Regal tang, Blue Hippo tang

[Saurav Verma]

Hi all,

So I purchased a hippo tang from my local fish store and to me it didn't look all that healthy, but the owner told me its fine so i bought it. After I brought it home I acclimated it for about 20 min then dripped it for 1 hr and 45 min. I put it in my tank and it wedged itself under a rock. I bought 6 other fishes along with this one 4 chromis, and a yellow tang and a cleaner shrimp. After about 2 hours i fed the tank and everyone ate except the hippo it's still didn't come out to eat. this morning i see it laying on the sand breathing hard and i immediately took it out the tank and put in in my 2 gallon quarantine with a air pump put some seaweed and 3 drops of garlic extract from kents marine. The fish is still behaving the same on its side breathing heavy. Does anyone have any advise. BTW i saw some spotting at the store it didn't look white but it was some spotting when i questend it the owner told me it wasn't getting enough food because there were 3 other larger tangs eating the food much faster. he told me just to keep feeding it and all this would go away. im worried i dont think its gonna make it after today if i don't do anything right away. any suggestions?

 

[Crabs McJones]

How big is your display tank? Did you check your parameters, adding that many fish at once may have caused a nutrient spike. But if the fish didn't look good from the store, I would have put it immediately into a quarantine tank. Which 2 gallons is not going to be big enough to quarantine that type of fish. Your best bet would be to see if the store will take them back, and get a larger quarantine tank. Let the display tank sit empty for 78 days as you may have introduced something into the tank from the fish, and while the tank is sitting empty you can get your new quarantine and cycle it and put the fish in there while you're waiting for the display tank to run fallow.

 

[melypr1985]

I've very sorry sweety but it does sound like you should attempt to return the hippo tang to the store you bought him from. In the future, I would advise you to not purchase a fish that appears to be ill. Always ask the employees to feed the fish first. Don't purchase the fish if it doesn't eat, appears to have spots, is breathing heavily or is discolored.
Unfortunately a 2 gallon QT will not be large enough for a hippo tang of any size.

 

[Crabs McJones]

On a related note, for future reference, an 80 gallon aquarium is not recommended to have a yellow tang or a blue hippo tang. The fish will outgrow it. Yellow tangs need at least a 125 and the blue tang a 180 or larger. There are other tangs you can keep in an 80. The Kole tang or tomini tang are great options

 

[Saurav Verma]

Thanks guys, but the tang didnt make it, it didnt look like ich, it looked more like stress I had the owner come look at it. The reason it was in a 2 gallon container was because it wasn't moving at all that's the only thing I could think was to put it in the 2 gallon container. I dont have a quarantine setup. But after this experience I will definitely set up a quarantine soon. Hope in the 8 hours the fish was in my main display didnt pass the sickness on to any other fish.