Help my poor yellow tang!!!!!!

[Musbtr1pin]

I have checked and rechecked all my parameters.. 8 PH. 0 ppm Ammonia. 0 ppm Nitrite. 10 ppm nitrate.. I use the API Master Saltwater test kit.. It's brand new.... I did a water change and checked my parameters again, which were all in range.. I waited a few days and bought a Yellow Tang..

He was eating right when I added him into the tank.. Picked at my rocks for a bit and was casually swimming around the tank... 55 gal... I just turned on my lights and everything appeared to be fine! I went to my cpu and looked over at my tank and he ( The Tang ) is sitting on the tank bottom in the corner, breathing, but not moving around..

HELP HELP HELP!!! I checked and rechecked my parameters... Could my test kit be crap, and do you read the test looking through horizontally or do you look from top to bottom and compare colors? I do both and get totally different readings... Obviously a deeper color when looking top to bottom... I AM FREAKING OUT, I WANT TO KEEP HIM ALIVE!!!!!!

 

[Musbtr1pin]

Update

Update

I shut the lights off, and measured my salinity.. I have a reading of 1.026 for specific gravity.. A little high, I guess this is after my 5 gallon water change last night..

I siphoned out a few gallons and added some RO/DI water to the tank and dropped the SG to 1.024. My tang started to move around and now he isn't sitting on the bottom of the tank. He did go into hiding tho, I am hoping that this is a good sign, and that maybe he was a little stressed due to the swing of the SG... I have two clowns and two peppermint shrimp... as well as 5 damsels.. Why is everyone else doing good, but I had this problem with my Tang????

 

[steelhead77]

OK. Do Not Panic! 1.026 SG is on the high end, but normal. You look thru the side of the test tube, not down from the top on an API test. The difference between 1.026 and 1.024 should not have an effect on the fish, it can swing that much in a tropical downpour in an hour or so.

How old is your tank? Has it finished the initial cycle? Your params look fine. NO3 of 10 is no biggie, however it could indicate that your tank has not finished the cycle. Then again, sometimes fish just don't do well from the stress of transport and whatever and end up dying despite everything you do.

Good Luck.

 

[Musbtr1pin]

He is just leaning against a rock in the back corner of my tank.... He is still breathing, I find that when I move the powerheads to move some water his way, he starts to swim around a bit... I quit doing that, because I want to just let him rest or whatever he is doing... He, being my tang of course.. I'll pray for the best...

 

[lisafoster]

Howlong did you cycle your tank for.

 

[RBU1]

Sounds to me like you either jumped into things to early.....OR you introduced a parasite to your tank on the new yellow tang. If you start to notice the fish looks like its sprinkled with salt you have crypt....

 

[Musbtr1pin]

Tang

Tang

No parasites I believe... I woke up and my tang had giving up on life..

I noticed a brown patch in the middle of his body.. Could this be a sign of anything? The brown patch only showed up when he was starting to feel ill...

What a saaaaaaaddd day.. I am not going to put anything in this tank for a month or two.. If that was the case, I do not want it to happen again..

 

[RBU1]

You should let a new tank run for a couple months before you put any fish in it. If I could give you some advice, please set yourself up a little quarentine tank and put all your new fish in QT before putting them in your main tank. Get all the snails and corals right now and then leave your tank for a couple months.

 

[Musbtr1pin]

Get all the snails and corals right now and then leave your tank for a couple months.

What do you mean "Get" and "leave"

I don't have any corals... I let my tank cycle and finish its cycle... everything read 0 ppm.... I'm keeping logs, and I had a spike in ammonia, then trites and then trates.... and now everything is 0....except for the 5-10 trates that I have regularly now... I keep them down with water changes..

 

[RBU1]

What I mean is that it sounds like you introduced a parasite to the main tank. In order to get rid of it from the main tank it must remain fallow for a period of 8 to 10 weeks. My advice would be to stock the tank with all the inverts and corals you want then wait the 8 to 10 week period to get a fish. Now if you are not going to use the QT process for all new fish and wet items then forget my advice. Even though inverts and corals can not keep the parasite alive it is possible you can introduce a parasite to your tank in the water or attached to the coral or invert you are adding to the tank....Hence the 8 to 10 week period after you add the stuff...

 

[Musbtr1pin]

Definitely, I got that down. How should I plumb a qt tank? or do I keep it totally seperate from the system... What do you recommend

 

[Chipie]

Definitely, I got that down. How should I plumb a qt tank? or do I keep it totally seperate from the system... What do you recommend

A quarantine tank has to be totally a totally seperate system to other tanks. Or any desease or parasites would spread in the other tanks.
Sorry about your tang

 

[Musbtr1pin]

A quarantine tank has to be totally a totally seperate system to other tanks. Or any desease or parasites would spread in the other tanks.
Sorry about your tang

Can I get by with a ten gallon and about 7 lbs of live rock... use the water from my established tank... and just keep a powerhead in the QT tank?

Yea, my Tang passing was a real bummer... He looked so happy... :sad2:

 

[Saltwater125]

Yellow Tang Swimming at the top of the tank breathing heavy

Yellow Tang Swimming at the top of the tank breathing heavy

My yelllow tang recently did this & it lasted about 1 day. I didn't bother testing the water or anything because all the other fish where swimming & eating just fine. The yellow looked lethargic while swimming & would just continue floating to the top as though looking for oxygen.

I read a whole bunch of these forums & the replys... It wasn't my amonia levels or nitrates etc. The yellow tang is in a tank filled with caulerpa & has been eating tons of it. My guess is the tang over ate on this & it upset its stomach. Once the yellow digested the caulerpa it was back eating shortly after.

Doing a water change or dosing etc. in my opinion would have made the situation worse, as the fish was stressed out already. A consistent tank with high flow is a happy tank!

 

[Nina51]

your quarantine tank doesn't have to be anything fancy. as long as you aren't adding really big fish, a 10 gallon would be fine. all you really need for a qt tank is a power head aimed at the surface, an air stone for oxygen, a heater, some pvc elbows for hiding places for new fish, and an ammonia alert badge. you monitor ammonia and do small (2-3g) water changes every couple of days. with just 1 or 2 fish in there, ammonia shouldn't build up quickly unless you overfeed. my qt tank is just one of those 10g walmart kits.

keep some prime on hand just in case you have an ammonia issue but done right with frequent water changes and feeding sparingly, you shouldn't have to worry.

f.y.i., a 55g tank is really too small to house a yellow tang. this fish needs a minimum of 100g to thrive.

sorry you lost your guy.

also, RBU1's advice should be taken seriously. it's very possible your tang brought a parasite in and if that is the case, you will need to run your tank fallow (fishless) for a minimum of 72 days. take that time to do some reading on quarantine protocols (there are TONS of threads here, do a search), and check with liveaquaria.com for any fish you are considering buying. they will give you the ideal tank size and what level of care any certain fish takes (i.e., beginner, experienced, etc.).

 

[snorvich]

Good advice above. My guess with the limited information provided was that your fish experienced osmotic shock from going from low SG to high SG. Did you test the SG of the transport water?

 

[NMSREEFER]

On the qt- I would not add water from the existing tank. That defeats the purpose of a sterile setup- you could put the same pathogens in the qt tank.

I would pick up a bottle of bio spira and add it according to instructions to the qt at the same time as fish and monitor Parameters daily. Don't add anything fro the tank with disease to the Qt, including rock. Think sterile with just beneficial bacteria. A new piece of rock or bio media will help.