Tangs not eating

[Perpetual Novice]

Hi all,

4 days ago I added 4 tangs to my quarantine tank. It’s only a 20 gallon tank so it’s cramped for those fish but I want to introduce them all at once to my display. I’m running copper in the quarantine tank and I guess it’s really stressing the fish because none of them are eating.

One of the tangs is a blue hippo tang that was soon to outgrow the other tank I had it in. The hippo was a voracious eater before but now it won’t eat a bite. I’m growing worried that none of the tangs will calm down enough to accept food while in quarantine. Or else that I’m doing something else wrong.

I have tried nori, veggie flakes, regular flakes, pellets, and frozen mysis and none of them even seem to notice.

How long can these fish go without food? If they don’t eat is it best to introduce them to the display before my 2 weeks planned quarantine period is up? If so when should I make the call?

 

[ReefJedi]

Hi all,

4 days ago I added 4 tangs to my quarantine tank. It’s only a 20 gallon tank so it’s cramped for those fish but I want to introduce them all at once to my display. I’m running copper in the quarantine tank and I guess it’s really stressing the fish because none of them are eating.

One of the tangs is a blue hippo tang that was soon to outgrow the other tank I had it in. The hippo was a voracious eater before but now it won’t eat a bite. I’m growing worried that none of the tangs will calm down enough to accept food while in quarantine. Or else that I’m doing something else wrong.

I have tried nori, veggie flakes, regular flakes, pellets, and frozen mysis and none of them even seem to notice.

How long can these fish go without food? If they don’t eat is it best to introduce them to the display before my 2 weeks planned quarantine period is up? If so when should I make the call?

I recently had this problem with a fat yellow tang. 20g QT with a few other fish. He seemed the most sensitive to ammonia levels compared to the other fish. It was hard to keep ammonia levels down with that many fish even though I have a lot of matrix in there and running a HOB filter. I also made the mistake of adding Prime to lower the ammonia and apparently doing that made the copper toxic. I did a 75% water change and the ammonia levels went down but it wasn’t until I did a 100% water change that the tang started to act like himself again.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Morning. A few observation. A 2 week qt really will not doing anything other than a good observation period. Like reefjedi mentioned 4 tangs in 1 tank f or 4 days can produce high ammonia levels. I would check that right away if you have not. Be ready for a water change if so. Are you monitoring the amount of copper and what type. Also is anything else also being dosed.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Morning. A few observation. A 2 week qt really will not doing anything other than a good observation period. Like reefjedi mentioned 4 tangs in 1 tank f or 4 days can produce high ammonia levels. I would check that right away if you have not. Be ready for a water change if so. Are you monitoring the amount of copper and what type. Also is anything else also being dosed.

I’ve been concerned about ammonia so I have been doing 50% water changes every two days. (Two water changes to date) and I’ve been using cupramine and testing twice a day. I keep the levels at 0.8 to 1.0. I also added a lot of sponges and a bottle of cycle start. And I vaccume up the uneaten food when I do water changes.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Doing water changes is good but really need to test ammonia. If you don’t have a kit see if there is a LFS by you. Also copper -edit- just notice cupramine and not cp.Read thru the threads, will help alot

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ratios-for-dosing-copper-power.385871/

#reefsquad

 

[Crabs McJones]

Copper is an immune system suppressant and an appetite suppressant so it's not uncommon for fish to not eat in treatment. That mixed with ammonia levels could be raising the fish's stress. If they continue to not eat slowly bring the copper level down and see if they respond to food. What copper treatment are you using and at what level are you keeping it? What are you using to determine your copper levels?

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Copper is an immune system suppressant and an appetite suppressant so it's not uncommon for fish to not eat in treatment. That mixed with ammonia levels could be raising the fish's stress. If they continue to not eat slowly bring the copper level down and see if they respond to food. What copper treatment are you using and at what level are you keeping it? What are you using to determine your copper levels?

I’ll have to get back to you on the brand of copper test kit but it’s not a Hanna checker if that’s what you were looking for. I’m using cupramine at 0.8. And I’ve read that copper produces inaccurate ammonia test results so I haven’t been testing that. Is that no true?

 

[Crabs McJones]

I’ll have to get back to you on the brand of copper test kit but it’s not a Hanna checker if that’s what you were looking for. I’m using cupramine at 0.8. And I’ve read that copper produces inaccurate ammonia test results so I haven’t been testing that. Is that no true?

How are you measuring ammonia? An alert badge or test kit? From my understanding test kits do show wrong ammonia results, the ammonia alert badge is the only one to accurately show ammonia levels in copper. @HotRocks can confirm for me

 

[HotRocks]

How are you measuring ammonia? An alert badge or test kit? From my understanding test kits do show wrong ammonia results, the ammonia alert badge is the only one to accurately show ammonia levels in copper. @HotRocks can confirm for me

That is correct. Ammonia kits are not accurate in the presence of copper. The badge will still show any registering ammonia with or without copper presence.

 

[HotRocks]

Copper is an immune system suppressant and an appetite suppressant so it's not uncommon for fish to not eat in treatment. That mixed with ammonia levels could be raising the fish's stress. If they continue to not eat slowly bring the copper level down and see if they respond to food. What copper treatment are you using and at what level are you keeping it? What are you using to determine your copper levels?

This^^^

What copper product and what concentration? How fast did you ramp up? What test kit are you using?

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Awesome. No

This^^^

What copper product and what concentration? How fast did you ramp up? What test kit are you using?

w that I know I’ll buy an ammonia alarm. I ramped up copper very quickly. I’m using cupramine and the concentration on my test kit reads about 0.8. I think it’s a seachem test kit but I’m not sure and will have to check when I’m home.

 

[HotRocks]

Awesome. No

w that I know I’ll buy an ammonia alarm. I ramped up copper very quickly. I’m using cupramine and the concentration on my test kit reads about 0.8. I think it’s a seachem test kit but I’m not sure and will have to check when I’m home.

.8ppm is very close to toxicity. This is likely the issue. Lower it to .5ppm via water change ASAP and the fish should start eating again.