a plee for advice with tang

[donpachino1983]

Ok well here we go I have a 150mix gal tank with four tangs and others(fish) well today I get home and feed the tank and notice one of them (orange shoulder tang) pops out to feed and is super skinny and whole face is pale then just as am looking other tang (kole eye)chased it in to rocks this has never happen before tangs have been together three years now what happen to them also pull out orange shoulder and put in bio cube 8gal for now has not eating but looks as if he wants to and is very week took him out with my hand as if he was giving up so here is the question regarding now what how do I get him to start eating and nursing him back to health

 

[MrTuskfish]

First thing to do is get bigger QT, an 8 gal tank will be impossible for a 3+yr old OS tang to recover in. These are big tangs, can he even turn around in there?

 

[donpachino1983]

Yes seems more active still not eating

 

[cannoli56]

I have had success with getting my tang to eat when he was stressed by reducing the salt to .014 in a QT making sure that ph and temp were the same as the DT.lower salt level can be done very quickly this is called (hyposalanity) treatment .I have kept him in there for 30 days till he was strong again and able to enter the DT.This is also good pratice to use as a QT with any new fish, eleminates most sickness.Bringing back to .024 has to be done over a three day period. There is less stress on fish kept at the lower level due to the fact that fish do not have to work hard to eliminate the excess salt from their body, and there is a higher level of O2 for healing. Google ( hyposalinity) to better understand the process. It won't work with coral and inverts.

I have a 110 gal mixed tank, live rock

 

[MrTuskfish]

SG of 1.014 is not really hypo-salinity, just low salinity, and (IMO & IME) will do nothing for a fish in QT. Just curious where you got this info, I may learn something. Do you have a source?