Yellow Tang Death: Old Age or Disease?

exsequor

exsequor

New member
Daisy, the name my gf dubbed our yellow tang, passed yesterday.

Yesterday morning she was swimming and eating like normal. Came home in afternoon and I immediately knew she was dying since she was laying on side and clearly struggling.

Day I gor her:



1-2 months ago:



I got the Yellow Tang on June 29, 2016. One of the first fish I added to my 150g DT.

No signs of harrasment, no damage to fish, stomach looks good. Ate great. Varied diet. I do nori sheets 3-4x a week for the tangs (daisy & my clown tang), plus my molly and my sailfin goby. I also feed nori pellets 3-4 times a week.


Parameters appear unchanged and the other fish are doing fine.


Daisy measured 5 to 5.5" long, and I would consider her to be on the larger size for a Yellow Tang.

I chalked it up as her time to go, but is there perhaps a parasite that attracts to these fish? Haven't added any fish in 6 months or so, and I run 70 watts of UV.

Old age or?
 
OH snap. I didn't even think of that. I run a Jebao TW-25 and a Jebao RW-8 Series on opposite ends of tank. I have seen a couple fish swim near it. The hawkfish is always perched on them, but I think he knows the drill with them.

I have them where they fire up every 2-3 seconds, in bursts, where they make the water rock from front to back (my soft corals seem to prefer this over the random burst which can just blow the crap out of them)
 
I definitely wouldn't think old age. I'm sorry.

Did you treat her for anything when you got her, specifically for flukes? Have you added anything recently. Also, sometimes fish just die like us humans. I'm sorry you lost Daisy.
 
I estimate she was between 3 and 5 years old total, so I'd have to agree.

Well, back then I didn't QT. I just drip acclimated and dropped em' in. The only thing I have possibly added, besides fish 6 months ago, would be a couple bristleworms from my dedicated bristleworm tank that contains no fish. And also some astrea starfish from my 45g which has a blue tang and some other fish.

Oh and I did add some red macro I've got in my HOB fuge on my 45g, probably 3 months ago, since I was going through refugium break through syndrome as I call it, and I had to reseed my fuge a couple times to get it right.

Is there a way to ensure the three things I listed don't bring parasites or diseases with them?
 
exsequor said:
I estimate she was between 3 and 5 years old total, so I'd have to agree.

Well, back then I didn't QT. I just drip acclimated and dropped em' in. The only thing I have possibly added, besides fish 6 months ago, would be a couple bristleworms from my dedicated bristleworm tank that contains no fish. And also some astrea starfish from my 45g which has a blue tang and some other fish.

Oh and I did add some red macro I've got in my HOB fuge on my 45g, probably 3 months ago, since I was going through refugium break through syndrome as I call it, and I had to reseed my fuge a couple times to get it right.

Is there a way to ensure the three things I listed don't bring parasites or diseases with them?
Click to expand...
Sorry for your loss. Sadly not old age I don't think, YTs can happily live 10yrs plus in captivity.

As for something being brought in, you'd be unlucky. Ich and velvet can't encyst on macroalgae, echinoderms and I doubt on bristleworms... they need a hard surface so molluscs and crustaceans are a risk.

If you were really unlucky you might have had a few free swimmers in the water that surrounded these introductions, but very unlikely tbh.

Also, you didn't see any symptoms iirc, even velvet wouldn't kill in that timescale without symptoms beforehand.

I'd suggest it was either some sort of internal organ failure, cancer or asphyxiation. Certainly if there was no sign of physical damage. IME any interaction with a powerhead leaves some physical scars, even if not fatal.

I fear this one will remain a mystery...

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
Agree with gweeds. Definitely not old age and definitely not velvet or brook. Probably not even flukes.
Even cyanide would have caused usually some loss of body weight and YTs are pretty easy to catch so no need for cyanide either.

Unfortunately like gweeds stated, it'll be a mystery
 
If you didn't qt there is a chance that you have a disease lingering in the background. Many tanks have ich but no signs until something changes because the fish become stressed. It might be that something has changed, like your clown tang becoming more aggressive, which has made daisy more susceptible. I also wouldn't rule out the clown from cause as they have a reputation of being extremely aggressive.

My yellow died at 12 years but they can apparently live for 20+ in the wild, although like gweeds mentions 10 ish is normal in captivity.
 
sounds possibly like intestinal blockage due to it happening so quickly and no visable damage to the fish, if it was caught in water mover, there would be traumatic signs..just a guess.. very sorry for your loss, it always stings...
 
Yeah, have had a fish or two get pinned to a vortech - leaves a mark. Sometimes fish just die. I had it happen with a Sailfin a few years back. Swimming and eating at 9 am; dead at noon. Not an outward mark on it. Blockage, stroke, heart attack ..... who knows. I know folks that have had YT for 15 years, so they can certainly live for a while. In captivity, size is not always a reliable indication of age.
 
Not old age, fish can just die for no apparent reason. I had a Sailfin for over 20 years and it wasn't a juvi when I purchased it, must of had really good genes. It also got stuck on a powerhead one night that lost it's strainer and nearly had all the life sucked out of him. Had a huge welt and looked emaciated but came good, infact better than ever and lived for another 10 years.
 
Fish can have heart failures just like people. And it is actually not as unlikely as one might think as many fish get fed a rather unnatural diet. This applies especially to herbivores (tangs, rabbitfish, certain blennies,...) who often get fed a primarily carnivorous diet.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Now I'm wondering if the diet I "provide" for everyone in the tanks I have, does a disservice to the tangs. With daisy gone I still have a clown in the tank I mentioned here, and a blue in another tank.

Perhaps the food they get ahold of that's really for the other fish, is upping their fishy cholesterol or whatever? I mean seriously...

Or maybe Daisy's genes just weren't compatible with a unnatural fatty diet as it provided in a community tank. I mean yeah Daisy got plenty of Nori, but also ate tons of fatty carniverous food meant for my two soldierfish, marine betta, clown, chromis, damsel, hawkfish, etc...
 
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