Yellow Tang Help!

[Funky_Fish14]

Hey Everyone,

Last night I went to bed knowing that my tank was fine, all the fish were fine, etc.. and this morning I woke up to a yellow tang who currently has his lower fin torn at the bottom corner and a little piece from the bottom of his tail. Im not sure if it was like this when I woke up however. He just sits on the bottom or on some rocks and is sometiems leaning on something and sometimes sitting on the bottom but sitting straight up.

I fed him nori 3-4 times a week at first and in the past couple weeks it was only twice a week and I forgot to feed him any for the past week. He did have meaty food available though.

I had yet to see any fish ever be agressive to him, when I put the second largest fish in(the coral beauty) he(the tang) displayed to it and followed it around and kept displaying to it for 5 mins and they have ignored each other ever since. Tank livestock(minus corals and snails) includes:

1 Cinnamon Clown
1 Coral beauty
1 Yellow Tang
1 Dispar Anthias
1 Pajama Cardinal
2 Scooter Blennies
2 Engineer Gobies

2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 Sally lightfoot crab(Kicks any shrimp or fish that get near him, yes, kicks them)
1 Misc hitchiker crab that lives in a hole of a rock that leads to the buroow of one of the engineer gobies(So I doubt he is to blame for anything)
10 or so blue-leg hermits
5 or so Scarlet hermits
5 electric blue-leg hermits

I just watched him leaning on a blue-leg hermit and it had no interest what so ever in chomping down on him lol.

Any advice please help!

Also, is Melaflix something for helping healing fin damage? Thanks for any help!

Chris

[Johnny Reefer]

Also, is Melaflix something for helping healing fin damage?
Yes. (Melafix).

[Funky_Fish14]

Too late :cry:

I saw him once alive at 10:10PM tonight or so then I came back up and looked at the tank again at 11:30-40 and there was a shrimp chewing on him so he obviously died late tonight sometime. No idea what it was.

Man, this sucks! :frown: :evil: :bad-word:

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

After a discussion with Imran(Winters on the site.....Thanks!), I am going to add something else.

One of my Dispar Anthias, whom I believe was turning into a supermale, exhibited the same symptoms about a week ago, was acting the same, etc.. and I am now guessing that the disease causes them to act in such a way that those activities result in torn lower/tail fins(the anthias' tail had a small tear in it aswell). They also died in about the same amount of time. They had been fine the night before and the next day I noticed the symptoms and then they went down during the night. The anthias went down a little earlier during the day and I noticed him being a little more lethargic during the prior evening of his passing.

Can anyone think of anything?

Im off to pick up a QT tank sunday, maybe even two.

Thanks everyone.

Cheers,

Chris

Edit: Also, my LTA, whom I purchased about a week or a little more ago would not plant itself and would move around the bottom of the tank while sitting on its side, and one morning I awoke to find it laying in a cave with its insides spewed out infront of it!

Im quite worried at this point! Any advice would be very appreciated! Thanks!

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

Anyone have any ideas? I have lost my second anthias overnight, he was fine yesterday and early this evening I found him being munched on by a shrimp and NO INJURIES on his body but I didnt pay attention to the tail. I would hazard to guess that this is the same thing that killed the other fish because he died so quickly.

Thanks.

Chris

[reeferaddict]

What are your parameters? Any adjustments in maintenance lately? Any reason for dissolved oxygen to sharply drop? Almost sounds like ammonia toxicity to me.... when the anemone died did you remove it?

[Funky_Fish14]

The annemone was removed imediately after it died. I checked my params after the first two fish died and no spikes ammo, trites, and tratres were way down, normal levels. No changes in maitnance. I dont think the DO would drop because the return from my above tank fuge causes major micro-bubles in the tank.

Thanks,

Chris

[Johnny Reefer]

I don't know...goin' out on a limb here, but the major micro-bubbles makes me think of "Gas Bubble Disease", but then I think torn fins are not conducive to that.
I have been told, however, that most Reef inhabitants do not like the micro bubble thing goin' on. I suggest you resolve that.
Does your return have an anti-siphon hole drilled in to it?
Is the hole above the water line?
The hole should be just below the water line. This will eliminate your micro bubbles.
Providing adequate surface agitation, (with a powerhead,say, directed upward), will be sufficient for gaseous exchanges. You do not need micro-bubbles for gas (O2, CO2, Nitrogen) exchange.

HTH and cheers,

[Funky_Fish14]

Thanks for the tips on the micro bubles. I will try to do something about it. Syphon holes do not affect this however seeing as its set up the way it is and it is an above tank fuge.

I will try to put a stop to the microbubles however. Thanks!

Chris

[mr_alberta]

There are a couple possibilities:

Problem:
Chemicals in the tank (could be aerosol cleaners or anything like that).
Solution:
Water changes and Carbon

Problem:
Tank aggression/Overstocking. Mainly from either of the crabs of the Cinnamon clown.
Solution:
Removal of said items from the tank and see if the problems stop.

Problem:
Some type of internal parasite or disease since there are no external signs.
Solution:
Quaratine of fish/treatment with medication, though without knowing the actual illness it will be nearly impossible to treat.

Your tank is a 77G correct? I would do the solutions for problems 1 and 2 and see if it helps. You may also have another hitchhiker that you have not seen or even know about!

[michika]

Do you test for phosphates at all Chris?

Do you remember if any of the lips of your fish were ragged looking or if they were breathing heavily?

I agree with Harvey, try to be systematic about what your doing to try and narrow down what is causing these deaths.

[michika]

Is it possible some or one of your testkits have gone sour and are giving you false readings?

[Funky_Fish14]

That could be possible, yes.

No, the fish did not appear to be breathing heavily and their lips looked fine.

I dont have a phosphate test kit, so unfortunately I have not been able to test for it.

Thanks for the suggestions Harvey. I know that its definetly not the clown that is the cause because he is the biggest wuss. Im going to attempt to removed the crabs to the refugium, there is already one that is the same type as the one thats in the tank up there. Actually, come to think of it, could the sally lightfoot kicking the fish cause internal injuries? He actually strikes out quite hard and fast, not in an attempt to catch the fish but simply to hit it.

I think I have a pistol shrimp in the tank aswell. I can hear popping during the day or night. My mantis (seperate tank) makes a much different cracking noise, and I would figure that my engineer gobies would be dead seeing as the sounds come out of the rocks they are living under.

Once I get my RO system up and running, I will be doing more water changes, but I also might tear down the tank and restart from scratch.

Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone!

Chris

[Johnny Reefer]

10 or so blue-leg hermits
5 or so Scarlet hermits
5 electric blue-leg hermits

May I make one more suggestion?
Whether it's related to your problems, or not, is hard to say, but...20 hermit crabs in a, what is it?, 75g?, seems like alot to me. IMHO.
Hermits eat algae. Yellow Tangs eat algae. The more hermits you have, the more competition the YT has (had), and the less algae there is (was) for it to have had access to eat.
I'd say, tone down the hermit crab population.
I have six in my 135g and I consider that enough.

JMO and cheers,

[Funky_Fish14]

Alrighty, thanks for the suggestion!

I know I have yet to have any algae problems, besides cyano that is(which seems to hit like plague for the first few months and then dissapears) so maybe I will do so, and remove some of the hermits. I have a some snails aswell, probably around 10-15.

I plan on setting up another tank or two anyways, so they can go in those.

There will still some spots in the tank where he could much at visible algae at will(ie: my fuge output on the outside of it) and part of the glass and one rock, I also gave him some cheato every once in awhile and fed him the nori but would the hermits really have that much of an effect even if the tang was supplemented? Im not dissagreeing with what you said, as it does make sense, im just surprised seeing as I often see people with tanks so algae free its hard to believe and they have tangs, several infact.

Thanks again!

Chris

[Johnny Reefer]

I often see people with tanks so algae free its hard to believe and they have tangs, several infact.

That's why they are algae free. Because the Tangs have/are eating it.
The snails you also have, are algae consumers.
Plus, you have a 'fuge, which will compete with algae growth in your main tank.

As for whether or not less hermits would make a difference....to be honest, I don't know, but my instinct says it would. (I'm pretty new to this game myself). Not only for more available food for the Tang, but also just to decrease your bio-load. I know you say your water parameters are okay, but still, I think your tank is overstocked. Especially now, in light of the snail population. All living organisms in any aquarium are going to contribute to the bio-load.

Again, hard to say if any of this is related to your immediate concerns and I do not mean to steer your thread away from that. Just something to consider, is all. (Decreasing your livestock level).

Cheers, and good luck, :smile:

[michika]

Chris,

When I pop over today I will lend you my phosphate test and some of the other test kits for the weekend if you'd like.

[Funky_Fish14]

Sorry It didnt work out Catherine! Sent you a PM.

Johnny, Thanks for the tips.

I have put a cap on animal stock..........to my mom lol. She goes out and buys a fish on occasion, or 3 once. Lol. I will definetly reduce the bioload in my tank. Im probably going to set it to 5 fish, maybe 6. And also the most of the hermits will come out, some of the snails too.

Thanks for the tips!

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

Another thing to note(thanks Catherine and Kevin!) is that my clam is always opened very nicely and has yet to 'complain', per say, about the water params. Also, all the other corals appear just as happy as usual! The fish also see to swim fine and dont look stressed at all. I have simply lost them just like that. The last one to die, I did not see it act the way the others did, but I didnt see it do much at all. It was fine one evening when the lights went off, the next evening within 24hrs it was dead.

Thanks for any/all the help!

Chris