HELP! Blue tang freaking out!!

[Joseph_Piquette]

HELP. Yesterday my blue tang was acting normally, being the usual bully. But this morning with a feed of mysis shrimp and a clip of sea veggies, he started freaking out and is hiding under rocks with his dorsal fin fully extended and his tail slightly curved.

The fish is around 2 1/2 inches long in a 90 gallon tank. This is my first reef tank and its been up and running for 4 months.

 

[Tripod1404]

Cant help you without parameters and the picture of the fish.

 

[Joseph_Piquette]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Specific gravity 0.25
ph:8.2
i cant test phosphates

Tank size 90

Stocking:
2 percula clowns
1 firefish
1 ornate wrasse
1 regal angel
Bunch of crabs
1 cleaner shrimp
1 pistol shrimp
1 watchman goby
1 neon goby
1 feather duster worm
1 long tentacle anemone
Coral:
-1 head hammer
- small gsp

The fish is under a rock and pretty much invisible with a camera. I dont dare move him out of his spot for fear of stressing him

 

[Tripod1404]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Specific gravity 0.25
ph:8.2
i cant test phosphates

Tank size 90

Stocking:
2 percula clowns
1 firefish
1 ornate wrasse
1 regal angel
Bunch of crabs
1 cleaner shrimp
1 pistol shrimp
1 watchman goby
1 neon goby
1 feather duster worm
1 long tentacle anemone
Coral:
-1 head hammer
- small gsp

The fish is under a rock and pretty much invisible with a camera. I dont dare move him out of his spot for fear of stressing him

What is ammonia level? The tank is a bit overstocked for a tank 4 months old, so there might be ammonia. Also I think you meant 1.025 with salinity.

Did you quarantine the fish? Blue tangs are very prone to skin parasites such as ich. Can you see white spots on it, or any other fish?

 

[MurphyLong]

Do you know that it's even still alive? How long has it been sitting in the same spot? That seems like a hefty stock of fish for a 4 month old (young) tank, not to mention the Tang doesn't belong in something that small. (I believe they're recommended to be homed in 180+ gallons)

Is it possible he ran into the anemone? Did he have any signs of illness, like tiny white spots on his body? Are you sure he's not stuck?

 

[Joseph_Piquette]

I am quite certain he is alive. He is breathing healivy and flexing his dorsal fin every so often. He seems to simply be pushig himself onto the rock.
As for the time he as been still, a matter of minutes. He swam around and did like 4 backflips in front of me and rammed himself in the hole under the rock. As previously stated my ammonia levels are at 0. I made sure my tank parameters stabilized before adding fish. And all the fish other than the tang are barely longer than an inch.

 

[Joseph_Piquette]

No signs of illness. Perfectly unblemished scales. No sign of ich. It all started this morning.

 

[MurphyLong]

Okay, I'm Eastern US, so it's almost 4pm here, so the "it started this morning" and "he's only been there for a few minutes" statements throw me off a little bit. I'll assume it's a time zone difference... With that said, it could have just gotten spooked by something and tried to swim into a crevice, and gotten stuck. If you're 100% sure he's not stuck, and your water is testing good across the board, it's pretty hard to do anything but take a wild guess...

If it's possible he's stuck, I would recommend moving the rock so he can get out, and leave him alone for a bit...

 

[MurphyLong]

So, another thing that confuses me is the following...

On August 7th, you posted this:

Hey reef central, I need some advice on what to do for my first Sump. As said in the title, I am totally new to reefing and I thought the sump was a great place to start. I am a moderate to advanced tropical and Malawi Fishkeeper, but i thought id step it up on the money spending.

Heres the deal. I just bought an API 75 gallon aquarium from Petsmart, which is over twice the size of any tank ive ever had. And now I am faced with the problem of filtering it.
The tank I was thinking of using to make my sump was a 29 gallon Aqueon that i previously used for malawi fish.

Is that about right on the size of the sump, and what layout should i use?

I am planning on staying on a fish only with live rock tank for at least a year and then slowly moving on to a reef

Then on August 25th, you posted this:

Hi everyone, I own a 6 foot 75g built into a wall, currently running with 2 aquaclear 110s and i plan on getting a sunsun canister just for a little mechanical. I currently have 40lbs of live rock, and I plan on getting a protein skimmer before i turn the aquarium into a reef.



I'm going to give my tank another week before buying anything but it has been cycling for two whole months. I just want to get prepared because the nearest FS from me is an hour away.

I was thinking on getting two black Clownfish or maybe a Goby, or maybe even a brown tang. Maybe a few invertebrates too.

I am not broke, but I am not a big believer on spending more than 100$ on a fish. So what do you guys think?

On September 10th, you posted this:

Hi everyone, I am 4 weeks in now into cycling my FOWLR. My Ammonia spiked to 2 on week one, my nitrate spiked on week 2/3 and now i was expecting my nitrates to start rising but now my ammonia rose back to 0.25 and nothing is happening with the nitrate. Doing daily tests.
Test kit: api master reef
Ammonia:0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:0
PH:8.2

I am familiar with this test kit, i have been using the freshwater version of it for years.

My tank is a 75g 4 foot currently running a aquaclear 110 with no mechanical media. I also have 2 sunsun 500gph powerheads pointing at my stack of rock. I currently have 40 lbs of rock planning on adding another 40

Based on that timeline and conflicting sizes listed, perhaps there's some miscommunication, or maybe you're not being completely honest about something. A tank that hasn't even been running for 2 months with that kind of bioload... You should be more than ashamed, if that's the case.

 

[Joseph_Piquette]

ok, well. Im in new york time, it started at 10 this morning and its been about 2 hours since he hasnt come out of the hole and done a freakout. If only wild assumptions can be made then thanks everyone for the responses and ill just hope he goes back to normal. Also 100% sure he is not stuck

 

[JTL]

I recently went through a period of having flukes. If you can catch him a fresh water dip may be telling. They are almost impossible to see without the dip until it is too late. If you don't see white spots (ich) or a dusty rust color (velvet) you can only try the dip to rule out flukes. I lost two nice fish because I was not proactive enough.

 

[Maggie321]

My cleaner wrasse gets constipated if he eats too much. I am careful not to let him gorge on mysis. I understand a frozen pea with the shell/outer casing torn off will help. Or you can just wait it out and hope for the best. I did when he was freaking out the first time.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[Joseph_Piquette]

Ok thanks, ill try to do a FW dip and also try to feed him a pea after that is dont. Thanks guys.

 

[JustinM]

If you have never treated for flukes, you can treat your display with prazipro. It is reef safe. Flukes will cause rapid breathing if they are heavily infested and can kill too!

As for the flips, he is probably beyond stressed. How long has he been in your tank and how did you acclimate him? Was he shipped to you or bought at you LFS?

 

[Tripod1404]

If you have never treated for flukes, you can treat your display with prazipro. It is reef safe. Flukes will cause rapid breathing if they are heavily infested and can kill too!

As for the flips, he is probably beyond stressed. How long has he been in your tank and how did you acclimate him? Was he shipped to you or bought at you LFS?

Its not reef safe, its coral safe. It will still kill most of your worm population including feather dusters and any other "desirable" worm.

 

[Tripod1404]

So, another thing that confuses me is the following...

On August 7th, you posted this:



Then on August 25th, you posted this:






On September 10th, you posted this:





Based on that timeline and conflicting sizes listed, perhaps there's some miscommunication, or maybe you're not being completely honest about something. A tank that hasn't even been running for 2 months with that kind of bioload... You should be more than ashamed, if that's the case.

Hmm this sure is strange. There seems to be several different tanks (API 75 gallon aquarium, a 6 foot custom 75 gallon, a 4 foot 75 gallon and based on this post a 90 gallon) at different stages of the cycle.

 

[pfan151]

I'd try keeping the lights out or very dim until it start acting normal. Regardless though, it's almost guaranteed that the tang will get ich assuming it gets past the current issue of stress. Not quarantining a regal tang is definitely a bad way to start a new tank.

 

[JustinM]

Its not reef safe, its coral safe. It will still kill most of your worm population including feather dusters and any other "desirable" worm.

If you want to be technical, it is reef safe, not 100% invert safe. Either way, the positive outweighs the negative by a lot.

I've had peanut worms, feather dusters, bristle worms all survive prazi. The only negative I saw was the feather duster go in for a little.

 

[rvareef]

I think its freaking out because the tank is 4 months old and only 90 gallons

 

[JustinM]

Some fish are just not meant to be in tanks. I had a Harlequin Tusk that was like that.

Before I knew better, like 15 years ago, I kept a blue tang in a 55. He was very small too, but seemed fine. Not saying it was ethically right, but either is keeping most fish for that matter. I guess what I’m saying, this particular fish may not like being in that tank but another blue tang may be ok temporarily in a 90.