Powder blue expert needed!!!

[goose777]

am missing something or is it normal for a 3-4" pbt in quarintine with good water parameters to not be devouring his nori?

he was a petco rescue i purchased him for 35$ yeah really. he looked really good nice color, no visible ich, pretty tick looking.

he's pecking all around the rock and the glass but not really getting excited about the nori i've had other fish do this at first and then take off .

iv'e tried mysis he grabbed a little of that but not much. he swims around really good .

what has been everyone elses experience with these fish newly arrived ?

 

[SDguy]

Mine didn't go for nori at first (and frankly doesn't much like it now). Just give him time. Try other foods as well. Honestly, flake food was one of the first things my PBT ate.

 

[ocellaris123]

Working previously at an LFS and now a public aquarium I can tell you that they are very skittish fish when first imported (lots of pacing, especially housed in smaller tanks) and survival of newly imported individuals seemed dismal. All you can do is too give it time and keep offering the nori and other varieties of food and hopefully in time he will eat. Try soaking foods in garlic and selcon which may help with the feeding response. Best of luck with your new addition.

 

[hybridazn]

my pbt eats nori like crazy but he doesnt destroy it if that makes sense. he picks at it all day long and only really stops when i put in brine shrimp that i soak in garlic or selcon.

 

[thor32766]

another tip is to rubberband nori onto a rock and then he will find it grazing like he would in the wild. HTH.

 

[rachenbrazil]

how big is QT tank ?

 

[goose777]

60gl qt tank i am trying a variety frozen mysis , and brine my nori is the ocean nutrition kind u can smell the garlic when opened. i just started reading on here and hearing all the bad but i guess if u didn't get worried your fish would probably die .

my hand just keeps itching to throw him in the 265 and let him eat all the nice algae on the rocks but i'm not doing it

 

[goose777]

i have the nori close to his spot under a rock will see how he does in the days to come i think i'm breathing more times per minute than he is!

 

[SMOOTHIE]

another tip is to rubberband nori onto a rock and then he will find it grazing like he would in the wild. Hth.

+1

 

[anbosu]

Brine is a good starter food for tangs usually.

 

[niles1967]

Please resist the urge to put him in the DT before completing QT. That is so unfair to the other fish. My PBT picks on Nori but gobbles up flakes. Also eats Formula One and Angel Formula frozen. Good luck and be patient.

I hope that the QT tank if a fully cycled tank with bio filtration. These tangs need perfect water quality.

 

[goose777]

well there is hope ! no he is not going in display by the way display is empty ! there was just some killer algae growing on some of the rock in there

 

[goose777]

not sure how everyone will think of this but it is true after a slight notice of pbt spine starting to show this morning i became desperate!

he was in the qt alone suckin in and spitting out everything brine, formula 2, and hikari brine spirulina mix.

i put him in a 24 gl that had a sand bed and live rock (this is when he started picking at everything) so i knew i was close.

sorry to drag this out the point i'm trying to get to is there is a 1.5" sailfin in here under a slight hypo 1.018 and temp at 81.

the pbt watched the sailfin eat regular brine and immediatly started to follow ! they getting along good and have shared like 1.5 of the frozen cubes!

plan on keeping him in there maybe at least a week since he is now eating so well and has not done this in the 60gl for 3 days

 

[goose777]

yes the 60gl qt has an emperor 400 and about 30lbs of live rock i was going to do copper in this tank and load tangs in display one or two at a time but not for now i am not yet comfortable with copper but i am trying to read as much as i can. uv sterilizer is definatly going on the 265 and want everyone to be as healthy as can be

 

[TampaReefer79]

No offense, but it sounds like you might need to slow it down a bit and read and read and read before you start 'loading tangs in the display one or two at a time'. Be careful with copper with tangs, they really don't like it...especially the pbt. This is a delicate fish and it sounds like you're just moving him around too much. And am I understanding right that you took the pbt out of the 60 and put him in a 24 that has a sailfin in it that is undergoing hypo? How well did you aclimate the pbt to the 24? You could have left the pbt in the 60 and he would have done fine. Just because he won't eat nori when you want him to doesn't mean he's dying. lol They can go weeks without eating. Getting him to eat is great, but they won't starve. (most of the time) And when trying to get this fish to eat, keep an eye on water quality. If you feed and it doesn't eat, don't let the food sit around and decay...ESPECIALLY in a 24. You might have too much bioload in that tank as it is...

 

[MTH]

Take into consideration everyones input above. I gave my PB a wide variety of foods. He loves small sized pellets, flake and nori. He pecks at mysis but is not crazy about it. I would start out with nori or foods laced with garlic to give his immune system a boost. Especially in this beginning delicate stage. Mine came in very thin and I impatiently waited from him to gain weight. He eventually did and is now a nice healthy fish.

 

[prickles]

I have a pbt that I have had for 2 years. He didn't eat nori until about 3 weeks ago when I added a new tang. I have had good luck with coppersafe on them. In my opinion, you need an ich free tank to keep a pbt, so copper or hypo would be strongly recommended.

In my opinion, you are freaking out. I know because I do the same thing every time I get a fish. I wake up in the middle of the night and check the QT to see if he's still alive. As long as the fish is eating and showing no signs of obvious stress, relax. It seems to be pretty common for my fishes to not eat for 3-4 days when I first get them.

It sounds like you are doing things well, and keep it up.

If there were only one piece of advice I could give you about a pbt...Make sure the tank is ich free. You say the tank has no fish in it. Good, there can be no ich if the tank doesn't have any fish in it for 6-8 weeks. Even if it is a new tank, the rocks need that time fish free. Do SOMETHING to make sure EVERY fish you put in the tank has no ich, whether that is copper or hypo. I have coppered over 50 fish, and have never had an issue from the copper. It has brought fish with their skin literally sloughing off from ich back to complete health several times. Coppersafe has very simple instructions. All I have done is follow the instructions on the bottle. No magic, no guessing.

 

[TampaReefer79]

I have a pbt that I have had for 2 years. He didn't eat nori until about 3 weeks ago when I added a new tang. I have had good luck with coppersafe on them. In my opinion, you need an ich free tank to keep a pbt, so copper or hypo would be strongly recommended.

Hypo would be a much better option. The whole point of qt is to observe. You could just qt the fish long enough to know whether or not it has ich by just LOOKING at the fish. I don't make it a habit to treat my tangs with copper as a proactive step. It's not like treating all incoming tangs with copper is a necessity...

 

[prickles]

I don't make it a habit to treat my tangs with copper as a proactive step. It's not like treating all incoming tangs with copper is a necessity...

Hypo works well too if done correctly. I have heard from several people that a fish can have ich that is not visible (on gills etc). I would prefer to be safe rather than sorry, but I have also heard from several people that copper has bad effects. I personally have not seen them. It is possible that copper is only dangerous if used improperly.

Again, my point is, Do whatever it takes to make sure there is no ich in your system. You will be happy you did.

 

[goose777]

theres no hearing about it u can pretty much assume unless your fish come from one of the more reputable dealers,that have treated with copper, it has ich and there immune systems fight it off so it might not show up for a while