stmrm01

Hi all,

Definitely confused on this one ... I purchased a yellow tang Tuesday night as the last addition to my 75 Gallon FOWLR that I have been running for 5 months now. The Tang appeared healthy in the LFS nipping at some seaweed they had tied to a rock and was observant and swimming around.

I brought the Tang home (15 min drive) hung the bag in my QT tank for 15 min, then drip acclimated for 2.5 hrs and put in my QT tank. The 10 Gal QT tank has been setup for 5 days. I have a HOB filter and had the foam/floss in my sump for 4 weeks to be seeded. I filled the QT Tank with 75% main tank water and 25% new SW. I also put a powerhead and heater in tank.

The Tang seemed to be fine that night (a little stressed with rapid breathing), I did not feed him and left lights off. Wednesday morning he seemed fine. I returned from work and tried to feed him flakes (no go so I removed), frozen brine shrimp (no go so I removed), then some seaweed (no go so I removed). I checked the water twice with the following results:
pH 8.4
ammonia 0 PPM
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 10 ppm
SG 1.022
Temp 78 degrees

He went downhill from there --- beginning to breath heavy and drift around in the current. 2 hours later he died. Thankyou forum for convincing me to use a QT tank instead of main tank (I would be a nervous wreck right now about my main tank fish).

Any advise on what I could have done differently?

Is it ok to QT a tang in a 10 Gal?

Should I not have put the powerhead in the QT tank (too much surface agitation)?

I am stumped on this one and never had a fish die that quickly before (within 24 hours) --- any advise would be greatly appreciated as I am relatively new to the SW hobby.

Thanks!!!

Hypnox

Reads like you don't have enough oxygen in your water. Try increasing the amount of movement on your surface as much as you can or add a bubble stone.

/would also QT a small 1"-1.5" tang in atleast a 20 long tank, they like they swimmin' rooms.
//patiently waits for the tang police to arrive.

Oil_Fan

Sorry but I'm not the tang police. heh

stmrm01, you did the right thing in putting him into the QT. Tangs love water movement so the powerhead is always a good thing. So let me ask you a couple of questions...

Any unusual markings on the tang? Any discoloration? Like around the eyes?

My guess, it had more to do with a lack of oxygen in the water. Add a air stone in there. I know that air stones tend to be added to FW tanks and not SW. That has more to do with the fact SW tanks have skimmers which also add a good amount of oxygen to the water.

In my QT, I have an air stone to be sure that there is enough oxygen in there and haven't had an issue other than having to replace the stone itself.

Aquaman123456

Could be that the tang was just stressed from the move and died. Or it could be some kind of internal parasite that attacks the gills which causes rapid breathing and then the fish cant handle it any longer and dies.

Matt

I am very sorry to hear that your tang died

-Matt

stmrm01

Thanks all for the comments ... I took your advise and put several air stones in the QT tank and purchased another Yellow Tang on Saturday. So far so good ... the Tang seems healthy and is eating well. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out !!!

Oil_Fan

I know what that's like. I lost my first yellow tang after about 4 or 5 days in my QT. I then bought a bit bigger one and he did just fine. I put him into my display tank after about 3 week in QT.

To me, the first sign of trouble is when they won't eat. Everytime I've had a fish that stopped eating, I've always lost that fish inside of 2 or 3 days.

agsansoo

Are you feeding him any Nori (dried seaweed) ?

galvatron3000

http://www.ipsf.com/tangheaven.html


try this for feeding also, it got my Naso eating when he was on strike for 2 weeks

stmrm01

Thanks for the advise --- I am feeding the new tang dried seaweed although I don't believe it is the brand you listed. My new yellow tang is doing well in QT, eating well ... had a little issue with ICH but I have medicated and see no signs after the initial flareup. I will be keeping him in QT a little longer because of the ICH flareup. Still keeping my fingers crossed...although I am becoming more comfortable with the QT process.

galvatron3000

Good to hear.


PS I only suggested Tang Heaven Red because I thought your tang wasn't eating. I've found this to be a good way to entice my Naso Tang to eat after it went on a 2 week hunger strike, lol. This worked when everything else I tried didn't.

Keep us posted on the well being of the little fish.

stmrm01

Well ... an update on my second yellow tang. He lost the fight against what I believe was ICH last night. I had him for 11 days and he was doing fine initially (eating well, swimming around, etc...). Then I noticed some white spots that looked like "salt" on his fins and side of body --- so I immediately treated for ICH using formalin. The spots went away after the recommended 3 day treatment period. 2 days later a ton of spots showed up. I conducted daily water changes of 25% and continued a 2nd round of treatment but ICH just took over the QT tank. Was noticing alot of brown spots on bottom of glass tank as well. The poor tang's fins and tail looked like they were being eatin and shredded and his eyes had spots on as well.

Water parameters were checked daily and with the daily water changes the levels were ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate less than 5 ph 8.2 SG 1.022 temp 78.

Definitely frustrated and will not be looking at adding any new fish for a very long time (definitely not Tangs again) --- sorry for the rant.

But I would like to thank you all for your suggestions and comments that you have offered!

JohnnyOcean

[quote=stmrm01;558961]Well ... an update on my second yellow tang... Was noticing alot of brown spots on bottom of glass tank as well...
QUOTE]

Sorry about your loss. Sound like you followed everything to the letter. However your statement caught my attention. Sounds like the 'ich cycle' is running its course. Your QT tank may be contaminated. I've read some cases where some fishkeepers have completely tore down their tanks (main) that were contaminated and sterilized them. Lucky for you this was only your QT tank. You may want to consider this before your next addition.

galvatron3000

Sorry to hear that

WETTRIGGER

I honestly think your set up is fine...plenty of O2....couple of things tho...
did you buy both tangs from the same store....
Ich I think was your first tangs death also....Ich is a parasite.
When you see the little white bumps thats the larva stage...then they fall off and free swim..to fishes gills...u probably got that fish at that stage...hence all the rapid breathing....you should have gotten a store credit!
At any stage copper(at the proper levels is the way to go)..last resort is a fresh water dip..the larve pop right off.
Also I believe that a LONG dip process is often very stressful to an already stressed fish. BTW my old fav store up north always kept copper levels in his fish only tanks that were for sale.

au01st

Freshwater dips don't have to be stressful, and saltwater fish can live in freshwater for short periods with no problem. Get some methylene blue and dip your fish before adding them to any tank, parasites will fall off. Check this out here:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...p-process.html