FML Dying fish
 

bought a blonde naso tang about a month and half ago from a store that said the fish was eating.

brought it home, it wasnt eating, i tried every known food for this fish and all it would eat was nori.

i had it in quarantine for 3 weeks and moved it into my display.

its been in my quarantine for about a month now and couple days ago it got ich. (but it was still eating)

i get home today, the fish is stuck to a powerhead but still alive.

i quickly get my quarantine going and put him in there. he's floating around but doesnt have much energy to swim.


seriously what made this fish sick 7 weeks after buying it? none of my other fish are sick or showing any signs of ich. they all eat like crazy.

maybe being bullied by something else??

you have a couple yellow tangs dont you?? they are quite territorial especially when another species of tang is introduced so even though it was eating in quarantine when food is introduced around healthy yellows alot of the time its when this territorial behavior comes into play the fish are forced to confront each other for food or the latter happens and the weaker or newer fish gets stressed and doesnt eat or worse again if ich has been in your tank or around the tang its when it will show.moving the tang to quarantine would have added extra stress but not much else you can do. main goal now is to get the tang eating again and the only way this is going to happen is 2 ways....make it feel safe enough to eat something and entice its appetite.


by leaving the lights out and hands out of the tank lots of hiding places etc. youll make the guy feel like theres no danger so then it will graze for food, soak your nori in garlic extract to entice its appetite.its very very important now to keep good clean water and not to frighten him so he eats.


not much else you can do, if hes lethargic(i spell like crap lol) then your in for some work to bring him around but tangs are healthy eaters and if you can get him to eat again he can come around.if you decide to put him back in your display then i would suggest eithger moving around some rock or removing the tangs for a while untill the naso feels comfortable enough to swim and fend for himself.

sorry i cant be of more help.

honestly i dont think anyone was bullying this fish. the 2 yellow tangs are big babies, if anything, the regal tang keeps them in check.

i spend a lot of time looking at my tank and have never seen any of them bother the naso. they all use to swim together and eat nori off the clip together.

How big is your QT?.....I ask because every tang I ever tried to QT has ended up in dying in QT......I think the tank was simply to small to QT a claustrophobic fish like a tang

Ick is probably in your main tank and your other fish are carrier but they only have the parasite on their gills. Then you introduce the new fish and it catch ick from your fish and get sick.

I don't think it had ick to begin with as it would probably have show some of it just from the stress of being in a new place in quarantine. It make sense that if you had ick in your main tank the naso would get contaminated shortly after introduction.

The reason why ick pop up here and there in some tank and seem to be disapearing for some time is because it can stay at a low level of infection on the fish gill and you will never see any sign of it but make no mistake, it is there anyway.

I quarantined a blue hippo with ick and a yellow tang before in a 20 gallons tank for 6 weeks and not only did they survived but the yellow tang was bone and skin when I got it and after the quarantine it was as fat as they get. I did the quarantine with hyposalinity and that killed the ick for good. I don't think quarantine done right with good water quality can kill a fish. I did the same for my copperband butterfly which was also skin and bone and in 3 weeks in quarantine he was fat and happy and free of flukes and breathing normally. Quarantine is a great period to observe a fish and treat it for any parasite or disease. I treated my copperband with Prazipro for fluke and internal parasites...It was full of both, now 7 months later it's healthy and happy.

I to picked up a BN in Edmonton a month or so ago and same thing happened to mine, it did not survive and was I ****ed.

Do you guys happen to know where the BNs came from, ie what part of the world? I say this because I've had a big problem with this species caught anywhere except Hawaii..... My theory is they use cyanide to catch them in some of the poorer nations that farm them..... Prolly gonna catch some flack, but since I've decided to only get naso tangs from Hawaii I haven't had any more issues.... Just a thought....

Steve

what really annoys me is that i put a blond naso tang on hold until it ate.

i came back and they said that particular one wasnt eating but the more expensive one (that didnt look bigger) was eating. i wanted this fish so bad that i just decided to buy it.

and then an hour later when i get home, no eating of any frozen or dried food..... only nori

the QT is 25 gallons. it was defiantly an upgrade from the small tank at the store that it was "eating" at

The cyanide theory would get my vote as well. Sometimes this just happens. I had a powder blue do the same thing, lasted a month. I fed it fresh algae, it still shriveled and died.
I have another PB on hold at ProReef, it spent a while in quarantine, then into one of the large frags tanks for the last 5 or 6 weeks. Although it's eating was sketchy for the first month, it's still in great shape, compared to the one I had that died after a similar time frame.
But FWIW, I would never add a tang to a QT, the lack of real world environment seems to stress them out. I add them to the community, they get to hang with other fish in a reef, and watch the others feed.

Hey Mark...do you have moon lights? The reason I'm asking is cuz I had a sailfin tang at one point and all my tangs got along until lights out. The salifin would always take after my PB after the moon lights came on. The sailfin would get his a$$ handed to him but it happened every night. Maybe the bullying happens after lights out.