Found my blue tang lifeless

[Reefandthecurious]

Could someone help ID the cause of death. I’m new to the hobby and was told by another member wally to post here to get some more insight as to what happened to my blue tang.

 

[Nick C]

What are your water parameters? Tank size? Etc

 

[Reefandthecurious]

I appreciate the quick response I’m just scrambling at the moment trying to figure out what happen and what my next steps should be.

Temp 78 nitrate 50ppm salinity 1.027. I have the Red Sea reefer 170

 

[Nick C]

I'm afraid I won't be much help, but getting the obvious questions out of the way first so the experts can help. How long has he been in the tank?

To me 50 ppm seems pretty high. Had he been eating prior to this? I assume your ammonia levels are 0?

 

[Maritimer]

50ppm nitrate is high-ish for corals, but not dangerous to fish.

She seems thin in the photo - how was her appetite? Did you ever see any stringy, white poop?

Did she display any behavioral signals of illness that you can think of? Hiding from the lights, flashing or glancing off of rock or sand, swimming into the flow of a powerhead?

~Bruce

 

[Coralreefer1]

How long have you had your Tang? What othe livestock do you have? What did you feed it? Was the Tang in ideal health when you purchased it from what you could tell( ie. Did it display rapid breathing, lethargic swimming, response from you walking up to it, signs of lesions, sores, spots, cloudy eyes or unusual gill coloration? Was it eating at the store?
Sorry to hear about your Tang...answers to these questions may be beneficial in allowing us to determine what happened.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

I'm afraid I won't be much help, but getting the obvious questions out of the way first so the experts can help. How long has he been in the tank?

To me 50 ppm seems pretty high. Had he been eating prior to this? I assume your ammonia levels are 0?

Thanks anyways nick. I feed my tank daily and today I saw him eat. I’m new to the hobby and just getting into reefing. I’ve just discovered reef2reef and all its wonderful members with experience and knowledge. Before that I was just listening to what my LFS was telling me. And that was I just needed to test nitrate nothing else so because of that I don’t know what my ammonia levels are.

 

[Coralreefer1]

In the future I would try one of the more hardy species of a Tangs like the Tomini, Kole and Zebrasoma species.

 

[JoshH]

Deleted

 

[Reefandthecurious]

50ppm nitrate is high-ish for corals, but not dangerous to fish.

She seems thin in the photo - how was her appetite? Did you ever see any stringy, white poop?

Did she display any behavioral signals of illness that you can think of? Hiding from the lights, flashing or glancing off of rock or sand, swimming into the flow of a powerhead?

~Bruce

I know that’s high been battling with nitrates for quite some time now. I just put filter floss and carbon today hopefully that will help nitrates abit. I’m new to reefing so I may say something’s that are wrong. I can’t define which blue tang it was put last night or few nights ago one of them was grazing on the rock not sure if that was symptoms of something. I read online that in some cases it could be normal itching fish gets again not sure if what the source stated was true or false. She wasn’t swimming to the power head at least when I was looking which I do daily just to make sure everyone is swimming. I have the Red Sea reefer so the overflow area where the water comes out is where the usually hang not sure if that’s something I should be worrying about they do venture off elsewhere in the tank

 

[JoshH]

Deleted

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Could someone help ID the cause of death. I’m new to the hobby and was told by another member wally to post here to get some more insight as to what happened to my blue tang.

It appears his tail fin has been getting nipped at by another fish? I don't know if thats correct, but if yes, stress could be the problem & a lack of food due to competition from the aggressive other
?

 

[JoshH]

Deleted

 

[Reefandthecurious]

In the future he really shouldn't be putting ANY tang in a reefer 170.....

@Reefandthecurious I would stop going to that LFS from here on out if they told you you could put a blue tang in a 20 Gallon tank....

Believe me I will not go back to the LFS I got the tang from. It was one of those corporate franchise ones. Honestly I should have followed my gut when I got the fish I noticed some black scratches on the eyes and the face of the tangs almost light greyish colour. I spoke to the person who was the “fish expert” there and he insisted they were perfectly healthy I had nothing to worry about. Learning from what you said josh from here on out no more tangs. Sorry I’m new to the whole aquarium hobby.

 

[Coralreefer1]

In the future he really shouldn't be putting ANY tang in a reefer 170.....

@Reefandthecurious I would stop going to that LFS from here on out if they told you you could put a blue tang in a 30 Gallon tank....

You need to get yourself a good set of test kits, red sea, elos, Salifert and do a solid round of testing to see where your tank is truly at. Also how are you tasting salinity?? (And BTW, I'm not trying to sound harsh, just want to get you on your feet as quickly as possible)

Yeah, Tangs being kept in that small a tank is not a good idea! They need ample room to swim and forage for food as they do in their natural habitat.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

What fish do you have in your setup right now?

4 clowns
2 blue devil damsel

 

[JoshH]

Deleted

 

[Nick C]

Believe me I will not go back to the LFS I got the tang from. It was one of those corporate franchise ones. Honestly I should have followed my gut when I got the fish I noticed some black scratches on the eyes and the face of the tangs almost light greyish colour. I spoke to the person who was the “fish expert” there and he insisted they were perfectly healthy I had nothing to worry about. Learning from what you said josh from here on out no more tangs. Sorry I’m new to the whole aquarium hobby.

How long has your tank been up and running? Also do you have a quarantine tank??

 

[Reefandthecurious]

How long has your tank been up and running? Also do you have a quarentiqu tank??

About 3months and no don’t have a quarantine tank should I think about getting one. Could I use my sump in the meantime?

 

[JoshH]

Deleted