Blue tang swimming upward

[Iconicjellyfish]

I just bought a blue tang today for my newly cycled 48+16 gallon tank, I cycled it with a clownfish and he’s perfectly fine as I’m typing this, I know this tank is to small for a blue tang but it’s a juvenile and I planed on giving it back to the fish store once it became to big. I drip acclimated it for 45 to an hour. Then put him into the tank he seemed fine for the first 3 hours then he “rested” against the overflow grill, I know they do this but I wanted to make sure he was ok so I moved him and he went into the rock cave and layed down for an hour, then I was a bit concerned so I moved the rock and he moved but he was swimming head up. He seems like he’s on the verge of dying. At this point I feel like it was just stress from a new tank but I just wanna confirm or maybe figure out something else that could be wrong before I get another fish.

my water parameters: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5ppm nitrate, 0 phosphate(idk if phosphate is vital or not either)

 

[Samina]

Can you post a clear pic of the fish?

#reefsquad

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Evening

Definitely sorry about the troubles. Sounds like we got a bit ahead of ourselves. As mentioned maybe some pics. Any tank mates besides clown, and how long was it cycled. Did you see any signs of disease on the fish? Did you ask to see him eat at the store. Do you have a hospital tank or qt tank available?

Let’s see what we can do to help.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yes a picture would help.

Questions:

How long did it take to cycle your tank? Did you use any bottled bacteria to cycle it?

What the tanks temp?

What's your salinity?

Drip acclimating for 45 mins to a hour was way too long. Respectfully. Did you take water out of the acclimation bucket during the drip?

Could be ammonia burn.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Sorry about your fish.. all good advice so far, how long has the clown been in the tank?

 

[Uncle99]

Those fish do better when QT first.
Tangs I make as the last addition as, they tend not to like new comers.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Fish Diseases 101

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[Iconicjellyfish]

Yes a picture would help.

Questions:

How long did it take to cycle your tank? Did you use any bottled bacteria to cycle it?

What the tanks temp?

What's your salinity?

Drip acclimating for 45 mins to a hour was way too long. Respectfully. Did you take water out of the acclimation bucket during the drip?

Could be ammonia burn.

this was the clearest picture I could get, unfortunately it passed away
My salinity is 1.024 the tank had been cycling for a month with the clown fish being the ammonia source and microbacter 7 temp is 78 and I dripped water from my tank into the water from the fish store, I didn’t put the water into my tank. My ammonia is 0 so I don’t think it was ammonia burn. I also put him into a 2.5gal tank with fresh salt water probably 10 mins before he passed. Idk what else to check for he didn’t appear to have any diseases either and looked fine the lfs

 

[Matt Schario]

Tangs are really sensitive to any changes. I’ve found keeping the lights off or low, getting food near them really seems to help. Those first 3-6 hours seem crucial.

 

[C. Eymann]

Stop "checking" on it, if its chilling under a rock for a few hours after being introduced, no biggie, normal stress/scared behavior, let it chill out, dont disturb it anymore, kill the lights.

QT is obviously the route most recommended, but too late for that now,

If the params you posted are correct and the tank is established, best thing you can do is stress reduction and feed well.