Blue Tang not looking so good

[wawruck]

We purchased a blue tang the other day. It is about the size of a quarter give or take a little bit. It has been laying about in the QT tank playing dead, but has generally been moving around every few minutes or so.

Well, a few minutes ago, walked by the QT and he was pressed up against the intake of the penguin 550 that is in the QT for a little circulation. Is that a normal thing? He has been breathing fairly rapidly for most of the day except after adding a little bit of Prime. But, a few hours later, he was breathing rapidly again. Hasn't shown any signs of ich, but he hasn't been eating as far as I can tell either.

Any ideas/recommendations as to how to get this little guy feeling better and on the road to being a beautiful fish?

Thanks

 

[wawruck]

Oh, there is a veggie clip with some nori on it in the QT, and I also dropped in a little homemade food mix earlier to see if he would bite on that. The homemade mix is a mixture of saltwater flake, chromamax, squid, shrimp, scallop, and garlic. All of my other fish like it including my yellow tang, so I figured it would be worth a shot.

 

[Jerry W]

These tiny specimens often have high mortality rates. Can you post the water parameters in the QT? Has the QT been set up and established for a good while? Is the fish eating anything?

 

[2frosty4u]

I had a Blue Tang about the same size as what you've described and went through the same dilema, I'm sorry to say that I lost the tang after a week of trying everything I could think of.

 

[wawruck]

We lost him last night. But to give the info. asked. The QT was just set up 3 days ago with water from our other 3 tanks. All water was tested prior to using it and all were about the same.
Nitrates 0-20
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Phosphates 0
Calcium 450
Ph 8.2
temp. 78-80
For the QT we have a 15 gallon, with is 550 powerhead, heater, cascade filter, air stone for added oxygen, some 2" pvc tee fittings, and some 1" straight pvc pipe. We also added in some sponge out of one of the other tanks. All of the fish in the QT are fine, it was just the tang. I had a feeling that he was going to be hard to acclimate and get settled.