Blue tang dying?

nemotang2019 · Jul 25, 2023

Hi I have a baby blue tang that I got two weeks ago, and he has not been eating. So today I put him in a smaller tank and put some food in there. I don’t see any ick but I’m attaching videos and pictures of him. What should I do? When I got him, he was the smallest and skinniest of 50 other blue tangs at the LFS. I can see he is breathing fast. Other fishes are fine. Thanks

blaxsun · Jul 25, 2023

#fishmedic

vetteguy53081 · Jul 25, 2023

bluejayum said:
Hi I have a baby blue tang that I got two weeks ago, and he has not been eating. So today I put him in a smaller tank and put some food in there. I don’t see any ick but I’m attaching videos and pictures of him. What should I do? When I got him, he was the smallest and skinniest of 50 other blue tangs at the LFS. I can see he is breathing fast. Other fishes are fine. Thanks

Unfortunately this fish is quite thin and moribund and honestly may not eat, swim normal and recover at this point. Its respiration rate is very high and fish is highly distressed. There is no additive I can recommend to perk it up, even an airstone.
Wish there was a more positive answer. I dont see any form of water movement in the container its in which may not be helping its ability to breathe

nemotang2019 · Jul 25, 2023

I just put him in there because I couldn’t feed him in the main tank.

Jay Hemdal · Jul 26, 2023

bluejayum said:
I just put him in there because I couldn’t feed him in the main tank.

Sorry to see - I agree there is nothing really that you can do for this fish. The trouble with these small tangs is that they don't get fed really, for the time it takes for them to get overseas to your aquarium. They also have little food reserves, being so small. that means they are already half starved when you get them, and they sometimes just don't recover.

Here is another BIG issue with these fish: baby hepatus tangs live in the branches of Pocillopora coral. To drive them out so that they can be caught, many collectors in SE Asia use sodium cyanide. This in turn, damages their internal organs, and up to 60% of them will die within the next 50 days.

There is a company in Indonesia that catches larval blue tangs and raises them in nets to be sold, and there are also some being bred in captivity. These are always a safer choice than small wild caught ones are.

Jay