dead yellow tang

Bruce Burnett · Sep 4, 2017

So yesterday morning fed all my fish, all were accounted for and eating. 2- yellow tangs, tomini tang, sailfin tang, scopas tang, Blue hippo tang, two clown, yellow coris wrasse, purple dart fish. less than 2 hours after feeding the tank i noticed the tank was a little cloudy and has some detritus stirred up. I found one of the yellow tangs lying on bottom still alive but very stressed. Tried to get him out but took off under rock a few minutes later he was dead stuck to wave pump. Had him for almost 4 years. Not sure what happened as tangs do nip at each other but I think the other yellow tang may have suddenly turned aggressive as he started to chase himself in the glass and the fish were appearing spooked. Now that the one tang is dead the tank is back to being fairly calm. No changes or additions to the tank in 2 years. is this common for a tang to become aggressive almost over night? 240 gallon display.

Reefbuds · Sep 4, 2017

Weird.

HB AL · Sep 4, 2017

No way that tang woulda died that quick from being bullied a little, unless I guess maybe it had a heart attack from the stress. Maybe it's just one of those things where a perfectly healthy fish just dies for no apparent reason.

Maritimer · Sep 4, 2017

Has there been anything new introduced to the tank recently? A new coral or shrimp could have carried in an encysted parasite . . .

Have you tested your water? What do those results look like?

~Bruce

Bruce Burnett · Sep 4, 2017

Maritimer said:
Has there been anything new introduced to the tank recently? A new coral or shrimp could have carried in an encysted parasite . . .

Have you tested your water? What do those results look like?

~Bruce

Nothing new added to system in almost 2 years except an ATS 2 weeks ago, . Temp 80 degrees, SG 1.026, PH 8.00, alk 8.0. Nitrates 2, Phosphates zero. Feed fish 3+ times a day. New life spectrum and Hakari pellets and algae pellets a sheet of nori most days, LRS frozen reef frenzy and fish frenzy 1-3 times a week. I hate when everything is doing well and something dies for no apparent reason. Other than a few nips on fins, which I expect with six tangs, nothing visibly wrong on him.

HB AL · Sep 4, 2017

After keeping fish tanks for 30 years or so I can tell you for sure sometimes even in the healthiest systems and healthy fish you wake up in the morning and a fish is dead. It always seems to happen overnight and not in the day. Maybe it really did have a heart attack. A few months back I added a purple tang to my reef tank that had a yellow tang in it for a 1.5 years, and I knew what was coming, the yellow tang beat up the purple for a good 3 or 4 days, guys fins where shredded and missing in places but I kept giving him food where he would hide and he continued to always eat. At that point I new he would make it, fast forward to now and they both cruise around the tank with no issues although the yellow will occasionally chase him away for a sec but he doesn't attack.

Bruce Burnett · Sep 4, 2017

HB AL said:
After keeping fish tanks for 30 years or so I can tell you for sure sometimes even in the healthiest systems and healthy fish you wake up in the morning and a fish is dead. It always seems to happen overnight and not in the day. Maybe it really did have a heart attack. A few months back I added a purple tang to my reef tank that had a yellow tang in it for a 1.5 years, and I knew what was coming, the yellow tang beat up the purple for a good 3 or 4 days, guys fins where shredded and missing in places but I kept giving him food where he would hide and he continued to always eat. At that point I new he would make it, fast forward to now and they both cruise around the tank with no issues although the yellow will occasionally chase him away for a sec but he doesn't attack.

You know the one thing different was the ATS I installed is remote mounted at end of the stand. It puts a lot of light into tank at night. I cover it up but that night I did not. My sailfin normally normally sleeps at that end behind the GSP. I bet he fought with the yellow for sleeping area and the yellow was just not up to being chased around by the other yellow? Who knows? I just know when the lights go out you have to look really hard with a flashlight to find any of the fish.