Blue tang lying on side

Kovdad

New member
I got the fish on Saturday the fish ate great shortly after introduction to my tank and ate fine on Saturday.Monday night when I returned home from work I found him lying in his side breathing but lifeless all my levels are with in spec as far as I know I've searched and there is bunch of info on this issue but was looking for specific help my pet store is close till the new year so I'm stressing out right now lol
 
Hippos will lay on their side when stressed. I recently transferred over my tank and both mine did this in the temporary bucket, but were back to swimming around once back in the new tank. However, IME, if they do it for too long is a bad sign.

We need to know more about your tank, how you acclimated the fish, and if it shows any injury, marks, etc.
 
Nitrates less the 20ppm nitrites 0ppm ph 8.4 saltwater is at 1.020 temp is 75 degrees
 
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In addition to what ca1ore said, all of the hippos I had did this to 'hide' from me. They would immediately sink to the bottom of the tank and just lay there until I left the room. I would see if you could observe from a distance without him seeing you. They eventually get use to you and stop doing it.

How long did you take to acclimate him and what process did you use?
 
Acclimation needs to have a beginning SG noted and ending SG noted since a time period will provide less than needed information.
 
Thanks for the time the fish did die I stopped breathing a short time after the post I called the pet store where i got the fish and there were there so I talk to the owner and he told me to bring a water sample Down to test I explained the whole story in detail he said he think the fish died from stress tho I am quite nervous about buying another fish the owner of he pet store insured me I didn't do anything wrong but being new to this I feel I need to seek more input on new fish introductions to new tanks thanks again
 
Are you using a quarantine tank? If not, then right now might be a perfect time to take a step back, do some more research and get one set up.
 
Well this was my plan to set up a quarantine tank but the guy at the pet store kinda talked me out of it tho I will be setting up a 20 gallon in case I had to remove a sick fish from my tank
 
I wouldn't do buisness with a LFS that tried talking me out of a QT. Even Live Aquaria highly recomends one for their fish.
 
FWIW, I have always found hippos to be a pain in the a$$. Had a couple early in my reefing career, then not for almost 20 years until a pair came to me in a craigslist special. Quirky, disease prone, and can be bullies when bigger (not Sohal mean, but). Not sure how experienced u are, but I'd look elsewhere for less problematic fish.
 
Thanks I think I may wait a while to get another one, I should say he didn't literally Talk me out of a quarantine tank he just said from his experience that he has seen fish go into a quarantine tank and do good then when u transferred the fish to the main tank the get stressed so I do intended to set one up especially if I get fish from different dealers thanks again
 
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