2 week blue tang stress?

[Nate Chalk]

Hi all-
I purchased this blue tang 2 weeks ago, it was picking at rocks, and eating some emerald entre + pellet. Recently over the past week, it has been hiding in 2x places total and "playing dead" i dont believe it has eated much sense. I havent noticed any white spots either.

I did not QT the fish for weeks.

I am considering a fresh water dip to see if flukes are bothering the fish. I did notice the Tang presenting to cleaner shrimp and some flashing.

Parameters are all in check, I have a clown, Tomini Tang and this Blue tang, Other than that is a sea slug, Urchin, Cleaner shrimp and CUC + Corals.

Thoughts PLEASE

this week

two weeks ago

a

 

[Nate Chalk]

All other fish are fine, and corals are growing and splitting,

 

[Nate Chalk]

bump

 

[Nate Chalk]

bump

 

[Nate Chalk]

bump

 

[Nate Chalk]

Someone ?

 

[Nate Chalk]

anyone

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Flashing is most likely a clue of disease. Dip and QT him right away. Can you get some clear picks of the blue tang . See any thing that might indicate he is sick?

I used prazipro amd general cure for all incoming fish along with a 4-6 week QT

 

[louivee]

How long has the tank been running I’m new here since I’ve started a reef but I worked at my LFS and have some knowledge with fish also owned a 75 gallon just fish and live rock and I’ve noticed certain fish require well established tanks hippo tang definitely being one of those fish I would with the method the previous comment presented definitely QT all new fish since introducing any parasites is a big problem

 

[Nate Chalk]

the tank was up for 2 years +, we moved recently and i reset the tank back up and had a mini cycle.

The tang was purchased 2-3 months after the tank was back up.

I do not have a qt station. I just did a 5 minute freshwater dip, i did notice the skin did have some white show up after which i am not sure if it was flukes or some other parasite, or just white spots from stress. The tang continues to swim when nudged. It's back to hiding.

Hoping to come back in a few hours and see some difference. Other than this I am not sure what else i could do. I could get a qt bin set up, we have additional, but im not sure that will help much more. It would remove the rock work and just have the fish in water.

 

[Nate Chalk]

afraid of stressing the fish further, treating nothing.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Playing dead Not abnormal for these guys. If clowns were in the tank first, they may be intimidating it.
Step up on diet also with foods such as
LRS herbivore diet or Fish Frenzy
spirulina brine shrimp
Hikari marine cuisine
Hikari Mega Veggie
small plankton
Mysis shrimp

Assure salinity and temp are in range as well as ammonia level

1.025
77-79
ammonia < .05

 

[Nate Chalk]

Flashing is most likely a clue of disease. Dip and QT him right away. Can you get some clear picks of the blue tang . See any thing that might indicate he is sick?

I used prazipro amd general cure for all incoming fish along with a 4-6 week QT

I don't see anything super wrong with the tang, maybe some fin rot?

No white spots, coloration looks good, was swimming, was poking around.

Now it mainly stays hidden in rockwork.

 

[Nate Chalk]

Playing dead Not abnormal for these guys. If clowns were in the tank first, they may be intimidating it.
Step up on diet also with foods such as
LRS herbivore diet or Fish Frenzy
spirulina brine shrimp
Hikari marine cuisine
Hikari Mega Veggie
small plankton
Mysis shrimp

Assure salinity and temp are in range as well as ammonia level

1.025
77-79
ammonia < .05

It's stopped eating the past couple of days when I feed.

 

[Nate Chalk]

Fingers crossed on my way home now it's been about 1:30 since the freshwater dip.

Airated water and brought to temp per instructions

 

[BoneDoc]

Good luck. My BT played dead like that when in my QT so moving it into a QT may not help that issue. Is there another stressor?

it doesn’t have to eat too much but if you can at least judge it to eat, you’re better off.

So buy all sorts of different food and try them out to see what will entice it to eat.

 

[BoneDoc]

Over feed a bit and let the tank suffer(if it must) if you are really wanting in keeping it alive.

 

[louivee]

the tank was up for 2 years +, we moved recently and i reset the tank back up and had a mini cycle.

The tang was purchased 2-3 months after the tank was back up.

I do not have a qt station. I just did a 5 minute freshwater dip, i did notice the skin did have some white show up after which i am not sure if it was flukes or some other parasite, or just white spots from stress. The tang continues to swim when nudged. It's back to hiding.

Hoping to come back in a few hours and see some difference. Other than this I am not sure what else i could do. I could get a qt bin set up, we have additional, but im not sure that will help much more. It would remove the rock work and just have the fish in water.

I was also gonna mention the tang doesn’t look sick and presenting itself to the cleaner shrimp isn’t really a bad sign to begin with many fish love getting cleaned especially tangs in my experience with fish so I wouldn’t worry tooooo much about that. You should definitely have a QT setup just in case it makes everything easier when having to correct and issue such a parasites etc just trust when I say if this was easy we wouldn’t have wouldn’t have anything to talk about just get a QT so it’s easier to address the issue and don’t give up !!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I was also gonna mention the tang doesn’t look sick and presenting itself to the cleaner shrimp isn’t really a bad sign to begin with many fish love getting cleaned especially tangs in my experience with fish so I wouldn’t worry tooooo much about that. You should definitely have a QT setup just in case it makes everything easier when having to correct and issue such a parasites etc just trust when I say if this was easy we wouldn’t have wouldn’t have anything to talk about just get a QT so it’s easier to address the issue and don’t give up !!

Take a close look and assure it has no haze to its' skin, rapid breathing, little black dots and swimming into flow of power head.

 

[louivee]

I would also take the slug out if corals are also housed I’ve heard pretty bad stories about them NUKES