Midas blenny Rapid respiration 160/min, day 14 of copper in QT

[mosreef]

Please help, I love this little guy - Woke up this morning to my Midas blenny's respiration 160/minute.

I did a 50% water change last night.

All other fish in the QT tank are fine and eating well. I have the Midas blenny, a lawn mower blenny, royal gramma, yellow Watchmen goby and a scooter blenny in a 20 gallon QT tank with a hang on the back filter, a Jaebao powerhead agitating the surface, and a Sponge Filter / bubbler from Amazon

copper, 2.14
Salinity 1.024
Temperature 77.7

 

[mosreef]

maybe flukes? He coughs once in a while. Preparing a freshwater dip but can't seem to get the temperature right

 

[mosreef]

can't get the video to post

 

[vetteguy53081]

View attachment 3073590Please help, I love this little guy - Woke up this morning to my Midas blenny's respiration 160/minute.

I did a 50% water change last night.

All other fish in the QT tank are fine and eating well. I have the Midas blenny, a lawn mower blenny, royal gramma, yellow Watchmen goby and a scooter blenny in a 20 gallon QT tank with a hang on the back filter, a Jaebao powerhead agitating the surface, and a Sponge Filter / bubbler from Amazon

copper, 2.14
Salinity 1.024
Temperature 77.7

A video under white lighting would be helpful in an instance such as this. Flukes would show a yawning like behavior, red gills, darting across tank, scratching and clamped fins. If flukes - a FW dip same temperature as display will offer relief by worms dislodging from the fish but unconfirmed if flukes.
How are you testing copper?

 

[vetteguy53081]

can't get the video to post

I see the rapid breathing minus any other signs based on angle of fish in the video

 

[mosreef]

Testing copper with a henna checker. He has no other symptoms, no scratching no clamped fins no red gills.

No yawning, he just does a little cough very infrequently

 

[mosreef]

Once in a while he comes out of hiding and swims around but then goes right back to hiding in the corner or else his PVC pipe

 

[vetteguy53081]

Once in a while he comes out of hiding and swims around but then goes right back to hiding in the corner or else his PVC pipe

Are any fish chasing it or intimidating it?
Overall fish looks good. if you havent done so, add air stone for added oxygen. I tend to recommend 2.0 coppersafe for these guys but your number isnt much higher.
You are using chelated form such as coppersafe, correct ?

 

[mosreef]

It's copper power. No one else is bothering him at all. He is very dramatic LOL when I turn the filters back on after on feeding he turns dark brown and acts like he's going to die. If I turn the lights off for some reason he turns brown and scrunches himself up in a weird ball behind the foam filter. So maybe he is just mad because of the water change

Sounds like a freshwater dip wouldn't do anything to help him other than stress him out further

 

[Jared Bryant]

My midas blenny hid behind a heater for 4 weeks in QT. Dart for food then hide. Fast forward a few months he is bossing everyone around.

 

[threebuoys]

You may want to add a bowl of non-calcareous sand to the QT for the blenny to bury in at night. He may have gotten frightened and doesn't havbe a place to hide.

 

[mosreef]

He usually hides in a PVC fitting - where would I find non-calcareous sand? I wondered if not having sand in QT would stress him out. He's been okay for 2 weeks

Here is a video of him doing that cough I was talking about

 

[threebuoys]

I use washed play sand I bought at home depot. Something not calcium based so it will not absorb copper.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Did you post the ammonia level?
Jay

 

[mosreef]

I use washed play sand I bought at home depot. Something not calcium based so it will not absorb copper.

Perfect, I have some in the garage. Thank you!

 

[mosreef]

Did you post the ammonia level?
Jay

just now tested with a red sea ammonia test kit and it reads .8 but I thought that was because of copper

Should I do another water change? (did 50% last night)

I used seachem badges at the beginning of qt but it kept showing ammonia "alert" (.05ppm) even after a 50% water change.

So I was doing really big daily water changes thinking I had high ammonia until I placed a newly opened badge in freshly mixed salt water, got "alert". Tested that freshly mixed salt water (no copper) with the Red Sea test and I got .1 or so. (not quite zero)

Just now I tried an ammonia test strip and it is between 0 and .25, but I don't know if they are reliable

So I guess I don't really have a way to test ammonia, & not sure what to do next

 

[mosreef]

Just did another 50% water change. He is still not looking good. But then this is about the 5th or 6th time I thought he was dying... I really hope he bounces back.

 

[mosreef]

Well, all day yesterday I still thought he was dying, looked exactly like the above videos - super fast respiration, coughing, but also was dark brown. Still would not eat.

Came down this morning thinking he would probably be gone and he's completely back to normal. He's swimming around like his normal happy self and eating ravenously.

Thank you everyone for the advice and commiseration LOL