Tangs keep dying in Quarantine

Dneon95

New member
So I have had no luck keeping Tangs of late. Over the past 6 months I have tried 3 Yellow Tangs from various places. I drip acclimate and put them in a quarantine tank, generally for a month. I scrub the tank, heater and all parts between fish and make Fresh RODI, and make the salinity .025. A small fiter, heater, and large PVC pipe for them to swim through. I only have one fish in there at a time. I havent got one to last more then 2 weeks, and usually they have died within a few days. I went to a local fish store over the weekend and purchased a Power Brown. I know, more trouble then a yellow, but I have been doing this for years, and am familiar. I dripped him for 3 hours then moved him in. Again new water, and this time a new heater, and new filter for better water movement connected to my air point. This one ate on Sat and Sun and swam around happy. Sunday night i came down, and he was on his side struggling, like all the other tangs did. He died later on after doing my best to get him back. I am so frustrated with the amount of money i have spent on these fish. The Clowns, Tangs , Gobies and StarFish are extremely healthy in my DT. I use the same RODI and Salt to do their water changes, so that can't be the issue. Does anyone have any idea whats going wrong? Its so frustrating. I don't think its bad fish anymore. but I am out of ideas.
 
Sounds like your getting ammonia spikes after a few days. If you're doing TTM, then it's good to use brand new water. But if you're doing an extended QT then you need to have it cycled beforehand so the system can handle the fish waste. You could take some filter media out of your DT sump and use that to "instantly" cycle your QT tank. I did this with great success.
 
Are you testing the salinity of the water they come in from the LFS? Drip acclimating for even a couple hours wont lessen osmotic shock if the water they come in is at something like 1.019, and you put it into your`1.025, They have'nt had enough time to adjust. Match the LFS salinity in your QT and bring it up to your DT level very slowly, like a couple weeks.
 
Sorry to hear.

I agree with the others that consistent deaths within 2 weeks sounds like ammonia or acclimation issues.

I've found that I had better survival success in my QT after I added a lot of plastic plants to break up the sight-lines (which gives the fish a feeling of security) and added a powerhead (Maxi-jet 1200 in a 20L tank) to give some meaningful waterflow.

A single PVC pipe sounds under-decorated to me.
 
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