PB tang not eating in the QT

cushms01

New member
I have a powder blue tang in a 18 gallon QT tank along with 4 Anthias. Anthias started eating on day 1. Powder blue tang hasn't shown any interest in eating. Tried flakes, mysis, and nori (don't have access to live mysis here in South Korea). Tomorrow will be the 14th day. He spends the day chasing his reflection. I tried to minimize this by placing plastic sheeting to cover the bare bottom of the tank and the sides. Figured it might be too stressed to eat. Still not eating though. Copper was at .5 for the first 10 days. Since then...I've done a bunch of big water changes and to get the copper concentration down in case that was the issue. The tank chemistry is all within normal limits. No signs of ich or other disease. Color looks good. Swimming strongly. No aggression with the Anthias. Considering moving him to the DT...but Id hate to risk the DT. I've struggled through ich outbreaks before and I'm paranoid now. Strict 30 day qt was the plan. Any advice?

I've heard of fish going 2weeks...but now I'm worried. Could have an ex-fish on my hands here real soon. Looking for a fishy miracle.
 
he could have some other kind of bug also that is stressing him. this is the very reason you quarantine. If he dies in quarantine then at least your other fish are not exposed to what killed him. leave him there and keep testing for things that could be the reason or trying different thing to feed him. I don't know what you have available for fish supplies to try but tangs are vegie eaters and will eat green leafy vegetables like lettuce and such. Is there bright light in the tank? The brighter the light in the tank the more reflection he will see. turn lights off a couple days and add something in the tank for him to hide behind
 
There is a small light fixture over the tank with a pair of white fluorescent bulbs and a lone blue one. I'll try leaving it off for a few days. He has some PVC to hide in. Doesn't use it all that much though. I'll try feeding him some lettuce and add something else to hide in/behind. Thanks for your advice!
 
Some tangs have to learn to eat food that is floating in the water column as they are used to grazing.

To get my PB to eat I took a piece of rubble rock, folded up a sheet of nori into a small 1" square, rubber banded it to the rubble rock and tucked it into the rock in the qt tank. The PB would graze on the rocks and got to eating the nori.

I had to do this even after he was out of qt and into the dt. Eventually I was able to drop the rubble rock with the nori on it into the dt. I started folding the nori around flake food and as he ate it the flakes were released. After quite some time, he figured out the food floating in the water column was edible.

Good luck!
 
If two weeks and he shows no signs of parasites, I will at least give him a chance and place him in the DT together with other fish that are eating. He will learn to eat nori from the fish in the DT that eat it.
I bought mine from LA, did not QT (since I had no QT tank). My PB did not eat for a couple of days and was being chased by other tangs. He held his own, and started eating nori is a couple of days since he watched everyone in a feeding frenzy every
time there's nori in the clip.
 
I tried the nori on a rock idea. He started eating immediately. Amazing that he refused to eat it for more than two weeks when floating all around him or on a clip. Tie it to a rock...and voila! I'm pretty sure that if there was a hamburger floating around me, and I hadn't eaten for a couple of weeks, I'd eat it. Anyhwooo....thanks for the advice. Looks like the PB tang is going to be a survivor.
 
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