Naso tang's ribs showing

[justonwo]

Hi all,

I have a relatively new naso tang. She's about 2 months old. She's been skinny for about a month, with ribs showing clearly, despite the fact that I've been feeding her like crazy. I feed mysis once per day, pellet food twice per day, and 2 sheets of nori per day. She eats all of that, but it doesn't seem like she ever fattens up.

She seems healthy and lively otherwise. Am I missing something?

 

[GHsaltie]

How did she look when you purchased her? Do you have a picture?
@melypr1985 @Humblefish
Internal parasites perhaps?

 

[bhuyett]

She could possibly have a tapeworm. If you quarantine her and use Prazzipro. This will address potential tapeworm, flukes as well.

 

[phantomreefing]

Keep an eye out for the color of your tang poop.

The color will indicate what you disease you should treat.

 

[melypr1985]

^^ Exactly right. You'll want to find out if his poop is white and stringy. I think it probably will be and that indicates intestinal worms. Metroplex or General cure is what you want for that. It's best if you can feed it to them to get the meds directly to the gut where the problem is. You would want to bind it to the food using Seachem's Focus. doing it this way, you can treat him in the display.

 

[yellowseahorse]

Happens to WC seahorses all the time. We tend to gut load brine shrimp with metroplex. We tend to do this for a few weeks until the poop is back to purple and not stringy.

 

[justonwo]

I have never been able to catch this fish in the act, so I'm not sure what color the poop is. I haven't seen any indication of white, stringy poop. Good to know that I can treat in the display if I have to, because I don't have a quarantine tank. Here's a video of the poor thing. It also seems to have been impaled on its left side recently, as there's a little injury there.

 

[justonwo]

You know, maybe there's no issue with this fish at all? I've never owned a naso tang before, so I have no basis for comparison, but when checking out pictures of other tangs online, they all seem to show their ribs.

This random picture I found online shows about as much rib/bone as my fish does. Perhaps it's normal? Frankly, I didn't really notice when I got the fish how plump or not plump it was.

This is a random photo of another naso - NOT MINE - just to be clear. It looks pretty similar to mine so maybe mine is healthy?

 

[4FordFamily]

^^ Exactly right. You'll want to find out if his poop is white and stringy. I think it probably will be and that indicates intestinal worms. Metroplex or General cure is what you want for that. It's best if you can feed it to them to get the meds directly to the gut where the problem is. You would want to bind it to the food using Seachem's Focus. doing it this way, you can treat him in the display.

I agree.

If it were me and he eats as you describe I would treat the tank with prazi and soak food in metro with the focus binder she mentioned.

 

[theblackpearl]

Looks healthy to me. I have a 6 inch naso. Feed mine pellet food once a day and larry's herbovore blend once a day. Make sure u give them so vitamins(selcon, or garlic guard)

 

[Deinonych]

Looks healthy to me. I have a 6 inch naso. Feed mine pellet food once a day and larry's herbovore blend once a day. Make sure u give them so vitamins(selcon, or garlic guard)

I agree - I don't see anything concerning from the video. Yours looks like a young adult, and it just hasn't "filled in" yet.

 

[justonwo]

Well thanks guys! This was the easiest saltwater tank resolution I've ever had!

 

[Humblefish]

@justonwo Looks like a healthy naso to me too.

 

[justonwo]

Thank you for taking the time to help me out, guys.

 

[melypr1985]

Yes sir. Looks like a false alarm there. Good deal!

 

[4FordFamily]

Thank you for taking the time to help me out, guys.

I didn't see the video until now, I concur!

 

[Bruce Burnett]

looks very healthy, naso tangs are fast strong swimmers and I swear you can see their muscles working. They love flow and will swim fast from one end to the other on a long tank like nothing.

 

[justonwo]

I still really appreciate the help, all. That naso tang is really beautiful and adds a lot of personality and color to the tank.

 

[ttnguyen98]

I got only a Naso Tang (3.5”-4”) in my 10 gal QT for one week. I dose Seachem cupramine and the copper level is at 0.30 using Seachem copper test kit. He looks stressed at first in the new environment and is not eating at all since day 1 in QT (feeding a variety of spectrum pellets and dry green seaweed both soaked with Selcon+garlic tied to a rock , mysis shrimp, red dragon’s breath MacroAlgae). He does eat dry seawweed and looks fat at the LFS. Now I saw a bone line across his body and worry that he might die from starvation. He is still swimming around and no signs of ich. I do 25% water change when ammonia test badge is at alert level (0.05 ppm). Aeration is provided with air stone and a nano power head agitating the top water surface.
My copper level is down to 0.15 from 0.30 after a couple of WCs. Naso Tang seems to be a bit more active.
What is the course of action now? 1) The copper treatment may curb his appetite. 2) he might have some intestinal parasites? Can’t see his poos on the spot. I am thinking stopping the cupramine and start thr API General Cure to deworm him.
What are your best advice? A short video is attached for your observation. I appreciate all of your comments. Thanks in advance.
Got an error (wrong video extension) when uploading the video from my I pad Air.

Here is the YouTube link for the video.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

First I would concentrate more on the ammonia. Tangs can be very sensitive to ammonia and I can see your green alert badge. I would maintain copper and start doing WC’s to get that back to 0 (ammonia).