Blue Tang trouble

Pazernaker · Apr 8, 2022

Hey Guys,

Brand new to this hobby, posted a huge post about getting my neglected tank from someone else and saving it. When I got the tank, it was in shambles and I'm slowly getting it back to snuff. When I brought it home, my wife was really excited about the tank and showed up with a blue tang before I really had the tank settled in. Since it was a 3 year old tank with a sailfin tang and two clownfish in it, and since I had nothing else to do with it, I introduced it into the tank. It was bullied a little by the sailfish tang, but they both settled in. The blue tang has been lethargic for the entire month. Reading online, that can be a typical behavior, I didn't think a lot of it. Since then, about 6 other fish have been added to the tank, and all are healthy. If it matters, hammer coral died really quickly, but that was probably due to me putting it in to close after moving the tank to my house.

White marks on the Tang appear to be just live sand, as they come off easily. No other indication of anything around the gills, head, or fins. Stomach is severely impacted and I believe he's slowly starving to death, as I can see its ribs. Picture is from a few days ago when I moved the live rock to clean the tank, please don't judge to hard on the algae on the glass

Thoughts?

vetteguy53081 · Apr 8, 2022

They’re typically bashful but it may still be intimidated by the sailfin
I’m also seeing pinched belly suggesting it’s not getting much to eat or inadequate diet
You can place your phone on video mode for about 40 minutes and walk away and see if sailfin is being a jerk in your absence
feed at least:
Spirulina brine shrimp
Mysis shrimp
LRS herbivore diet
Hikari marine cuisine
Hikari veggie diet
Small plankton

Add selcon vitamins 3x per week and on alternating days garlic extract to the foods for immunity health and stamina

Pazernaker · Apr 8, 2022

Food is currently frozen brine shrimp, dry nori in a feeder (The sailfin Tang LOVES this), and every other day, a seaweed frozen tablet with spirulina in it just in case someone was missing feeding. Every fish in the tank (and my eel) seems to be doing well with the feedings except that blue tang. I can't tell if it's starving itself to death or has a parasite. I'll add in the garlic extract and the vitamins, though.

threebuoys · Apr 8, 2022

Pazernaker said:
Food is currently frozen brine shrimp, dry nori in a feeder (The sailfin Tang LOVES this), and every other day, a seaweed frozen tablet with spirulina in it just in case someone was missing feeding. Every fish in the tank (and my eel) seems to be doing well with the feedings except that blue tang. I can't tell if it's starving itself to death or has a parasite. I'll add in the garlic extract and the vitamins, though.

If you are feeding frozen brine shrimp cubes, keep in mind they are mostly water and very little protein or fat. Dry seaweed has a higher protein/fat content, but takes a lot of it due to how paper thin the sheets are. An active, growing fish needs somewhere between 3 and 6% of body weight in high quality food (excluding water/ice) daily. So, even when a fish eats brine shrimp ravenously, it may not get enough calories.

Pazernaker · Apr 8, 2022

threebuoys said:
If you are feeding frozen brine shrimp cubes, keep in mind they are mostly water and very little protein or fat. Dry seaweed has a higher protein/fat content, but takes a lot of it due to how paper thin the sheets are. An active, growing fish needs somewhere between 3 and 6% of body weight in high quality food (excluding water/ice) daily. So, even when a fish eats brine shrimp ravenously, it may not get enough calories.

Yikes... I was just following the instructions on the package of "put enough in there so that in 3 minutes, they've eaten everything". Clearly, I have a lot more to learn about feeding time...

Chela101 · Aug 27, 2023

threebuoys said:
If you are feeding frozen brine shrimp cubes, keep in mind they are mostly water and very little protein or fat. Dry seaweed has a higher protein/fat content, but takes a lot of it due to how paper thin the sheets are. An active, growing fish needs somewhere between 3 and 6% of body weight in high quality food (excluding water/ice) daily. So, even when a fish eats brine shrimp ravenously, it may not get enough calories.

Well what would you feed it? Because even my blue tang doesn’t even bother with the nori seaweed??

Pickle_soup · Aug 27, 2023

Think of brine as ice cream for fish. I stopped using it altogether. Mysis shrimp is my staple food for my fish. @Chela101, I noticed that nori is a learned behavior. Quite often my fish would ignore it completely, then they see one fish it, and other tangs start to eat it too. Just keep putting it in for hours at a time, eating or not. And from what I have read years ago, Regal tangs as juvies prefer meaty food.

Chela101 · Aug 27, 2023

Pickle_soup said:
Think of brine as ice cream for fish. I stopped using it altogether. Mysis shrimp is my staple food for my fish. @Chela101, I noticed that nori is a learned behavior. Quite often my fish would ignore it completely, then they see one fish it, and other tangs start to eat it too. Just keep putting it in for hours at a time, eating or not. And from what I have read years ago, Regal tangs as juvies prefer meaty food.

I feed mysis too, but I do know that tangs are herbivores and so that’s why I wanted to give him some algae. But like you said once the tang saw it picking at it. She would too but not fully eat it. And my tang is 2 1/2 inches so probably that’s why she isn’t interested bcuz she a juvenile..

Chela101 · Aug 27, 2023

Pickle_soup said:
Think of brine as ice cream for fish. I stopped using it altogether. Mysis shrimp is my staple food for my fish. @Chela101, I noticed that nori is a learned behavior. Quite often my fish would ignore it completely, then they see one fish it, and other tangs start to eat it too. Just keep putting it in for hours at a time, eating or not. And from what I have read years ago, Regal tangs as juvies prefer meaty food.

But once the tang saw that my clownfish was picking at it, he did too**