I think my tang is done for

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

Hey guys I have a blue tang that looks to be in bad shape. It’s odd because it seemed to come out of no where. He is in QT with another tang that are separated by egg crate. He was more timid than the other purple tang and a bit smaller but that’s why I had them separated with separate hiding pipes for their size. He has been hiding in his pipe for a while now but I have been feeding three times daily with daily 10% water changes and he has been eating. All of a sudden he was hiding on his side and then stuck up against the egg crate vertically breathing hard. Any ideas? Currently in copper at 1.34 as I have slowly been working my way up.

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

He then started swimming upright again and seemed more normal and now is hiding under PVC. I have a HOB running matrix, seeded with Biospira and had my ceramic rings from my tank before for a week to help seed the tank. Seachem badge says zero ammonia. I also have a Koralia 20 pointed to the top of the tank to help provide oxygen. I don’t see anything on his body and they will be getting GC and Metro tomorrow per my QT plan.

Big G · Jun 9, 2020

Some tangs are very copper sensitive. Best to remove the copper.
How's the ammonia in the tank? Do you have an Ammonia Alert Badge in the tank?

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

Big G said:
Some tangs are very copper sensitive. Best to remove the copper.
How's the ammonia in the tank? Do you have an Ammonia Alert Badge in the tank?

I have a blue and a purple in there and the purple seems fine but the blue is struggling. I am thinking of getting a second QT set up for the blue dependent how the night goes. I haven’t been testing due to the copper but my ammonia alert badge says 0. I cycled the QT before and am doing daily 10% changes. Salinity, temp, etc are all stable.

Big G · Jun 9, 2020

How big is the tank? The heavy breathing can be stress induced or parasites, since you are pretty sure the ammonia is OK.

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

Big G said:
How big is the tank? The heavy breathing can be stress induced or parasites, since you are pretty sure the ammonia is OK.

20g long. If there are internal parasites that could be part of it.

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

Big G said:
How big is the tank? The heavy breathing can be stress induced or parasites, since you are pretty sure the ammonia is OK.

So just checked and he made it through the night. It seems like it is stress related and maybe he was playing dead in my first post (seems that’s a thing with tangs). Do you think it would be better to have his own QT?

Big G · Jun 9, 2020

How big are the fish?

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

There’s a size difference. The purple is about 4” and the blue is 1.5-2. That wasn’t planned. Tried to get both at the same time and the local reefer who I got the purple from said 2” (which is why I bought a 2” blue) and turned out to be a lot bigger. This is also why I had the egg crate separation.

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

The blue ate some today but is strictly staying in his corner and trying to hide/lie beneath the PVC. Would it be better/worse to get a new QT so he can be in it alone?

h2so4hurts · Jun 9, 2020

Regal tangs are weird fish. Have you seen any aggression between the two through the egg crate? A 20g long should be ok for those two fish for QT. If you don't think it's aggression and think it's copper toxicity then you can try removing and switching to Chloroquine which is my default because it's so well tolerated by basically everything with a very wide effective range.

Letterkenny · Jun 9, 2020

h2so4hurts said:
Regal tangs are weird fish. Have you seen any aggression between the two through the egg crate? A 20g long should be ok for those two fish for QT. If you don't think it's aggression and think it's copper toxicity then you can try removing and switching to Chloroquine which is my default because it's so well tolerated by basically everything with a very wide effective range.

I have had the egg crate down since somehow he slipped through it yesterday during the ordeal and had it down originally but no real aggression. I have seen some swims over there but no biting or picking. More so that the first tang was in there for 6-10 hours and was wondering who this is. I’m using Copper Power which I thought was highly tolerated. Anyways, he is swimming fine again but is just staying in a very very small area and the other tang is very relaxed (also helps that he came from a local reefer that’s had him a year and was eating out of his hand vs this new tang being from a LFS).