purple tang

[drevel8]

help guys.. i bought a purple tang about two weeks ago. the tang has been very happy and nothing has appeared to be wrong with him until recently. the only thing i can think that may have influenced his condition is a water change. after doing a water change a few days ago the tang has seemed to loose color gradually every day since and there appears to be bubble on his body all the time. im not sure if they are bubbles but that is what they look like. can anyone tell me what is going on? what maybe wrong with him and how to fix it? your help would be very much appreciated

 

[BurntOutReefer]

is he still eating?

 

[drevel8]

yes he is still eating

 

[jdmcivicek9]

can you post pictures??

 

[drevel8]

unfortunatly i am not at home at moment. it looks like his skin has several bubbles attached to him cause no matter how much he swims they stay on him. and the color started to lighten first in his face area than all over rest of body

 

[BurntOutReefer]

hmmm....any stinging coral?...a pic would help....

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

well a 44 gal. bow tank is not helping much either. it could be ich.

 

[drevel8]

i dont have any coral in the tank. have live rock only. is ich something that would produce bubbles on the fish?

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

no but they could look somewhat like clear bubbles. without a pic. it is hard to say what the problem is.

 

[Playa-1]

Maybe stress and/or Poor gas exchange.

 

[drevel8]

i was thinking stress. it appears that the salinity in the tank may be a little high for some reason. i took few gallons of salt water out of the tank and replaced it with RO water to try and bring it down. that was yesterday.

 

[Playa-1]

I came home the other night and found my purple tang had a solid white head, panting heavily and swimming erratically. I checked the controller and nothing jumped out at me as being a problem. All the other fish looked fine except they were looking at the purple tang like he lost his mind. I was thinking the worst, I started researching possible choking, I thought I was gonna have to give him the Heimlich :lol:

After watching him for a bit I realized what had happened. I had been taking some measures to get rid of some algae in the tank lately and the algae on the back glass had been slowly receding. It had receded so much that the tang could now see his reflection in a place where he had never seen it before. He was trippin

I just killed the lights a little early so he could get a good nights sleep. I checked on him every so often to make sure he was ok. The next day all was well and we have not had a problem since then.

The moral of the story is that it's kinda hard sometimes to tell what's wrong with them. I wish you luck with your fish.

 

[tbar]

A 44 gal is not big enough for a PT. Hope you are planning on upgrading to a bigger tank soon or consider finding him a different home. It's a common mistake in this hobby, I won't tell you want I put in a 33 gal when I first started.

 

[inachu]

Wow!
So this is a good direct question to ask!
Is it ok to use mirrors inside of a fish tank?

 

[snorvich]

Mirrors can make some fish go nuts and attack their reflection. When they do that, sometimes they damage their mouth.

On the original posters question, please do not put tangs in inappropriately sized tanks.