Found my blue tang lifeless

[Reefandthecurious]

I would just like to say thanks guy for all the responses. My nerves are starting to be at ease now.

 

[Maritimer]

Hanging in the area where the water comes out can be a symptom of a very serious disease called "velvet" (Amyloodinium ocellatum).

Tangs will often graze - peck at the rock to pluck algae, but if they're rubbing their sides, or especially their gill area, that can be an indication that something is wrong.

Filter floss and carbon _may_ help to lower nitrates, if they're changed out frequently - every day or three, tops - by removing some of the things that can decay into nitrates.

While you can acclimate fish in your sump (some reefers do), that would do nothing to prevent the spread of disease to the rest of your tank. Ich protomonts released by a fish in the sump can easily find their way up the return to the display, to infect the fish there.

~Bruce

 

[Coralreefer1]

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.

The marine aquarium hobby does not offer a 100%GUARANTEE of success. Like anything, you will encounter peaks and valleys. The coulda, shoulda, woulda thoughts are a thing of the past.. learning, growing and feeding off of your failures and your successes to motivate and help you to maintain a more stable, healthy and enjoyable aquarium is ultimately what it’s all about. No one said that the saltwater hobby was going to be easy and failures along the way would be non existent. It’s learning and knowing how to use and follow the roadmap, so to speak, that will help you to get where you want to be with your tank.
Best of luck to you...

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Okay, so having 4 clowns isn't ideal either... eventually two of them will pair up and kill off the other two...

Personally I would think about returning or rehoming two of your clowns for there best interest as well as your own...

But I don't know if you answered it yet or not, how are you checking salinity? And I wouldn't worry about a quarantine just yet. Your tank is still young and I would be holding off on new additions until you can get some test kits and get your water conditions sorted out

Is it possible to rehome two of them to the sump? I’m using a sybon refractometer to check salinity. I do checks every Friday before and after water changes. New additions including corals and invertebrates as well?

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Hanging in the area where the water comes out can be a symptom of a very serious disease called "velvet" (Amyloodinium ocellatum).

Tangs will often graze - peck at the rock to pluck algae, but if they're rubbing their sides, or especially their gill area, that can be an indication that something is wrong.

Filter floss and carbon _may_ help to lower nitrates, if they're changed out frequently - every day or three, tops - by removing some of the things that can decay into nitrates.

While you can acclimate fish in your sump (some reefers do), that would do nothing to prevent the spread of disease to the rest of your tank. Ich protomonts released by a fish in the sump can easily find their way up the return to the display, to infect the fish there.

~Bruce

I read about velvet I hope it’s not that. How long do I have to know if it’s velvet or not. How fast would all the other fish start dying?Even if it’s ich I would need quarantine tank which I don’t have. Is it to late to buy QT are the rest of the fish already infected?

 

[JoshH]

Deleted

 

[Coralreefer1]

4 clowns
2 blue devil damsel

Four Clowns and two Blue Devil Damsels, all of which are very territorial and aggressive. Usually if you are trying to pair up Clowns you buy them small and buy 4-5 of them. Eventually, two of them will pair up. The. You will need to remove the other ones before death ensues. I would let your local pet shop know your plans with the Clowns and returning some after the pairing takes place. Ideally, you are better just purchasing a true pair and be done with it. Next I would get rid of the Damsels. Putting anything in your small tank, especially after adding the Clowns and Damsels is not a good thing in terms of aggression by your Clowns and Damsels and stress being brought upon by them to newer fish and more timid and docile species.
That could be your real reason for your Tang dying...

 

[Reefandthecurious]

It is possible to put them in the sump temporarily but they will need to go to another tank eventually. It's not healthy for them long term as the sump on the 170 is pretty small. Just keep an eye on aggression between the clowns for now and if you see it getting bad then rehome the one getting picked on the most and go from there.

It's great that you have a refractometer, I would eventually get some calibration fluid for it and calibrate it monthly at a minimum...

Also, you should get your hands on a decent testing kit, Red Sea makes a great starter kit to get you going...

You can upgrade to there Pro kits down the road

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-marine-care-test-kit.html

Yes I have the calibration fluid will calibrate tomorrow. Also will be buying the starter kit so I can know exactly what my parameters are. Thank you for all the helpful insight

 

[JoshH]

Deleted.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Four Clowns and two Blue Devil Damsels, all of which are very territorial and aggressive. Usually if you are trying to pair up Clowns you buy them small and buy 4-5 of them. Eventually, two of them will pair up. The. You will need to remove the other ones before death ensues. I would let your local pet shop know your plans with the Clowns and returning some after the pairing takes place. Ideally, you are better just purchasing a true pair and be done with it. Next I would get rid of the Damsels. Putting anything in your small tank, especially after adding the Clowns and Damsels is not a good thing in terms of aggression by your Clowns and Damsels and stress being brought upon by them to newer fish and more timid and docile species.
That could be your real reason for your Tang dying...

How would I know if they are paired or not? Is there any way of getting damsels out without removing rock scape. I have corals set up hate for them to die as well

 

[Reefandthecurious]

We are all here to help and would love to see you and your new reef succeed if it was indeed ICH or velvet, you do need to quarantine your fish,a cheap 20 Gallon Petco tank will do the job nicely, and you will want to treat with copper.

How do confirm if ich or velvet. I’m looking at youtube videos and comparing them to my pic and it resembles velvet. If velvet is it too late. Am I back to square one which will be a whole new tank. Will my coral and invertebrates survive?

 

[JoshH]

Deleted.

 

[Maritimer]

I read about velvet I hope it’s not that. How long do I have to know if it’s velvet or not. How fast would all the other fish start dying?Even if it’s ich I would need quarantine tank which I don’t have. Is it to late to buy QT are the rest of the fish already infected?

Our top fish disease guy, Humblefish, wrote up this article on velvet - it makes for very instructive reading: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499399

Another amazing fellow, HotRocks, detailed his simple, yet very effective QT process here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-current-qt-process.483371/#post-5262297

Yes, the second pair of clownfish _might_ be able to live in your sump ... unless it's just too small. I have no idea how big the sump is on that model.

It's never "too late" to QT, until you're losing fish in the display. You can set up a QT system at any time (I personally think it would be a great idea), and move all of your existing fish into it for treatment. It's called "going fallow", and it's a great way to clear the fish of parasites while any parasites left in the display are starved out. The catch is this: _ALL_ fish must be moved out of the display and associated sump, refugium or other parts of the system, and they must _STAY_ out of the display for six weeks if you're battling Brooklynella or velvet, and for 76 days if you're battling ich (or if you just want to be sure!)

~Bruce

 

[cancun]

Yes I have the calibration fluid will calibrate tomorrow. Also will be buying the starter kit so I can know exactly what my parameters are. Thank you for all the helpful insight

Hi there! I am sorry about your fish! Yea definitely get yourself a good test kit. I personally like the Red Sea test kits. This forum is a great place to come to for advice. Years ago when I was new I learned the hard way to take the word of most LFS with a grain if salt.....not saying they are bad people....I am friends with several of my LFS owners and workers, but they are in business to make money. Always remember to do your own research before adding live stock etc. Google is your friend, along with this forum!

Also just a FYI most reputable LFS will take back a fish purchase. Some will even give you store credit.

 

[Coralreefer1]

How would I know if they are paired or not? Is there any way of getting damsels out without removing rock scape. I have corals set up hate for them to die as well

If they pair up, they will separate from the rest and stay together. Often, aggression will be displayed towards other Clowns and possibly other fish if they come into their territory. All Clown fish are male, then the dominant one will become the female.
As for your Damsels, good luck trying to get them out! They are very fast and when you compound that fact with adding live rock and corals into the mix, it can become very difficult to rid them. You can try a and the best time to catch them would be at night once the lights have been off for a few hours. During the day, you could try to offer food at the top and try to quickly scoop them up with a net!

 

[HotRocks]

You have received a lot of great information thus far.

I don't see any signs of disease but it looks like that fish had been deceased for a while once you took the picture.

Glancing over the thread if you do have other fish swimming into the flow of the return line in your tank that could be a symptom of velvet as mentioned above. This would be the same as swimming into the flow of a powerhead. Any fish swimming directly into the flow is low on oxygen. Parasites overtaking the gills can cause this. Clowns and damsels are less likely to show external symptoms of a parasite affliction.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

If they pair up, they will separate from the rest and stay together. Often, aggression will be displayed towards other Clowns and possibly other fish if they come into their territory. All Clown fish are male, then the dominant one will become the female.
As for your Damsels, good luck trying to get them out! They are very fast and when you compound that fact with adding live rock and corals into the mix, it can become very difficult to rid them. You can try a and the best time to catch them would be at night once the lights have been off for a few hours. During the day, you could try to offer food at the top and try to quickly scoop them up with a net!

Ok I will try that during the day but at night once the lights are out. Both damsels are hiding/sleeping in caves. If I’m unsuccessful with the capture. Can the damsels remain and maybe once I get parameters in check think about adding another fish to replace the one that I had lost?

 

[Reefandthecurious]

You have received a lot of great information thus far.

I don't see any signs of disease but it looks like that fish had been deceased for a while once you took the picture.

Glancing over the thread if you do have other fish swimming into the flow of the return line in your tank that could be a symptom of velvet as mentioned above. This would be the same as swimming into the flow of a powerhead. Any fish swimming directly into the flow is low on oxygen. Parasites overtaking the gills can cause this. Clowns and damsels are less likely to show external symptoms of a parasite affliction.

Yes I have received lots of great information from a lot of people. Thanks for figuring out the COD of my blue tang. Hopefully it was just because of aggression from the other tang and maybe didn’t have a good appetite. I will do a 7 day observation of all fish and see if any there are any signs or symptoms related to disease.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

I have a video of my blue tang rubbing against rock but I can’t seem to upload it. So far I’ve noticed there is a little aggression In the tank. Blue tang looks pretty chewed up towards the end near the tail

 

[HotRocks]

I have a video of my blue tang rubbing against rock but I can’t seem to upload it. So far I’ve noticed there is a little aggression In the tank. Blue tang looks pretty chewed up towards the end near the tail

If you can upload the video to YouTube and Post the link then we can view it.