My blue tang, which I have had for over 2 years, is not down to skin and bones. His belly used to be nice and round, but now it is sunken in. We can see his skeleton around his stomach. He is still eating when I feed him, but he doesn't seem to fill out anymore. All my water parameters are well within limits and I haven't added or change fish or foods for a while (several months). Any idea what might be going on? It was my first fish so the family would really be sad if we lost him.

thanks,

Jerome

Sorry to hear that jerome, especially after two years, but you know tangs are kinda an iffy fish to keep. Personally I think your always at a struggle to keep them healthy as well with everything else in your tank, but they are a species of :fish: in need of high maintanence if you want them to thrive. You cannot neglect their nutritional needs. What may have sufficed for some time may have finally caught up with the well-being of your tang. If you say your water parameters are within limits, and it continues to eat without gaining weight, then it leads me to think that it is not recieving it's proper nutrition; with what it is being provided. Try switching back to the foods that worked for your tang, when you said "his belly used to be nice and round." If something else is affecting your tang i'm sure good nutrition will prove to be a benefiting factor.

could also be some type of internal parasite that is just now showing itself. first thing that cam e to mind when reading you post was some type of parasitic worms. i would try to use praziquantel, fenbendazole, piperazine or another de-wormer and see if it helps.

Bobby, that is exactly what I thought. Jerome, if you are not adding garlic to food I would do that too. I don't see it as a cure but it won't hurt. Good luck.

I would gut load some bs with prazio pro. and feed once a week for 3 weeks.

I'm adding garlic to the food and I have been consistently feeding them a combination of frozen Formula 1 and 2 with garlic. I haven't changed their diet since I got them. Maybe that is the problem.

Tim, what is bs and how do I gut load them with prazio pro?

thanks,

Jerome

Hi Jerome,

bs = brine shrimp and gut loading is the process of adding a nutrient or med to the water of the filter feeding bs. The bs eat the med and then when you feed them to your fish they get a tasty treat and their medicine. Sneaky, huh? I have not used prazio pro so I can't give you directions on the amount to use in the bs water.

Hi Carmie,

I have never feed my fish live food before. I was told to avoid feeding them live food from the LFS since the fish might not take frozen or flake food after being fed live food again. Is this going to be a problem?

thanks,

Jerome

Jerome,

You can create a food snob but I think that your fish is sick and this is a good way to get the medicine into the fish. I feed live brine as a very occasional treat and have never run into a problem.

i agree with Carmiejo, if the fish is sick ... it NEEDS to be fed this way.

Great, I'll give it a try and hope for the best.

Have you ever treated this fish with copper?

Jerome,

I would also dose the bs with vitamins like Selcon or Zoe Marine to give your fish some extra nutrition.

the process of gut loading is very easy and needs to be done. I would treat all my fish with prazio pro if ya cant buy it locally go to Seahorse Source (http://www.seahorsesource.com/cgi-bin/shop/detail.cgi?id=300117)

In reptiles we use panacur, metronidazole (flagyl) and droncit/drontal deworming. As far as i know the only dewormer out of that list used in fish is metronidazole. It comes in a powder form, you give the amount the directions call for mixed in frozen food. I'd add garlic to the mix because even to the reptiles this stuff tastes absolutely horrible.

Drs. foster and smith had a line of pelleted foods out with dewormer directly mixed into each pellet. You might want to give that a try.

YOu might have something there on the vitamins. I had a skeleton looking Foxface in my 330gal,
For 8 months he never gained mass. The water params were always good. We do not check for trace elements just the standards like PH, ca, ammonia etc.

We started adding Seachem marine trace and did water changes 1x per week. Thats about 30-35 gallons per week. Running carbon might suck some of the nutients out.
Its hard to prove which did it, the water, the garlic or adding trace. All I know is the foxface has a nice round tummy on it now.



Jerome,

I would also dose the bs with vitamins like on or Zoe Marine to give your fish some extra nutrition.