Tangs don't survive - Tank Aggression or something else?

[AtisE]

First post and new to husbandry so please take pity on me.
I have now tried two tangs in my reef tank that have not made it past 2 days. They were both tiny (1") to small sized (2"). Current occupants are two clownfish, a firefish, and a goby. The first tang hid in a cave and barely came out, found him dead two days later. Figured I didn't acclimate him properly. Found a good price on another one at a different lfs, acclimated him, but he also hid for two days and found him dead this morning. Any ideas on what my issue may be? Both

 

[JasonK84]

Possibly stress. When you introduce to the tank are you keeping the lights out for a couple days?

 

[PDR]

Welcome to R2R!

What size tank do you have, how long has it been set up and what species of tang?

 

[JoshH]

What size of tank do you Have? Were the tangs acting funny when you got them? Scratching? Any signs of white spots?

Oh and welcome to R2R!!!

 

[JasonK84]

First post and new to husbandry so please take pity on me.
I have now tried two tangs in my reef tank that have not made it past 2 days. They were both tiny (1") to small sized (2"). Current occupants are two clownfish, a firefish, and a goby. The first tang hid in a cave and barely came out, found him dead two days later. Figured I didn't acclimate him properly. Found a good price on another one at a different lfs, acclimated him, but he also hid for two days and found him dead this morning. Any ideas on what my issue may be? Both

Tank details and pics of the tangs could also help in narrowing things down. Are you QT'ing your fish?

 

[lion king]

Check the sg in the bag, if you are acclimating to a sg more than .002 more this could be a cause. If this is the case a much longer acclimation would be suggested, as much as 2 hours or more. Optimum would be a qt to match sg.

Tiny/small tangs are difficult anyway. Did you see any signs of getting battered. Is your tank mature enough with algae and such for grazing, tiny tangs really need a constant source of grazing food.

 

[AtisE]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome! I know I'll get hammered for this, but the tank is a 40B with concrete plans to upgrade to a 90 gallon in the next few months. Tank has been up for 3 months now. The lights were off for 4 hours (had no idea it was supposed to be days and not sure how that would go over with the corals). Did not QT fish, which now seems like a silly mistake. Both fish had zero white spots and weren't acting funny at all. Didn't take any pics of either tang which also seems silly now. Tank has some mixed corals, CUC, nothing crazy.

Edit for feeding: there's some decent green algae across all the liverock and put in some nori that neither of the tags ate at all.
Edit for tang type: blue eye/tomini tang

 

[PDR]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome! I know I'll get hammered for this, but the tank is a 40B with concrete plans to upgrade to a 90 gallon in the next few months. Tank has been up for 3 months now. The lights were off for 4 hours (had no idea it was supposed to be days and not sure how that would go over with the corals). Did not QT fish, which now seems like a silly mistake. Both fish had zero white spots and weren't acting funny at all. Didn't take any pics of either tang which also seems silly now. Tank has some mixed corals, CUC, nothing crazy.

Edit for feeding: there's some decent green algae across all the liverock and put in some nori that neither of the tags ate at all.
Edit for tang type: blue eye/tomini tang

Do you know what kind of tangs they were? Most on here would advise to not purchase a fish planning on an upgrade. That being said, I don't think the tank size had anything to do with a 1" tang death. 3 months is still a pretty young tank, do you know your current parameters?

I personally have never turned the lights off when introducing a new fish, never had any problems.

 

[4FordFamily]

Well I’ll leave the tank size discussion for another time, welcome to R2R by the way.

Tangs are very susceptible to parasites, but in that sort of timeframe from addition to death I also suspect water parameters. Can you post a photo of the tank and your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels, at a minimum?

 

[Maritimer]

1" tangs (and other similarly tall, thin fish such as butterflies) don't have a lot in the way of reserves. If you can, ask the LFS attendant to feed the fish before they attempt capture, so that you know the little guy is eating, and then it's a great idea to QT - not only to keep diseases out of your display, though that's kind of important in its own right, but to condition these tiny fish to eating the things you'll be offering them in the - rather more intimidating - display.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

~Bruce

 

[4FordFamily]

1" tangs (and other similarly tall, thin fish such as butterflies) don't have a lot in the way of reserves. If you can, ask the LFS attendant to feed the fish before they attempt capture, so that you know the little guy is eating, and then it's a great idea to QT - not only to keep diseases out of your display, though that's kind of important in its own right, but to condition these tiny fish to eating the things you'll be offering them in the - rather more intimidating - display.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

~Bruce

That’s a great point, small tangs aren’t very hardy, in general.

 

[JasonK84]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome! I know I'll get hammered for this, but the tank is a 40B with concrete plans to upgrade to a 90 gallon in the next few months. Tank has been up for 3 months now. The lights were off for 4 hours (had no idea it was supposed to be days and not sure how that would go over with the corals). Did not QT fish, which now seems like a silly mistake. Both fish had zero white spots and weren't acting funny at all. Didn't take any pics of either tang which also seems silly now. Tank has some mixed corals, CUC, nothing crazy.

Edit for feeding: there's some decent green algae across all the liverock and put in some nori that neither of the tags ate at all.
Edit for tang type: blue eye/tomini tang

No one will hammer you here at R2R. This forum is filled with very nice people willing to help and not at all into bashing other people's husbandry. You are going to love it here.

As far as lights out... corals will be ok for a couple days with the lights off. I've started wrapping my QT in black trash bags with the lights off. I take the plastic off after a couple days if the fish seam to be doing well.
A good point was made about possible salinity issues by @lion king. Do you know the salinity of the tanks where you bought the fish? What salinity do you keep? I order most of my fish from LA (Live Aquaria) and they come in at a salinity of 1.019 which is very low compared to my tank at 1.024. Fish adjust much easier to a lower salinity than a higher salinity and if trying to acclimate up more than .002 a drip acclimation would be recommended. Best would be a QT tank set up at the same salinity as incoming fish.

 

[AtisE]

So I'm assuming the main issues were the possibly the large salinity difference and not having QT'd the little guys... Pretty sure the LFS isn't keeping anywhere close to the salinity I have...

 

[Jesterrace]

Check the sg in the bag, if you are acclimating to a sg more than .002 more this could be a cause. If this is the case a much longer acclimation would be suggested, as much as 2 hours or more. Optimum would be a qt to match sg.

Tiny/small tangs are difficult anyway. Did you see any signs of getting battered. Is your tank mature enough with algae and such for grazing, tiny tangs really need a constant source of grazing food.

Agreed that a medium sized tang (ie 3-4 inches) is actually better. Tiny Tangs simply haven't had a chance to gain any durability, or had a chance to let their immune systems develop.

 

[ca1ore]

Most LFS will keep their fish systems at 1.015-18. Not adjusting to 1.026 is likely to be a big part of the problem.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Welcome to r2r

I agree tiny sized tangs are difficult and acclimatization could be an issue,as could disease/parasites.

Sorry for your losses. Dont get discouraged, you'll get it sorted out.

 

[Ariel V Rosa]

Tiny tangs are very had to keep for even a week if you are not aware of a few things. Stress.... how was the fish cought at the fish store... did they use a net? If so... I woukd have said no thanks and walked out of the store. You can use fish nets to catch tangs. Also... tiny tangs are very hard to feed, this isnt some toss pellets in and they eat right away, you have to work with the fish to get it to eat what you uave, some feed nori, some feed pellets, i trained mine to eat pellets . Took a while, but it was worth it to have it eat the same things my other fish ate.... check your ammonia levels, it will wear dowm your fish, damge the gills and the protective slime on its skin.