Dang, can't keep a tang

[Aquarist007]

I have a 125 mainly sps coral tank I am caretaking. The parameters are always spot on and it receives 10 percent water change weekly,
About 6 weeks ago I added
a powder brown tang
then a week later a kole tang
finally in another week a yellow tang

The tangs got along great with each other.

two weeks ago the powder brown died, followed by the kole tang and finally the yellow, all one week apart and exactly 6 weeks to introduction

The tank has a fair number of other fish in there---a couple of angles, dotty back, gobys---nothing really big and not a great number of them.

Since xmas --that tank has lost, a powder blue, yellow and pacific blue tang.

Any ideas why just the tangs??

Prior to adding the tangs the tank was treated for flat worms with flat worm exit. this consisted of 4 doses administered every three days.
It was a similar case before xmas and then the powderblue, pacific and yellow tangs died,

 

[jjk_reef00]

What do you feed and how often?
Any signs of disease?

 

[GhostCon1]

Prior to adding the tangs the tank was treated for flat worms with flat worm exit. this consisted of 4 doses administered every three days.
It was a similar case before xmas and then the powderblue, pacific and yellow tangs died,

Think this might just be coincidence? Everything I've seen says FW exit is ok for fish, inverts, etc.

I can't think of anything else that you probably haven't thought of to try and help you out :sad1:

Is it possible the first tangs you had may have had something that only affects tangs and by some extremely odd misfortune it is still in the tank (like ich on steroids). Again, I don't know but sometimes odd ideas do help

I really hope you find out what is happening.

 

[RBU1]

Thats gonna be a hard one to pinpoint. Could just be some bad luck with the fish. Safe to assume you do not QT they just go right in your tank? Do you run carbon?

 

[Chris27]

Until I adopted a good QT regimen, I couldn't keep tangs either. Now I have 4, and they are healthy as can be and have been for a few years......

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

barring disease (did all of these fish come from the same source by chance?) how did their bellies look?

I often see Tangs that are too skinny (pinched belly) in SPS tanks because their owners don't feed them enough and low nutrient SPS systems often have little to no algae growth for Tangs to graze on.

 

[Aquarist007]

barring disease (did all of these fish come from the same source by chance?) how did their bellies look?

I often see Tangs that are too skinny (pinched belly) in SPS tanks because their owners don't feed them enough and low nutrient SPS systems often have little to no algae growth for Tangs to graze on.

The last three tangs I added to this tank came from my supplier who treats all fish with copper for 2 weeks. I then pick them up from the shop and deliver them to my clients to cut down stress of acclimatization. I must have added over 100 fish in the last 2 months including other tangs. Only the tangs in this particular tank have not lived.

Gary, you make a good point in that the owner must probably not feeding enough spirulina and flake food to the tangs. I never see many fish in that I am the guy that stirs up their home a bit so they usually head for the reef but each time I asked the report was the tangs were doing fine

 

[JSeymour]

The last three tangs I added to this tank came from my supplier who treats all fish with copper for 2 weeks.

I'm pretty sure I've read that surgeonfish are extra-sensitive to copper treatments as it kills the intestinal fauna that break down cellulose, meaning they slowly starve to death, even with food in their stomaches. If your supplier is trying to prevent ich, vitamin C dosing has worked for many.

 

[Aquarist007]

I'm pretty sure I've read that surgeonfish are extra-sensitive to copper treatments as it kills the intestinal fauna that break down cellulose, meaning they slowly starve to death, even with food in their stomaches. If your supplier is trying to prevent ich, vitamin C dosing has worked for many.

I've heard that copper does that to the intestinal fuana of all fish but the bacterial fauna grows back quickly when the copper treatment is done.
I have also heard that tangs or surgeonfish are more sensitive to copper treatments.
But it is a real catch situation here--the tangs seem to be the most acceptable at getting ich from the stress of shipments that they need to be treated some way other then hyposalination in a couple of weeks that they stay in the shop.
I personally do not have confidence with vitamen c dosing or garlic etc etc for treating ich and other parasites--only copper and hyposalination

 

[timmytimtim]

Just to add my two cents...I had a hard time with tangs as well. Finally it was suggested that I put a cleaner wrasse in with the tangs because it will clean it of parasites. That worked for me. I had a powder brown that wasn't looking good and when I added the wrasse they were immediate best friends. That powder brown is one of favorite fish now and I will NEVER have a tang without a cleaner wrasse. That wrasse keeps the powder brown, and yellow tang clean and healty.

 

[GhostCon1]

Just to add my two cents...I had a hard time with tangs as well. Finally it was suggested that I put a cleaner wrasse in with the tangs because it will clean it of parasites. That worked for me. I had a powder brown that wasn't looking good and when I added the wrasse they were immediate best friends. That powder brown is one of favorite fish now and I will NEVER have a tang without a cleaner wrasse. That wrasse keeps the powder brown, and yellow tang clean and healty.

Until the cleaner wrasse dies in a few months due to starvation.

 

[Aquarist007]

Just to add my two cents...I had a hard time with tangs as well. Finally it was suggested that I put a cleaner wrasse in with the tangs because it will clean it of parasites. That worked for me. I had a powder brown that wasn't looking good and when I added the wrasse they were immediate best friends. That powder brown is one of favorite fish now and I will NEVER have a tang without a cleaner wrasse. That wrasse keeps the powder brown, and yellow tang clean and healty.

thanks for your input
A cleaner wrasse will not remove ich but you are right that it will remove other parasites.
It is also true that a cleaner wrasse will die an early death of starvation when it has cleaned out all the parasites. A six line wrasse will also eat parasites but will feed on other stuff such as mysis so it won't starve to death

 

[lisafoster]

cleaner wrasses will eventually starve. Also like you said they do not remove the ich virus. Did the tangs show any signs of disease also how old is the tank. The first year I had the hardest time not losing tangs. They are so prone to ich that if one of them introduced it then the others would too or maye they are being harassed by another tank mate.

 

[billsreef]

I doubt the supplier holding them in copper is the problem. While tangs are copper sensitive with straight ionic coppers such as copper sulfate, the bad affects occur fast. So it's likely the supplier is using a copper formulation that is safe for tangs. Also, two weeks isn't long enough to be sure they are free of parasites, especially amyloodinium which can be resistant to copper at anything less than full strength.

Since this is a problem your only seeing with this one customer's tank, I expect the feeding has a lot to do with it. Newly imported fish in particular will be more sensitive to being underfed. If you try any more tangs for this tank, I would suggest holding it yourself in QT for a good 4 to 6 weeks and making sure it is eating well, fat, happy and healthy, than add it this tank and see how it does.