Yellow tang. I put him in my tank 4 days ago, and he's been fine until now... I just got home from work, and looked in there... he looked almost bruised on both his sides, and he was swimming into things and bumping around the bottom of the tank. I took him out, put him in a container with water from the tank, did a 10% water change, tested everything, and now i'm reacclimating him. He looks a lot better now than he did when I got home, but he's still pretty pale. Anybody have any ideas? He mostly eats algae off the rocks, but sometimes he'll nip at the flake stuff I put in there for my damsels. I'm gonna go out to get him some better food tomorrow...
not too sure from the description
what size was the tank?
as for the food, make sureyou get some Nori, as they need lots of vegie to stay healthy. you can get Nori from an asion market or from your LFS (for more $$)
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Its a 75 gallon, with another 30 gallons or so split between the fuge and sump. All the water tests come up well within limits. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 1 nitrates... etc.
He looks fine this morning. I dunno what was wrong with him. I think he was just hungry or something... the damsels chase away any other fish that try to eat their food. I put some of the flake stuff in the container I had him in, and he ate it all. I'll go out and get some better food for him.
I read somewhere that giving them sea lettuce is good (or something). Where do you buy that? I looked at my crappy LFS and they didn't have anything other than pellet and flake food, and some frozen brine and the like.
I have a purple tang and I occasionally feed him regular green leaf or romaine letuce. He seems to like it just fine, even the tomato clown gets in on the action.
i feed dried seaweed to all of my tangs. i just soak it in garlic water and clip it to the tank. its gone in minutes !! they also get PE mysis, enriched brine, cyclopeeze, and sometimes even squid.
__________________ Bobby
"I FORMERLY glued animals to rocks" NO TANK RIGHT NOW, but you never know when I might throw one together !! I have everything I need but the time!!
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Housing damsels with a tang is not always a good idea. I don't have personal experience, but I've read many threads in which the tang was so stressed out it perished. Just something to think about.
Hope he is ok.
__________________ Gwen - 2008 Atlanta Reef Club Board MACNA XX Committee 125g RR AGA "The Simple Reef Tank"
I agree with PSH - seaweed and marine algae is a much better choice over lettuce.
And I agree with Reef Keeper - tangs need A LOT of algae and sea weed. It should be the item that makes up the majority of their diet.
And I agree with Gwen that most Damsels are not the best "room mates", though there are exceptions. (Green and Blue Chromis, Yellow Tail Blues have proven to be relatively peaceful in my tanks over the years.)
And I could not agree more with Seahorsedreams - QT is a must, not an option. Back in the days when we kept fish in tanks with coral skeletons, we could always add copper directly to the tank. But in reef tanks, or FOWLR tanks, this would be disaster. Setting up a QT tank is easy and in the grand scheme of things - cheap. It can also double as a back up tank, should something happen to your main tank. I have a 46 I use to quarantine fish, and (2) 10 gallon tanks for corals and inverts. While this doesn't guarantee that a disaster will never happen, it does make it very unlikely.
I found nori at Dommicks... checked to make sure there were no additives or anything, and put it in there earlier today. All my livestock pretty much ignored it at first, so I left a little bit in there when I went to work. Its gone now, so I guess they figured out it was there. But the same thing happened... I got home, and my tang looked like he did last night. I took him out and put him in the same container with new water from the tank, and he already looks a lot better.
Heres some pics I took of him right after taking him out. Already the brown bruise-like spots had faded, and he was more active... it only took a few minutes from taking him out of the tank. I put some flake food and a little piece of nori in there for him, and hes eating it up.
Those were 20 minutes ago. Now he looks normal and healthy. I don't get it...
I'm planning on getting a QT, and soon. I'm still a new startup right now though, so... I don't see the point of quarantining fish against nothing thats in the tank :P
The two damsels are just blue damsels, and they don't seem to mess with the tang. They were the first livestock I put in the tank, and they were sort of territorial when I put in my blenny, but they were terrified of the tang when he went in, and for the most part they all just ignore each other... unless they get more territorial at night when I'm not around to see whats going on, I don't think they're the problem. They don't even pick on the blenny anymore, now that they're used to him. My blenny, two damsels and my flame angel all look perfectly healthy and happy. Its just the tang thats being weird :/
This may sound silly and I could be way off, But were your lights when you came home from work?
I have noticed that shortly after my lights are turned of my tang too changes his colors, and after a short time back in the light his color will come back to normal.
Dont know if Im on here or not but it was a thought.
Please please please do some reading on the purpose and setup of a QT tank. It will save you some headaches in the future! You should have set up a QT before the first fish hit the tank water.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ocelot199
I don't see the point of quarantining fish against nothing thats in the tank :P
To protect your damsels, blenny and flame angel! If you had of brought the tang home, and put him in QT, the other fish would never be exposed to what the tang possibly has.... it could kill them all. Everytime you introduce a new fish to the tank without QT you risk every other fish you own. Even the first addition should be QT'd, even if there is no one else in there to get sick. They could be "housing " something you wouldn't want in your tank... something that it hard or impossible to remove once in there. Time in the QT before introduction to the display tank gives you time to make sure the fish doesn't have any undesireables.
It also gives to a good opportunity for you to observe the new addition. You'll know exactly what he's eating, exactly what he's excreting. You'll be able to inspect him every day because he'll be nice and visible in an ole QT tank.
It doesn't guarantee the fish still won't bring something into the display tank..... but it's the best chance we got and one that is well worth going an extra mile for.
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