Naso Tang doesn't look too good

[titancrusher1]

I've had a juvenile naso tang for about 4 months now. He immediatly adapted to eating Spirulina and Nori seaweed strips that i have been feeding my tank. I woke up this morning and noticed he still has that odd coloration that naso tangs get at night; the dark grey skin with white spots.

He also looks like his organs are showing in terms of looking skinny. He was perfectly fine yesterday so i'm wondeing what this could be?

i have a 135g 6'x18" tank with a naso, two yellow, a sailfin, and Kole Tang. I also have an emporer angel, coral beauty and a foxface.

All of the fish get along fine, so im not sure if this is stress. I've put all of the fish in within a 2 month period so no dominance was established.

My Naso has a nasty habit of eating Chaeto algae that is in the tank. I read it was okay so I didn't move it since I dont have a refugium to help clean the water. Could this have caused some issues?

He's also hiding a bit and doing the whole, lookign weak on the ground thing, but is very active if i go near him or another tang gets near him. He looks really stressed more than dying, but i want to take care of this asap.

Perhaps parasites?

 

[Sk8r]

Parasites would be a bet, but treating this will not be easy: if he has got them, they are throughout your tank and the other tangs and fish are at risk also. Are you a FOWLR? And can you get photos? Most of the things it could be are parasitic, but---

With that fish list, I don't suppose you have enough qt tanks for everybody for 8 weeks? We can try something else, but I am going to go to a different thread for that: Too Big for QT Tank.

 

[titancrusher1]

What would I use to treat parasites in the tank?

 

[djze]

when i first bought mine it did the same thing it went from being fat to really skinny overnight it even pooped white poop what i did was feed good but supplement the food with garlic ,selcon and vitamin c and fed him a mixture of everything all types of food today he's healthy and i now have him for over a year also very important to keep up good water quality

 

[Chris27]

What would I use to treat parasites in the tank?

Which tank....a display or a hospital tank?

The display can't be treated, the only way to "treat" it would be to leave the tank fishless for at least 5-6 weeks.

Two main treatments for a hospital tank are copper and hyposalinity.....copper is easy and covers a wide variety of parasites......hypo is easy as well, but really only useful in treating Crypt., not other parasites.

 

[Sk8r]

Read the stickies at the top, ranging from "my tank's too big" to "how to" and what you need. If we try to sketch it out in fast explanation we'll miss something critical. Read the stickies!

 

[AquaticServices]

Did your tang ever heal up? Mine is having a similar problem. Yesterday it looked normal other than being slightly darker than usual, today it was on the substrate and all organs are showing thru, she is also curved and is breathing heavily. Have dosed with primafix and stress coat to start her off, and just to reduce stress. Did the garlic and selcon mix work?

 

[-RYknow]

Just wondering if a freshwater dip is worth a shot? I know the guy at my LFS has talked about this method on more then one occasion and seems to have good luck with it. I know that this won't help the situation with the rest of the tank, but it might buy your Naso some time.

I have a Naso as well, and he's one of my favorites! Hate to see you lose yours. :thumbdown

-RYknow

 

[AquaticServices]

Unfortunately the Naso died. I was unable to get a better treatment for it in time. I left to go get meds and when I got back it had passed. I would love to know how the parasite, or whatever caused it to become sick, got into the tank. Because all fish, corals, and rocks, have been in the tank for at least 4 months. The rock is the same rock I have used since my very first tank 2 years ago, and I've just moved it everytime I've upgraded tanks, haven't placed any corals in the tank since March, and all of them were frags from a tank I maintain for one of my clients that was having massive coral growth. And as far as new fish, I have had all but the Koran angel since last year, and the Koran was introduced in April. Luckily, I'm having better luck with it than I did the other two Korans I've previously owned. But anyways, all purchased meds at the suggestion of this thread and others are still being used to prevent the other fish from getting sick. I will keep it posted as to how they do, and I will be getting another Naso in the near future.

 

[sandwi54]

I want to give some advice to people who want to keep naso tangs. For some reasons, I never had luck with naso tangs under 4". They just don't seem to cope with disease and treatment well. Then I saw somewhere where Bob Fenner recommends getting naso tangs over 5" as they are more resistant. I now have a pair of naso (male 7.5" and female 6") and they survived treatments and are now in the display kicking.

One caution about naso tang (or tangs in general): don't use full strength copper dosage as the microfauna in their stomachs can easily be damaged. Instead of the 0.5ppm for cupramine, I would use just 0.35-0.4ppm (just high enough to kill ich).

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

I have had 4 other naso tangs and they were all under 4" and all have dies. I have one that is about 6" and is living large.