Yellow Tang problem ?

[GTP Guy]

Hey guys,

My yellow tang seems to have quit eating. It was fine one day then not eating anything the next, he used to come shooting over to where the food was and gobble it up with the rest of the fish. He even used to compete with our niger trigger for the Nori clip.

Now he barely swims, more floats in the current, and even when the food is right in front of him he just looks at it. He had lost some color so I added another air stone for oxygenation, his color came back but the attitude stayed, I changed food from brine shrimp to Mysis a little while ago but this happened before that. He must be eating something as he's still alive but I don't actually see him eating (even when I stand VERY far away LOL

Water Params:

SG:1.023
PH: 8.1
Phos: 0
Nitrates:5 PPM
nitrites :0
Ammonia: 0

Ideas ?

[Trigger Man]

Try mixing garlic suppliments to your food. As well when was your last water change? I found and have heard from others that yellow tangs are a great way to tell when you water is not quite right, they tend to start eating better when the stress is dealt with. As well it is a tang, so it will munch on algae in the tank as well.

[naesco]

Tangs except regal tangs, require algae not meaty foods.
Get some unflavoured nori from the store and soak it in selcon and garlic extract or garlic extreme.
I would also check your water quality with a new test kit.

[Reefhawk1]

Are there any signs of disease? Is there rapid gill movement at all times? Has the tang lost color at all?

I had this problem a couple of times over the years with yellow tangs. Seems they would stop eating due to illness.

[GTP Guy]

Are there any signs of disease? Is there rapid gill movement at all times? Has the tang lost color at all?

I had this problem a couple of times over the years with yellow tangs. Seems they would stop eating due to illness.

yes to both, it sounds like you might know something. Whatcha got?

[ShrimSkin]

yes to both, it sounds like you might know something. Whatcha got?



Were you only feeding brine before?? Brine has pretty much 0 nutitional value. Mysis is defintely better, that with the nori and some pellets would be good. Tangs love to eat so when they stop its not a good sign, you said it is showing signs of disease, are there any other symptoms other than loss of color.

[GTP Guy]

I was feeding them brine (on recommendation of my LFS) but I was also feeding him Nori as well (I knew he was a grazer) and he was eating well, then he just stopped eating.

Signs of disease that I've seen:

Not eating
some loss of color
rapid breathing
his mouth never closes

There are no sores or anything that I can see externally, I looked at his gills last night and i couldn't see any redness but it was dark and I was using a flash light.

I'm starting to get worried about him as he's starting to get thin.

[Red Deer Reptiles]

sounds to me. being bullied, he ate wrong foods, know stress is main problem. got quarentine tank. time is not on your side. hope i helped a little dan

[Red Deer Reptiles]

one more quick note.dkh8-12 sg 1.020-1.025 ph8.1 -8.4 temp72-79 diet herbivore.if your wondering.sounds like your water is ok.dan

[chevyjaxon]

just a dumb thought, maybe he munched on a coral by mistake and got poisoned

[GTP Guy]

I've never seen him being chased or bullied before. We have a Niger trigger and they acted like best friends. At this time we don't have any corals for himrohave munched on. Someone told me he might have some type of parasite or worm, so setting up the qt tank and rising him seems to be in my near future. Yay

[GTP Guy]

Ok, he developed red patches near his tail, fortunately he is now in a 10 Gal QT tank and being dosed with Ekto-marine for a broad spectrum of coverage as well as slime coat repairer. I put 1 Tsp. of the ekto-marine powder for the 10 gal aquarium, anyone know the measurements (they're in Mg on the box) silly euros ;) might need to up the dosage but I'm not too sure on the conversion factors.

help ?

[Red Deer Reptiles]

the last time i checked adding chemicals to a tank without the proper dosage is crazy .in the future phone a saltwater store near you. books are available .:redface: goodluck dan

[GTP Guy]

I didn't just add randomly LOL ... I did a conversion ... but I put under what I converted it to just for safety purposes. I was just wondering if anybody knew the absolute proper dosage ?

[Johnny Reefer]

1 milligram = 0.000 035 273 961 95 ounce. Seriously.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_common.htm

[banditpowdercoat]

And thats for MASS measurements, not volume. It's pretty hard to convert a weight measure to a volume.

I use this little free program for converting anything to almost anything else. Its great

http://joshmadison.com/article/convert-for-windows/

[GTP Guy]

Johnny you had me scared for a minute there ... I found a rough conversion from grams to Tsp. and it came out to 2.6 Tsp for a 10 gal aquarium. so I'm a little low, but I'm going to leave it where it sits for now and see what happens. When you treat a fish for a bacterial infection (I think that's what it is, red spots and all) how long do they usually take to shoe signs of improvement ?

[Johnny Reefer]

Calculator doesn't go over that far :lol:? But really, I don't see how you can convert mg to tsp without knowing the density of the product. One tsp of feathers is quite different than one tsp of lead. How many mg per gallon does this stuff say to use? What you really need, to be exact, is a scale. Perhaps a fine precision one, at that, depending on your dosage requirements. JMO.

[GTP Guy]

UPDATE !!!!

He's all better now, I don't know what he had but the ekto-marin got rid of it. He's all vibrant again and eating like a vacuum once again. YAY for QT tanks :)

[naesco]

UPDATE !!!!

He's all better now, I don't know what he had but the ekto-marin got rid of it. He's all vibrant again and eating like a vacuum once again. YAY for QT tanks :)

Good to hear.
Someone once said that yellow tangs are the canary in marine fish tanks.
If your water quality is not up to par yellow tangs are the ones to let you know.
If you are not doing so, please do regular water changes and I am sure you will have the yellow tang for many years.