tang dead in 24 hours

[5ft24]

Brought a blue tang homelast night about 8pm... Acclimated him for a good hour, temp for about 20 minutes, and drip the rest of the time... carefully removed him from the bag and released him into the tank...
thought he didn't have enough air while in the bag, as he was looking like he was breathing super fast while he was floating (before the drip).
He swam out, poked and peeked around, and other than the fast breathing, looked fine... dropped in a few pellets and he ate them right up.
Turned off the lights and went to bed.
This morning, the lower 1/4 of his belly is discolored and light, almost white.
all the other fish are fine, and none would harrass him... 3 green chromis, 2 false perc clowns, 1 red firefish goby and a royal gramma.
he was still swimming around and ate fine, but as the day wore on, he was slowing down, finding a crevice to get into and kind of tilt over at a 45 degree angle and stay there, still breathing rapidly. about an hour ago, I had to turn over a stupid snail that was on it's back, and he swam out of the crevice, looked around, then back in.
a few minutes ago I go downstairs to get a piece of pie, and he's dead...
I'vw attached pics...
The white isn't bumpy or powdery, it's actually the color and feels like the rest of him.
Eyes aren't cloudy or anything either...
Kind of stumped as to why, but will be seeing my LFS in the morning...
35 bucks for 24 hours isn't good...

 

[jadendo]

Wow! Sorry to hear. My deepest condolences.

 

[MedRed]

I hope he wasn't going in the 75g tank in your sig. If so... don't get another one. If he was in a bigger tank, disregard this message.

 

[5ft24]

Got store credit. took them a water sample along with the readings I got, and he said it looked perfect. He looked over the fish and said it appeared he was just stressed out. no signs of ich, velvet or anything else visible.
He did say their shipments come in wednesdays, so he was already stressed when I got him Wed. Night...

 

[suta4242]

If he was breathing rapidly in the bag before release into your tank , and then continued breathing like that later theres a good chance IMO he had gill parasites of some sort. In that case keep an eye on your remaining fish in the display.

good luck!

 

[vipulgshukla]

My condolences.
If their shipment came in on Wednesdays, why did they sell you a fish right away? In my area, the LFS will quarantine a new shipment in a low light, high aeration tank for at least 4 days, before they let you take one home. Best suggestion is to reserve one, and let the LFS hold it for you for 2-3 weeks, then pay the rest and bring the specimen home. Avoids the double stress.

 

[TripleT]

Was he breathing heavy in the store?

You have to QT new fish, unless you are willing to wipe out your display tank when you bring home new fish.

This goes double for tangs, and triple for hippos.

The investment will save you a lot of money and grief in the long run.

 

[MedRed]

Your tank is less than two months old an you're adding hippo tangs. Your tank is also almost 1/2 the size of the minimum recommended for a hippo. A little more research and patience might be in order.

 

[Sk8r]

I'm guessing you kept him in the acclimation process too long. When acclimating, first, since you know this lfs, ASK them their salinity before you go to purchase a fish. Set your quarantine to that salinity. Go get your fish, test his water, test your qt water, and if they are within .001 of each other, move the fish right over into quarantine. Then start adjusting the qt water to that of your tank, simply by allowing (usually) a little evaporation over the next several days.
When you open a bag, ammonia starts building up, and the longer you leave the fish in the bag, the worse it gets. The above procedure works with online purchase too: just phone them and ask them their general salinity. They know.
This way you never get into that situation. Do not leave any specimen in an open bag longer than 15-30 minutes.

The other issue: a blue tang is not good in a 75 gallon tank: they require an 8-foot tank. A more appropriate species would be a tomini, mimic, brown or kole tang, which are ok in a 75 gallon, 4 foot tank.

 

[5ft24]

lessons learned...
picked up a 10 gallon cheapy tank with an HOB filter and heater for a QT/Hospital tank...
At least it wasn't a $150.00 purple tang

 

[TripleT]

lessons learned...
picked up a 10 gallon cheapy tank with an HOB filter and heater for a QT/Hospital tank...
At least it wasn't a $150.00 purple tang

Well, I know what you're saying about $150, but we don't want to lose any fish to anything other than old age.

+1 on slowing down. If your tank is only two months old, give it another month before adding another fish, and I'd only add smaller fish from this point on.

Chromis, blennies, firefish, clowns, gobies, there are lots of fish to choose from that will be great for a 75 gallon tank.

And I would not add another tang of any species to this tank.