Help my Powder Blue tang is in trouble i think!!!

[rjmayes34]

this morning my powder blue tang was fine swimming,happy loving life...his colors are the normal beautiful colors that they have been since i bought him three weeks ago. He has been eating frozen brine shrimp,myasis shrimp,krill,grazing on algea and has been an active fish. Well i noticed about four hours ago he was in the rocks laying against a rock kind of sideways barley moving. I reached in to scare to move and nothing,so i got my fedding claw thing to give him a little nudge and he moved a little then to a new spot. He is facing straight up,with his nose and mouth pressed against a rock in the rocks kinda just their....moving his side fins here but thats about all the movment now. No change in color he still looks great,minus movement
Once i seen this earlier i checked all my water conditions and everything was good, my ph is 8.1,ammonia-0,nitrite-0,nitrate-between 0-5ppm,alkalinity-in the normal range about 2.2,calicum-480ish,phosphate-0 and my salinity is at 1.026 so thats all that is littlle high but taking care of that tonight,topping off my sump with less salt in the new water im putting in.
what would make him do that?
any input would help. I dont have a seperate tank to put him in to keep an eye on him eaither and i will be at work all day tomorrow. If he is a gonner will he pollute the tank bad?? Should i pull him out right now to be safe? I dont know what to do....
I have a yellow tang,nemo clown fish,black clown,pink spotted watchman gobie, two yellow tail damsels, red serpent star,long tentical anemone,regular anemone,hammer,polyps,banded shrimp,ricordeas,bubble tip anemone,duncan,and everything else is doing fine just the powder blue tang is in trouble and hes one of my favorite just dont tell my other guys.....but i dont want him to die and kill everything else!!!!

 

[tmz]

Is it eating? Is it breathing heavy? If he's lethargic and easy to catch I'd put him in a quarantine tank for observation and possible treatment.

 

[rjmayes34]

no when i fed everyone about an hour or so ago he didnt move,cant really see any movement as in him breathing either...yup i could catch him but dont have another tank to put him in. I have a tubbermaid bin with 20 gals of water i made up today for my weekly water change and vacuming on sat. The water is still a little cold but in the morning when i wake up it should be room/tank temp. could i put him in their??? I have a pump going in the rubbermaid bin with the water to stir it up so he would have current but no rocks to hide or anything else, should i put him in their in the morning? If he is going to make it would he still make it in their or is that a death sentence on its own??? thanks

 

[rjmayes34]

thanks and is this a sign to come....is their more tests to the water i should be doing??? any info would be helpfull,losing one fish is one fish too many!!!! I know ive heard the powder blue tangs are very picky about water peramaters but that the anemones are also and they are all fine!!!!

 

[toddmh]

one thing you can always count on is a powder blue/brown tang getting sick..Those guys really are a crap-shoot buying them..Most sick tangs come with ich and with the stress of a new system and new tank mates sets them off..

I've had a few tangs pull through and a few die,depends on the fish really..How does he look??

If it is ich your corals will be fine..DO NOT put copper meds in the main system,the other fish will catch the ich depending what stage it is at..I would get him out of the main tank

heres a link may help you http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/information/Diseases.htm#Protozoan Diseases

 

[magdelan]

How long has this tank been set up and how long have you been reef/fishkeeping?

What instrument/device are you using to get you SG with? If it's a refractometer, have you recently calibrated it?

What do you mean by, "topping off my sump with less salt in the new water im putting in"? Are you topping off your tank with salt water or are you doing a water change and replacing it with water of a lower salinity?

Does this fish have ich (Cryptocaryon Irritans)? Do you know what ich looks like?

Moving an already sick fish from it's current "home" can cause stress which will lower a fish's immune system to such a point where it can no longer battle the origional problem.

I noticed that when you list the food that you offer, you mention that it "grazes" on algae. You NEED to supply tangs with a daily offering of Nori. Grazing in a captive tank just isn't enough.

How big is your tank?

I wish your fish the best of luck. Hopefully we can figue out what's going on here.

 

[superkat]

sounds like what happened with mine. it wasn't ich, however, it was Milky Skin. Got a product from CF, herbal, which many have been having luck with. It is completely reef safe. Give Millie a call.

 

[rjmayes34]

i got home from work today and he was dead!!! Poor guy..... is their other things i should be checking the water for? i check for----PH,Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate,Alkalinity,calicum,phosphate,and salinity
I bought my tank already established from a guy in buffalo off craigslist he had it for two years. Started taking it down in buffalo(about an hour away from my house) at 4 and got home set it up most of the way minus the protein skimmer that night went to bed at 2:30am had to wake up at 4:15am to get ready for work so that was a long night about two months ago. I've had that powder blue tang for about a month. It is a 125 gallon long tank with a 30 gallon sump tank underneith the tank in the cabniet. I have a protein skimmer in the sump,overflox box,return pump,fluval 405 canister filter, lighted by 2 different compact floresents. Each one has 4 96 watt bulbs in,two white,two blue actinics with moon lights built in. i have a arctic cooler so my temp is always between 80.5-78.5(thats when my heaters kick on if they have to)

Im not sure what ich looks like i will search for it and see. He really didnt have any signs of not doing well...just now would like to know what else i should add (equepment,diff test to do etc...) to the tank to try to prevent what can go wrong,or is their no way of telling, Murphys Law??
thanks for all your help!!!!

 

[toddmh]

sorry bout your tang..sometimes they die for reasons unknown

But for asking about upgrades and general help for your system,I'd start a new thread for that reason..More people might respond that way..good luck

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

it doesn't sound like Murphy is to blame here.

Powder Blue Tangs are not the easiest of fish to keep alive and healthy in captivity and they're best left to experienced marine aquarists (which you'll be in a few years).

There's really no way of knowing why this fish died IMO. Mike (magdelan) asked some really good questions that you might want to address.

 

[tmz]

For me, one of the most important things aquarist can do is to practice good acclimation and quarantine.