I have a 75 gallon tank with a foxface, wrasse, two clowns and a cardinal. Has been up an running since April and was trying to introduce a powder blue and sailfin, though both died within a week of purchase...any ideals of what I did wrong?
Tang problems
- Thread starter Yacko72
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Not a lot of info to give you much of an answer. Where did you source the fish? Did you quarantine? If so what method? Did the fish display any symptoms?
Tangs in general are more prone to things like ich.
Also the tang police would probably tell you those fish get too big for a 75 gal.
Tangs in general are more prone to things like ich.
Also the tang police would probably tell you those fish get too big for a 75 gal.
vetteguy53081
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More than tank size, I would question:
How were they acclimated to tank?
When you purchased, did you watch them eat, notice breathing and overall skin health?
How were they acclimated to tank?
When you purchased, did you watch them eat, notice breathing and overall skin health?
I'm afraid without more information, I am at a loss to offer you any rationales for their demise. For example, what were the water parameters at the time of death? What are they now? Did you add the new fish directly to the main display or did they die in quarantine? What were the parameters of the water they came out of compared to your tank and did you acclimate slowly enough if there was a significant difference in those parameters? What size were all the fish? A 75 gal is very small for some of the fish you mentioned. Were any of the fish in the tank fighting, stressing the newbies? Did the fish show any symptoms such as white or black spots on their bodies? Was there a filmy look to the eyes? Were they covered with a white film on their bodies? Did they have red patches or other marks on their bodies? Did they have any signs of injury? Were they swimming with clamped fins or tail? Did they have white stringy poo? Were they breathing very fast with moving mouths and/or flapping gills? Was there any parasites visibly attached to gills, fins, anus, body? Did they or any other fish they shared a tank with show symptoms of illness such as scratching on things in the tank as if they were trying to scrap off some irritant? Were the fish swimming funny? If so, how so? Were they swimming at the surface? Were they gulping air at the surface or swimming in the current of the powerheads? Were they in hiding and refusing to come out to eat? Did they look emaciated when you bought them? Were they eating for you? If so, how well and what kinds of food?
Velvet comes to mind as well as a gram negative bacterial infection, but with so many unknowns it's hard to be of any real help. Can you elaborate with more information?
Edit...sorry, I'm long winded, so some of my questions are repeats because others here beat me to the punch with excellent questions. There is a lot to consider when trying to figure out what mysterious illness or illnesses take out our fish. Sadly, if the immune system is run down because of stress or illness, it can be a secondary infections that does our fish in.
Velvet comes to mind as well as a gram negative bacterial infection, but with so many unknowns it's hard to be of any real help. Can you elaborate with more information?
Edit...sorry, I'm long winded, so some of my questions are repeats because others here beat me to the punch with excellent questions. There is a lot to consider when trying to figure out what mysterious illness or illnesses take out our fish. Sadly, if the immune system is run down because of stress or illness, it can be a secondary infections that does our fish in.
Last edited:
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
I agree with everything mentioned so far and cannot stress disease and tank size enough.
My parameters were good, and I let them set in the water to adapt for 15 minutes. Though I didnt quarantine them, " still learning on this". how do you go about that? As for other fish the clowns lay around in dragonsbreath, wrasse is out though also hides in sand. The foxface is skidish though seems ok with other fish.
These fish have been together for over a month no issues
Let them set in water for 15 minutes before releasing and no I didnt see them eat before purchasing them....I'm still learning on tricks to identify problems. They seem to be acting normal
BayouReefer
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Where did the fish come from were they from your LFS or did you purchase online and have them shipped. If they were shipped and you only acclimated for fifteen minutes did you float them for 30 min then immediately after opening did you use something to to prevent ammonia toxicity I.E prime or Amquel.
vetteguy53081
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Ooh- might have suffered ph and/or salinity shock. Floating adjusts water temperature but you then have to equalize water conditions . This is accomplished by opening bag and entering a cup of water from tank every 15-20 mins to equalize ph and salt levels to their new environment. I release fish into a CLEAN bucket and add a quart of water from tank every 15 minutes for an hour or longer then net them with a soft net into tank. DO NOT RELEASE WATER FROM *** OR BUCKET INTO TANK !!
Waterislife
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You bio-loaded the system to quickly and it failed. Don't add any more fish.
Thanks I'll try this
Waterislife
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Time being, let the system mature
Waterislife
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And don't add potentially large fish to such a small tank
I'm afraid if your other fish died because of disease, there is a good chance the disease is now in the tank and it's only a matter of time triggered by stress that your other fish in the tank will succumb to whatever took out the fish that died. If they died from acclimation shock, the other fish may be fine. You say your water parameters were good, but you don't say what they were. It's helpful to us to know them to help us target possible reasons for the fishes' deaths. Can you post any close up picture of the remaining fish?
I agree with @vetteguy53081. Floating a bag and adding a little bit of water for 15 min. is not enough time to acclimate most new fish. Depending on the size of the bag, I float for 15 to 25 minutes. I usually use the drip method to acclimate new fish to water in the destination tan. When I have less sensitive fish, I sometimes do the following: Every 15 minutes I add a half cup of destination tank water to the bag of fish. I do this until the bag is full. I then dump half the bag and start all over filling every 15 minutes. I dump again when it's full and refill again the same way. I then test the water in the bag. If salinity and ph are the same as the destination tank water, I scoop out the fish and put them in the tank. It is always a quarantine/sick tank. No fish goes into my tank that has not been treated with copper or cp. If the water does not test with the same parameters, I dump again and continue to add 1/2 cups of tank water every 15 minutes until it does. I hope that helps. My advice is to go slow. Nothing good ever happens in the saltwater world when it happens quickly.
