towards oxygen depervation as well, he seems to be gasping and with as active as he seems to be its likely affecting him more as apposed to the dwarf angel who seems to hide all the time.

 

[cdrewferd]

Had my wife point the power head more towards the surface. Will get an air stone when I get off work.

 

[ReefCheif]

Good stuff, Im sure hell be just fine.

 

[jahmic]

Also check your ammonia. With or without sufficient O2 in the tank, trace amounts of ammonia can quickly "burn" the gills and inhibit oxygen absorption. Look to see if there is any bright redness inside the gills. Did you seed the qt tank with any bacteria from your display by pulling a rock, sponge, or media from the filter?

 

[cdrewferd]

I didn't seed with anything. Didn't think I needed to with a QT. I could pull a couple real small rocks from my tank and put them in. Would that help?

 

[cdrewferd]

I could pull the filter floss out of my Biocube that's been in there for about a week. Would this work to help get some benificial stuff into the tank?

Should I be doing small daily water changes, like 2 gallons? I am going out of town next week, found out yesterday, so I need to get this where my wife can just top off with RO/DI water while I'm gone.

 

[cdrewferd]

I never cycled the first QT tank I had. Little 10g with hob and no sponge. Did just fine with 2 dwarf angels in there for 2 weeks. I just did a 3-5g water change once a week.

 

[jahmic]

A 40b should be large enough that you don't get a spike this early...but you never know. I would just test the water to see where you're at. I've had fish show stress with ammonia at 0.25 before, it just depends on how sensitive and active they are. You could have that low of a level stressing him out...hard to say til you test it.

The filter floss that's been in there for a week probably has a minimal amt of bacteria colonizing it. If you have a small rock that's been in there for at least a month or so, that would definitely help. If there is any ammonia present add a rock, do a water change, then maybe add another small rock just before heading out of town. That should be enough to seed the tank with bacteria, which you will definitely want to do before you head out of town.

 

[cdrewferd]

Ok. I'll do a few water changes before I leave on Monday. Maybe 1 tonight and then a bigger, say 10g, one on Sunday. I'll put 1 rock in tonight, and then a little bigger rock in there on Sunday. With airstone and power head I should be good to go.

 

[jahmic]

IMO it's an "either or" approach for QT tanks. Either small regular water changes or seed the tank with bacteria...but you have to do something to keep ammonia in check. I usually opt to jump start the cycle by seeding the tank with bacteria...I always keep extra sponges in both my FW and SW tanks so that I can setup a hospital tank at a moment's notice and not have to worry about ammonia and nitrite further stressing livestock.

 

[cdrewferd]

I'll have to start doing that. If I wasn't going out of town, daily water changes wouldn't be a problem.

Oh yea, what kind of sponges do you use?

 

[jahmic]

Ok. I'll do a few water changes before I leave on Monday. Maybe 1 tonight and then a bigger, say 10g, one on Sunday. I'll put 1 rock in tonight, and then a little bigger rock in there on Sunday. With airstone and power head I should be good to go.

That should work out well. Basically once ammonia shows up, you add a bacteria colony. Some of that bacteria thrives and begins converting ammonia to nitrite...some of it dies off because when you added that colony to the tank, there was no nitrite for it to feed on. Usually...at that point it takes a few more days for nitrite to reach detectable levels...and a few additional days for the bacteria colony to start producing bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate.

Instead of waiting though, you can usually get the timing down and just reseed the tank a few days after you added that initial colony...at that point you are adding additional bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate (lost in that initial transfer), and the tank should cycle quickly with minimal or no spikes in nitrite levels.

 

[jahmic]

Just a regular filter sponge. My JBJ came with a couple long sponges that sit on the dividing walls in the rear sump to cut down on microbubbles...I keep my water level high enough where that's not an issue so I just cut and removed them for the 20 long. In my FW tank I've used those small cylinder shaped sponges that you slip over the intake of an HOB or canister filter. I typically just pull the old one off the established tank, toss it on the QTs HOB, then throw a new one back in my display to use next time around.