Naso Tangs are dropping like flies

[MFTJohnson123]

I left for 4 days over the holiday. Arranged for my fish to be fed shrimp twice during that 4 days, and left seaweed clips for three days. Measured everything myself so it was just dump in the food and go. It was still alot less than i normally feed. I was being careful not to have someone over feed. Anyway, i came home on day 4 and had lost a Naso Tang, coral looked great, fish all seem good to go. Two days later i lost a blonde Naso. So now i am concerned. Is there something that could be just killing them? Oh, i lost two cleaner shrimp previous to this. Any ideas?

250 gallon tank
Phosphate under 0.03
Calcium 500
ALK 9.3
Mag1470
Ammonia 0
PH Between 8.2 and 8.4
nitrate 5.0 to 10.0

The tank is only about a year old

 

[melypr1985]

Anybody doing any bullying in the tank? Did you QT everything that has gone in the tank? How long did you have the Naso's? Has anybody (fish) been displaying symptoms like: flashing, scratching, head twitching, reclusiveness, spots, looking dusty, heavy breathing?

Lowering the amount of food they eat for 4 days isn't going to cause fish to just drop like flies. It's gotta be something else.

 

[MFTJohnson123]

Thats what i thought, i am at a loss here. I will keep watching them. All the fish act ok. The naso tangs have been in the tank for about a month. I have not added anything else. The naso tangs did have the light splotches i have seen on most young nasos, but seemed to be in good shape otherwise. They ate, swam alot, ect.

 

[melypr1985]

Thats what i thought, i am at a loss here. I will keep watching them. All the fish act ok. The naso tangs have been in the tank for about a month. I have not added anything else. The naso tangs did have the light splotches i have seen on most young nasos, but seemed to be in good shape otherwise. They ate, swam alot, ect.

Did they go through a quarantine process?

 

[MFTJohnson123]

No i do not have room for a quarantine tank.

 

[melypr1985]

No i do not have room for a quarantine tank.

Ok, so keep a close look at your remaining fish for the symptoms I mentioned. If you spot anything including spots or a dusting on the fish take as good of a picture as you can and let us know. Take a look through the disease forum as well so you know what to look for.

 

[MFTJohnson123]

Ok, i will look at them. The last tang has the white splotchy look, but all my other fish look really good. Are Naso tangs hard to get happy in a tank? I also have some velvet damsels, one is getting pretty big. I have been told he may be stressing them even though i have seen nothing to make me think that. How do you catch a fish in a tank this size? LOl

 

[Nowell]

Velvet.

 

[MFTJohnson123]

yeah thats the name i was given at the store. They have little blue stripes through their face

 

[Nowell]

No. Velvet disease.

 

[Nowell]

When was the last new fish added?

 

[melypr1985]

That's a pretty big tank. There are several methods, none of which are fun or easy to do, which is why we should QT first. I dont have room either, but my coffee table makes a tank stand when I need it. We make do. Anyway, you can drain the tank down to a couple inches of water and catch them that way with a net. You can make/set a fish trap- just google that to see how. You can try catching them right when the lights come on or go off. OR- and this is the most sucky- take all the corals and rocks out, drain the water down and catch them. I had to do the last one to run all my fish in QT.
Watch for symptoms though, so you know what to treat for. If your able to catch one of the tangs, do a fresh water dip on him to check for flukes.

 

[MFTJohnson123]

haha ok.
I will look that up and see if it looks the same. Is there a cure?

 

[melypr1985]

haha ok.
I will look that up and see if it looks the same. Is there a cure?

Copper and CP are what you need for velvet... though you should see some symptoms. There are a few cases where the owner never saw any clue until they were down to the last couple fish and it was too late. It's a possibility, but the treatments are not reef safe so ALL the fish would have to come out if it's velvet.

 

[melypr1985]

check this out for treating Velvet

http://reef2reef.com/threads/defeating-marine-velvet-disease.217570/

 

[joshkirkland83]

 

[MFTJohnson123]

No room, just ask my wife. haha

 

[MFTJohnson123]

Nope, nothing like that in my tank. I have had a local guy over to take a look. He said the tangs looked stressed is all. i just never thought they would be dead, they seem so healthy and active.

Looks something like this. a little worse though

 

[Lynn52]

Those are stress spots which are common in nasos. I recently lost mine too. He was the last fish I added and it had been 6 months since I added him. He was fat, ate well nobody picked on him seemed to be healthy (quarantined 6 weeks before he went into DT) and one day a couple weeks ago he was just gone. Nobody else on the tank appears to be stressed or sick.

 

[MFTJohnson123]

ok, sounds like my same situation. I guess i will watch and see. i have one left. when you set up a quarantine tank how big is it? wouldnt it need to be established and always running to keep it that way? i just do not have an out of the way spot for this.