New blue tang lying on side

kingkapoor · Mar 23, 2020

Just got a baby blue tang from my LFS.

It was swimming quite happily in a small confined space in the LFS store.

I brought it home and acclimated for about an hour. This is a quarantine tank so my parameters are perfect with fresh saltwater (no ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, PH is IDEAL, and salinity is 1.024). Temp is 77F

It went into the pvc pipe immediately, I got worried so I moved it, now hes chilling at the bottom on his side.

Should he probably wake up soon or did I kill the poor guy? Dont want to poke him

Spare time · Mar 23, 2020

Atlantic blue or blue hippo?

kingkapoor · Mar 23, 2020

Spare time said:
Atlantic blue or blue hippo?

blue hippo

esther · Mar 23, 2020

I just went through this last week. That’s normal behavior. Just keep an eye on him.

piranhaman00 · Mar 23, 2020

Is the tank cycled?

DeniseAndy · Mar 23, 2020

They are a very skittish fish. Get some decor in there for him to hide around. These guys will happlily lay on their sides to get out of view. Do not bother much. Leave in darkened qt for a couple days. Good luck!

Spare time · Mar 23, 2020

kingkapoor said:
blue hippo

They do that sometimes. I wouldn't be worried if its just that

esther · Mar 23, 2020

piranhaman00 said:
Is the tank cycled?

I would hope that a QT is cycled...

kingkapoor · Mar 23, 2020

piranhaman00 said:
Is the tank cycled?

No its just a quarantine tank, it does have a little bit of live rock he came with though

esther · Mar 23, 2020

kingkapoor said:
No its just a quarantine tank, it does have a little bit of live rock he came with though

That may be an issue. I’m not an expert on keeping QT’s, but I would image that regardless of what you use the tank for, it should be cycled first.

DeniseAndy · Mar 23, 2020

Not to be debated here, but OP, you are fine. Qts do not need to be cycled for fish!! FISH!!! Do get yourself an ammonia badge if you do not have one. Very handy!

kingkapoor · Mar 23, 2020

DeniseAndy said:
Not to be debated here, but OP, you are fine. Qts do not need to be cycled for fish!! FISH!!! Do get yourself an ammonia badge if you do not have one. Very handy!

Thanks, thats what I thought.
I actually filled a massive barrel with the same saltwater I plan to use for micro water changes as needed (to keep parameters the same). And yes definitely agree, just picked up one of the badges.

esther · Mar 23, 2020

kingkapoor said:
Thanks, thats what I thought.
I actually filled a massive barrel with the same saltwater I plan to use for micro water changes as needed (to keep parameters the same). And yes definitely agree, just picked up one of the badges.

Get a backup for test just in case. I bought 3 badges and one of them was bad. I kept 2 in tank just in case and then had an API test to test if needed.

piranhaman00 · Mar 23, 2020

esther said:
I would hope that a QT is cycled...

I would hope so as well but 0 NO3 tells me it’s probably not cycled

kingkapoor said:
No its just a quarantine tank, it does have a little bit of live rock he came with though

Just because it’s a QT doesn’t mean the fish are immune to ammonia. I know people run qt not cycled but you have to be diligent.

Jvalle · Mar 23, 2020

kingkapoor said:
Just got a baby blue tang from my LFS.

It was swimming quite happily in a small confined space in the LFS store.

I brought it home and acclimated for about an hour. This is a quarantine tank so my parameters are perfect with fresh saltwater (no ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, PH is IDEAL, and salinity is 1.024). Temp is 77F

It went into the pvc pipe immediately, I got worried so I moved it, now hes chilling at the bottom on his side.

Should he probably wake up soon or did I kill the poor guy? Dont want to poke him

hi it’s normal don’t stress it mine do it all the time. Thx

kingkapoor · Mar 23, 2020

piranhaman00 said:
I would hope so as well but 0 NO3 tells me it’s probably not cycled

Just because it’s a QT doesn’t mean the fish are immune to ammonia. I know people run qt not cycled but you have to be diligent.

Cycling a quarantine tank is pointless if youre doing appropriate and large water changes. A qt tank is almost bare, what would you even put your bacteria into. Please dont give wrong advice.

kingkapoor · Mar 23, 2020

esther said:
I just went through this last week. That’s normal behavior. Just keep an eye on him.

Thanks, how long till the behavior stopped?

esther · Mar 23, 2020

kingkapoor said:
Thanks, how long till the behavior stopped?

48 hours. He’s swimming around all over the place now.

Spare time · Mar 23, 2020

kingkapoor said:
Cycling a quarantine tank is pointless if youre doing appropriate and large water changes. A qt tank is almost bare, what would you even put your bacteria into. Please dont give wrong advice.

for my qt, I put a large bag of bio media in with a bacteria when I get fish. Its much easier to deal with maintaining proper levels of medication when you aren't changing water out frequently

Crashjack · Mar 23, 2020

How long are you quarantining? Other than maybe performing TTM where you are constantly moving to a newly setup tank, why wouldn’t you cycle? I’ve always used a sponge filter connected to a powerhead... it takes all of 6-7 days to cycle with Biospira and ammonia. The powerhead also creates current and good surface agitation for oxygen.

The ammonia badge should be used to verify your QT is cycled and as a failsafe just in case ammonia rises after fish are added. It shouldn’t be used as a water change reminder in an unicycled QT