Powder Blue Tang Skinny

[Peng]

It's not too skinny but it just shows its lateral lines which really worries. I just bought this fish. I've looked around the LFSs here and not sure why powder blues are always a little bit skinny along with powder browns. Whereas yellow tangs tend to be fat most of time. I asked them and they said the tang was probably from the Philippines. I don't know if that makes a difference...

So I'm trying to keep it alive and get it fatter. I feed my hippo and yellow tangs Hikari brine shrimp and mysis, and I also feed new life spectrum, formula two flakes, and ocean nutrition seaweed. I also have selcon. I do think I may need a little bit help on this fish because I really want him to be alive and as fat as all my other tangs.

It's showing its lateral line but not super skinny. It's about 7 cm, or 3". I wonder why large powder blue tangs tend to be fat while smaller ones don't at LFSs.

 

[desjardinii]

Perhaps the larger ones have more body mass and can absorb being starved longer. If it's eating pellets like Thera A 1mm then you have a good chance of fattening it up. Tetra Color Bits/granules are high protein too and my PBT which is 4" long and close to an inch thick loves it. I'd feed it several times a day and have green algae growing in the tank if possible.

 

[Dmorty217]

Feed the fish and feed it often. When I got my clown tank his head was pinched and could clearly see the spine of the fish. I would feed literally every hr or more when I was home and had the fish fat with no pinched head or signs of its spine within 2.5 wks

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Fish collection practices in the Philippines are poor according to many fish store owners I've talked to. That said, if you feed your fish well it should fatten up fairly soon.

 

[xtm]

Acanthurus Leucosternon's range is mostly Indian Ocean/Maldives and doesn't include the Philippines so I really doubt it was caught there. The LFS was just making up information as it's so easy to say that the fish is in bad shape because "well, it was caught in the Philippines" when in fact, it probably got skinny from their own tanks.

I would keep up with NLS, preferably the Thera+ version as it fights off parasites and I personally have great success with it with PBT. Good luck to you.

 

[FishN00b83]

did you QT the pbt? when I got mine it was pale as hell and you could see it's lateral line. I did tank transfer and dosed metro at the same time and a few weeks later he was real thick. internal parasites thin out fish...I would try to treat it for internal parasites and keep feeding nori and pellets.