Please help: Sick mangrove jack

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SaltyPlum

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 13, 2015
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Hi, im in desperate need of help!!! I bought a mangrove jack about 4 weeks ago now and is currently around 15cm in length. He is in a 180gallon 6x2x2 tank with a redbay snook, pbass, 4 silver dollars and a sailfin pleco. The snook and pbass are around the same size. The mangrove jack was doing really well eating and swimming around like crazy and no signs of any bullying from him or any other fish. I went away for a few days over the Easter break and just came home and noticed he was really pale in colour stomach looks a little swollen and when swimming he would just drift around nose facing upwards with tail twirling underneath. I also noticed his fins and tail have been torned up a bit, I also noticed when he got close to a few silver dollars they chewed on his top fin and he just tokk it twirling around, which straight away raised alrm bells. He is the biggest and thickest fish in the tank other than the pleco and couldn't belive my eyes when I seen the silver dollars chewing on his fins!! I straight away did a 40% water change and put a divider up to seperate him from the other fish. I also put some aquarium salt in the tank to help in case of an infection and to help with the fins.

Its been a couple hours now and at times he looks like he is doing ok and has some control of his swimming, but every now and then when I look back over at the tank he would be whirling around at the surface of the tank!!

Is there anything else I can do? I have a male dovi about 18cm in a 90 gallon. Should i swap the two around while I have the divider up and treat the 90 gallon as a quarantine tank?
 
I would run a few extra airstones and give him a day or two to recover and see what happens. He probably took some cracks but as long as he's separated leave in tank. How big is your snook?
 
Snook would be the same size in length, but the jack is a lot bigger fish in size. I notice the snook will have a crack at the pbass from time to time, but never seen it show any agression towards any other fish. The snook is that thin in the body its the only fish that is skinnier enough to get throgh the sides of the divider. I just looked at the tank and the sook is now on the same side as the jack just chilling.

The Jack is gasping really rapidly, but no other fish are gasping and they all seem normal. Im so confused to what has happend to it!

I was thinking of swapping the dovii over with the jack and give the jack a salt dip before I do so?
 
The stress of moving may not be worth it at this point, unless any fish is able to get thru divider but if he can safely recover just leave.IMO
 
I dont know man, his not looking good. At this stage I feel he wont make it through the night and I payed an absolute fortune for this jack as they are really rare where I live. Not to mention is my favourite fish! I just dont know what to do and im so confused to whats happened to him. All the other fish are fine and acting normal
 
Yeah maybe, but I dont how he would have got it, he is the biggest and stockiest fish in the tank other than the pleco and there is no way any other fish would pick on it!
 
Only other thing I could think of would be a gastrointestinal disorder because of the swollen stomach you mentioned but with the torn fins and swollen stomach, this fish took a beating.
 
When I bought him he was in a tank with 2 bigger dovii's (the bigger one a male) and another mangrove the same size. I picked him because he was beating on the other jack! There is no other fish in the tank that could give it a beating. Unless he smash himself on a rock or something but yeah I highly doubt it took a beating. His a pic of him now with the snook

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