Blue tang sideways in acclimaton?

[travis32]

I received a blue tang via fedex this morning. I have it acclimating now. It swims on its side though. I can gently push it upright and it'll stay there and swim around fine. Then go back to resting on its side... Is this a sign of stress or sickness? Doesn't seem to breathing heavy. No visible signs of outside issues. It was in 1.023 water, it's currently acclimating to 1.026 over a period of 1 hour. or so.

Just curious if I should be worried or if this is normal stressed out behavior.

 

[humaguy]

I wouldnt touch it...acclimate slowly, lights off...would leave lights off for a couple days...it is a blue and not a hippo, right?

 

[travis32]

Blue hippo tang.. My bad. Well, I took 2.5 hours to drip acclimate using the ammonia detoxifier / stress coat stuff provided by the shipping company, and followed their acclimation guide precisely. Ship water was 1.023, my tank was 1.027. So, I dripped until it was at 1.026 over the 2-3 hours.

I put it in the tank. It swam sideways to the bottom of the tank, laid on the sand bed for 20 minutes. then swam to the back of the tank upright. then laid down again on it's side. I'm guessing by morning it'll be crab food..

Lights are off and will be until tomorrow.

 

[moogoomoogoo]

i have had some lay side ways under rocks but never out in the open

 

[Aaarrrggg]

Blue tangs are weird. I thought one was dead in my LFS so I called over a guy to fish him out. He poked it and it was fine. He said they lay on their sides a lot. Fingers crossed that's all yours is doing.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Yeah, hippo tangs are weird. I'm not saying your guy is okay, but it would take a lot more than laying on the bottom from a hippo to worry me.

 

[Fishfirst]

Classic Hippo Tang behavior after being shipped... but due to its delicate nature, I sure hope you put him in a quarantine tank.

 

[f3honda4me]

Going up .004 salinity in 2 hours can be deadly. That's too much. The correct method is to acclimate no more than 30 minutes and do not use ammonia binders etc. they lower oxygen levels.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

As others have said, the behavior is not particularly unusual considering the stress of shipping. Is the hippo tang still holding on?

 

[Lynnmw1208]

mine did the same thing. but I put mine in a QT tank where the salinity was matched to the shipping place (liveaquaria) so not much acclimation was needed. they will also lay sideways under rocks and such too.

 

[reeferstace]

I have a hepatus in QT now. He spends most of his time wedged under a 4" PVC pipe. I catch a glimpse of him about once a day out swimming around. They are very skittish after being transported.

 

[Africa]

So, how is the tang doing?