acroporas
New member
Fish that die in the first week or two are almost always the result of stress. You need to do everything you can to minimize stress. The first few weeks it is critical that you pamper them.
You should not be quarantining. While quarantining has it's place it is exactly what you should not do right now. Quarantining your fish will only exaggerate your problems.
Quarantine a fish will just increases stress and therefore increases the chance it will die. If your goal is to maximize the chance the new fish will survive you are better off putting it in the tank where it will be happiest: A big tank with lots of live rock and excellent water quality. Exactly the opposite of most quarantine tanks (small, empty, and no/insufficient filtration)
The purpose of quarantining is to prevent the new fish from killing your old fish. Only when minimizing risk to your old fish is more important to you than minimizing risk to the new one you should quarantine new fish.
Also, do you know how long they had been at the LFS before you took them home. It's best to bring them home within a day or two from them arriving at the LFS. I like to be at the shop when they are opening the boxes and take home before the LFS ever opens the bag. Leaving the fish at the LFS has the same disadvantage of putting them in a quarantine tank. They are too small(what LFS has room to put every fish in it's own 6' tank), have few if any hiding places (because if they put places for the fish to hide, they will hide, so you cant seem them and they cant catch them), they are not fed enough (once a day is not enough for most fish), and usually do not have the best water quality.
Then you should feed the fish a ton for the first few weeks. Once a day is not enough. Feed them as much as they will eat 2 or 3 times a day. For tangs, there should be algae that he can much on between feedings.
Finally, The powder brown tang is notoriously difficult to keep. I would start out with a Zebrasoma sp. Like a yellow, sailfin or purple, they are much easier.
You should not be quarantining. While quarantining has it's place it is exactly what you should not do right now. Quarantining your fish will only exaggerate your problems.
Quarantine a fish will just increases stress and therefore increases the chance it will die. If your goal is to maximize the chance the new fish will survive you are better off putting it in the tank where it will be happiest: A big tank with lots of live rock and excellent water quality. Exactly the opposite of most quarantine tanks (small, empty, and no/insufficient filtration)
The purpose of quarantining is to prevent the new fish from killing your old fish. Only when minimizing risk to your old fish is more important to you than minimizing risk to the new one you should quarantine new fish.
Also, do you know how long they had been at the LFS before you took them home. It's best to bring them home within a day or two from them arriving at the LFS. I like to be at the shop when they are opening the boxes and take home before the LFS ever opens the bag. Leaving the fish at the LFS has the same disadvantage of putting them in a quarantine tank. They are too small(what LFS has room to put every fish in it's own 6' tank), have few if any hiding places (because if they put places for the fish to hide, they will hide, so you cant seem them and they cant catch them), they are not fed enough (once a day is not enough for most fish), and usually do not have the best water quality.
Then you should feed the fish a ton for the first few weeks. Once a day is not enough. Feed them as much as they will eat 2 or 3 times a day. For tangs, there should be algae that he can much on between feedings.
Finally, The powder brown tang is notoriously difficult to keep. I would start out with a Zebrasoma sp. Like a yellow, sailfin or purple, they are much easier.
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