help my tang

[legofish]

got a naso tang and up until yesterday he was fit and healthy, yesterday i noticed he had like a cobweby type patch on one side but was still eating and seemed happy, tonight it has got worse about the last third of his body appears to have the skin peeling off hes gone off food and is just hanging around the bottom.
the rest of his body appears fine.

i got up this morning and the cobweb type stuff has gone but it now appears to have gone to a red rash type thing. he has gone down hill very lethargic and has damage to his fins i suspect from rubbing against rocks and is starting to get a couple of white spots from stress i assume.
i have moved him to the sump and will set up a qt today.

the temperature of the tank has fluctuated a bit over the last few days as i've had the chiller disconnected preparing to move the tank ready for my new tank.

heres a really bad photo as ive only got my camera phone as a friend has borrowed my dslr to take photos of her new born.

 

[legofish]

unfortunatly the poor fella got worse and passed away

 

[Sk8r]

I would suggest a check of your tank alkalinity...not necessarily a cause, unless way off, but just in case. Bacterial infection, possibly. FOr convenience, I list some pretty good water parameters in my sig line.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Just a wild guess; possibly internal bleeding caused by rough handling. The top pic sure looks like that's a possibility. This isn't for everyone, but internal bleeding can be confirmed by slicing the fish and looking for blood ( redness or brown tinge) in the meat.

 

[sandwi54]

The above two posts are both good ideas. Given my experience with naso tangs, I can say they are a touchy species, even though most literatures don't state it. For one thing, specimens under 4" don't typically make it in a home aquarium. It kind of goes against conventional wisdom that smaller fish tend to adapt to captive life more. Bob Fenner gave a reason that naso tangs smaller tha 4-5" are not strong enough to deal with the rigorous procedure of catching, shipping, and acclimating to captive life. Another problem is that a lot of the naso tangs on the market are cyanide caught. It would be great if you can find out the origin of the fish. Hawaii would be the best source.

After losing two 3" naso tangs quickly for unknown reasons, I decided to get a larger pair (7.5" male and 6" female) and they are thriving in my tank. Also keep in mind that naso tangs need more swimming room than most of other tangs given their body size and weight, so your tank decoration should allow large, open areas instead of dense rockworks.