2 dead kole tangs in 72 hrs

[tangled_up]

I'm totally new to this hobby with only 3 months experience, but with great support and knowledge from my local shop and other well established "reefers". My tank is now 3 months old with 6 chromis, 1 yellow tang, pepermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp and some other assorted cleaners snails, brittles etc. My corals seem to be very healthy but I just lost not 1 but 2 Kole tangs in a 72 hr period. The first was introduced with the yellow tang, after he died i assumed it was a fish already in decline from the shop. I replaced him with another Kole from the same shop. Within 24 hrs his health started to decline; Increased respiration, hiding in the rock, loss of color, refusal to eat, then right before his death erratic aggitated swimming. He had slight ich as did the yellow tang but it dissappeared within the day. My ammonia and nitrite levels are perfect, and all others in the the tank are fine. WHAT HAPPENED????.....please this saddens me to see 2 such beautiful fish die in my care. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hattie B]

Hi,

Welcome to RC!.

Lots of things could have happened. How did you acclimate them?

They could have been stressed and the param's in your tank compared to the LFS were way different and they could not handle it.

If you saw ich on them then they were not in the best shape to begin with thus they were already declining in health.

I would not necessarily assume that something different was caused the demise of these two fish; since they came from the same location in a short time (the owner of the LFS probably got them in on the same shipment). so they were proabbly suffering from the same thing.

How long has it been since you added the damsels and the yellow tang?