Adopted fish look bad

[nicky11]

Hey guys, a couple days ago I brought in some fish a friend of mine did not want anymore as he was selling his tank. I had seen the fish before and noticed they were very lively, but their colors were not so vibrant. I know that my friend would not do much to his tank, no water changes, not feeding correct diets, etc. Basically he was very lazy with these fish, but now that I have taken them I really want to get them to look their best.

The fish I adopted are a Regal Tang, Emperor Angelfish, Flame Angel, Sailfin Tang and a pair of Clowns. Out of all of these the Regal Tang looks like it has HLLE and has terribly poor color, the Emperor Angelfish is in transition but I feel its coloration is very poor, its dorsal side looks as if it has been cut (looks rough) and its gill area looks very thin. The Flame Angel looks absolutely discolored, as the black bars looks faded and it seems to be quite a dull orange compared to many I've seen here before. The Sailfin Tang and the Clowns seem to be doing best but still think I can get the coloring a bit nicer.

My concern is with the first three, what do you guy think after looking at the pictures? Do you think a well balanced diet and better water quality should get them looking better?

 

[dviper150]

I would try a lot of nori for the tang and also add angel formula/pellets/mysis.

Pellets helped the colors on my fish a lot. tangs need nori/algae in their diet so definitely add that to the tangs diet if its not already on it.

 

[sandwi54]

All of the fish look malnourished like you stated. The regal tang has a slight case of HLLE, the emperor is almost done with color change but color looks faded from lack of nutrition. You should feed New Life Spectrum pellets as it's recognized as having the most complete nutrition. Also feed a lot of nori and angel formula for the emperor like dviper suggested. Basically, you have to provide a varied diet of all possible nutritions, just like us humans. The colors should start coming back in as short as a few weeks, and up to a few months.

 

[nicky11]

Thanks for the replies dviper and sandwi, for now I'm feeding a combination of hikari marine-a (basically the best I get here in Peru), NLS large fish formula (brought a bunch of these a month ago when I went to miami) and the nori. It's good to hear that they are malnourished and not permanently diseased, I think a few weeks of a good and healthy diet should give results.

Concerning the angelfish formula, which would you recommend? as I always know someone who is coming from the USA, I can ask them to get me a specific one, cause here in Peru like I said we do not get these specific foods. Basically the best I can get is Hikari and the rest I always bring from up there.

Lastly, would moving the Regal Tang into my reef tank, be a better decision for it to start getting better? It's a 200 gallons reef, still not many fish in it (copperband butterfly, pair of clowns and a bicolor dottyback). The HLLE shouldn't cause any problems with other fish and slowly should get better with the nicer lifestyle right?

Again thanks for the replies.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Thanks for the replies dviper and sandwi, for now I'm feeding a combination of hikari marine-a (basically the best I get here in Peru), NLS large fish formula (brought a bunch of these a month ago when I went to miami) and the nori. It's good to hear that they are malnourished and not permanently diseased, I think a few weeks of a good and healthy diet should give results.

Concerning the angelfish formula, which would you recommend? as I always know someone who is coming from the USA, I can ask them to get me a specific one, cause here in Peru like I said we do not get these specific foods. Basically the best I can get is Hikari and the rest I always bring from up there.

Lastly, would moving the Regal Tang into my reef tank, be a better decision for it to start getting better? It's a 200 gallons reef, still not many fish in it (copperband butterfly, pair of clowns and a bicolor dottyback). The HLLE shouldn't cause any problems with other fish and slowly should get better with the nicer lifestyle right?

Again thanks for the replies.

Sure. HLLE isn't contagious and all these fish need a lot of room if their health is to improve. IMO & IME; crowded fish never do well, regardless of diet 7 water conditions. What do you have in the other tank and how big?

 

[nicky11]

The tank the fish are in is 90 gallons, originally in there was only my moorish idol and false eye toby. Now the addition of the sailfin tang (this one will be going in the reef as well), the regal tang (will go in the reef too), the flame angel, the emperor angelfish and both clowns makes it look a bit overcrowded, although my filtration is very good so I don't worry about the water condition much, but more about space. I think by adding the two tangs to the reef and putting the flame angel in my refugium for a while would make things a lot more comfortable in the 90 gallon tank.

 

[nicky11]

So it has been a couple weeks, and the fish have started to look much better. The only issue I have is with the Emperor Angelfish. He seemed to be getting much better colorwise and a couple days ago I noticed these clear blotches appearing all over his body. It doesnt seem like marine ich, but I just can't wrap my finger around this one. All the other fish are fine, he's eating like a pig (live brine shrimp, hikari marine A and NLS large fish formula, both bathed in brightwell aquatics garlic extract).

Any opinions as to what is going on?

 

[sandwi54]

Those are the typical stress spots that angels get when they are stressed. You mentioned that he's in your 90 gallon tank. This is too small for the emperor angel (and also the regal tang and salfin tang), and the lack of space could be stressing him out. Emperor angel is very intolerant of lack of space and those stress spots are indications, assuming that everything else is ok. Can you move all your fish into the 200g reef? This will alleviate the issue for now, although a 200g is still too small for an adult angel and you will need a bigger tank in the future.

 

[nicky11]

Thank for the reply yet again sandwi. I know the tank is much too small, it was only supposed to be very temporary as I am getting a much larger one ready, but it has proved to take longer than expected. The sailfin and regal tang are already in the reef and seem much happier, although I am noticing that soon enough this tank is gonna be a bit small for them, so lucky me I'll start my dream 500 gallon soon.

The only other fish I am considering adding to the reef is the Flame Angel, but after reading so many posts on here about how it is a 50/50 gamble, I'm always a bit nervous about it. I'm mostly worried about my zoanthids and star polyps, and considering how expensive they are down here its a huge risk to take.

Lastly, is the coloration on the Emperor adequate?? I mean, is that the normal coloration during transition?? I ask because I do not see it looking totally like an Emperor should.

Thanks a lot.

 

[sandwi54]

no problem nicky. the emperor's coloration should slowly return to normal after several months of your good husbandry. keep feeding it a wide variety of food including ocean nutrition's angel formula, which contains sponge. sponge makes up 70% of angelfish's diet in the wild and should be offered in the aquarium to maintain their health and coloration. so don't worry about the coloration right now. just keep doing what you're doing and you should see improvement over time.

it's a bad idea to put the flame angel into a reef tank. i wouldn't even say the chance is 50/50; i would say it's 100% unsafe. those who had success probably just hadn't had the angel in the reef tank long enough. it could be several years before the angel starts sampling your zoas and polyps. btw, angels love the fleshy polyps. i once tried to put some xenias into my fowlr tank, and my majestic and french angels tore them apart in 5 min.

i'd be so jealous of your 500 gallon tank. i'm planning a 400 gallon myself some time next year, depending on how fast my french angel grows. it's at around 7" now and almost full adult coloration. i think once it's hits 10" i will start the build.

 

[sandwi54]

by the way nicky, i just saw your question. the emperor is not going through color change right now. it has already finished the juvenile-to-adult color change as it's showing full adult colorations. it's colors are pale right now most likely from poor nutrition and husbandry from your friend. so just like i indicated, keep up the good work and his color should become more vivid over time.

 

[nicky11]

Okay, this just got bad. I don't know what just happened. So after everything was perfectly fine in my reef tank, all of a sudden the Regal Tang who wouldn't eat all that much died. But I just thought that it was because he decided to not eat much at all, very little pellets, a couple brine shrimp here and there and absolutely no nori (my sailfin devours it). So ok, I got to thinking that it was because he didn't want to eat. Now all of a sudden after having my Copperband Butterfly for over a year, he decided to stop eating yesterday (I fed him the day before yesterday perfectly fine), noticed his behaviour was very timid, considering he was always the first one to come to the front when I appeared. So in less than a week I have lost these two guys all of a sudden.

Is there some kind of disease that will suddenly just stop fish from eating, make their behavior very timid and then all of a sudden kill them?

Considering all my parameters are in order, corals are thriving, inverts are happy and most of all even my Ribbon Eel is in perfect condition.

I don't know what happened , I really loved my Copperband.