!!!! FISH SEIZURES !!!!!! pLEASE HELp!

Nexus13 · #1 05-27-2009, 05:12 AM

So I've had my tank for about a year and a half now.

Lately some crazy thing have been happening.

So background for my 29 gallon tank with 10 gallon sump.

Tank Occupants:
Clown Fish
Yellow Tang
Clam
various corals
Mandarin Goby
Cleaner Shrimp
snails and hermits
2 x peppermint shrimps
various macro algaes in sump

New additions
Pinstripe Wrasse
3 x poreclain crabs
neon dottyback

Equipment:
Aqua C Remora hang on back protein skimmer
CPR overflow
2 x T5 HO lights on main tank

Readings:
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
pH = 7.9
Salt = 1.022
I dose with purple every 3-4 days.

What's happening:
In months prior, I've seen my Yellow Tang go into what seems like an Epileptic seizure. It will fly across my tank knocking corals and bumping into glass walls for about 10 seconds. Then it will lay still wherever it ends up for about 30 seconds with all its fins flexed, and just breathe without moving. Then as if flicking a light switch, it will come back to life (although quite lethargic) and hide in his sleeping spot with his fins all droopy for about 10 minutes, after which point he is swimming and eating again like normal. I looked it up and tried to find any info i could on it but nothing seemed to fit my description of the problem. I've seen this happen a total of 4 times now over a period of a 6 months. Weird thing is that none of my other fish (clown, mandarin goby) have ever had this happen to them, or that I've seen.

So anyways, I came to the conclusion that my fish was epileptic and had accepted it for that. Now what's scaring me is that after a recent addition of the creatures listed above, 2 porcelain crabs have died (after about 2 days of being in the tank, they aren't swinging their little filter feeding claws at all, just sitting in a spot), and today (2 days in), my pinstripe wrasse had a seizure. His seemed much more violent and he was also gasping at the top of the tank and spazzing. He laid upside down on the sand just breathing for about 5 minutes. Now he is slowly "coming to". He doesn't look nearly as lively as the tang did after his shock. I'm very concerned as to what could be causing these seizures and why my crabs are dying. The neon dottyback seems very healthy and has had no issues.

I'm using tap water for water changes (decholrinated with Prime) and have been doing them, mostly every 2-3 weeks, for the past 3 weeks i've been doing it weekly. I feed my fish mysis/brine shrimp/and spectrum.

I don't think its an electrical issue because then all my fish would be reacting if it were.

Has anyone heard of such a problem?

thanks in advance for your help.

Zoaelite · #2 05-27-2009, 05:17 AM

Quote:

So background for my 29 gallon tank with 10 gallon sump.

I think this is your problem right here, your tang needs allot more room to swim. 29G filled with live rock corals and other fish are stressing him out.
Levi

Nexus13 · #3 05-27-2009, 05:21 AM

am I really that overstocked?

all my fish are quite small right now. and I have about 30lbs of live rock.

Chaloupa · #4 05-27-2009, 05:24 AM

What Levi's getting at is that a yellow tang shouldn't really be in a tank that small...they need swimming room...and lots of it. Doesn't matter if he's small, it's best to get it into a longer and larger tank. It will help him a lot and the other inhabitants as well.....

Zoaelite · #5 05-27-2009, 05:27 AM

Not really "overstocked" but take a look at this,

Your missing about 70G of swimming space.
Levi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexus13

am I really that overstocked?

all my fish are quite small right now. and I have about 30lbs of live rock.

Nexus13 · #6 05-27-2009, 05:31 AM

Thing is I"m in on a 9th floor apartment building... ahh i'm gonna have to pull some strings to get a bigger tank up here.

a 72 gallon with less rock would be okay yes?

What about the pinstripe wrasses seizure?
is that also due to a lack of space, are they having mental breakdowns or something?

ahh i feel awful.

Nexus13 · #7 05-27-2009, 05:35 AM

my pH seems a bit low

Porcelain crabs:
* Temperature of water: Seventy-two to seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit.
* Specific gravity of water: 1.023 to 1.025.
* pH of water: 8.10 to 8.40.

what's the best way to keep my pH up?

Borderjumper · #8 05-27-2009, 05:55 AM

could any of your equipment be shorting out? Stray voltage will make a fish spaz.

edikpok · #9 05-27-2009, 06:17 AM

as BorderJumper said - I woujld check my heater first....make sure it is not broken!

Otherwise, I know that my foxface goes CRAZY!!!! if I approach the aquarium with an orangy/yellow tshirt!!! he would behave just as you've described! So I leant not to get close to my tank if I wear yellow or orange colours! who would have thought that they see in colour?!?!?!?

I also don't think that your fishes' seizures are related to the deaths of your crabs.

I keep my pH at 8.2-8.3 when the lights are off....

fishytime · #10 05-27-2009, 12:33 PM

I would have to agree that a re-homing of the yellow tang, or an upgrade is probably the best thing for the fish.....What brand and how old are your test kits? It does kinda sound like you may have stray voltage "leaking" into the tank. Crappy Tire sells small volt-meters for about $15 that can test that for you.