I am posting here as an education for all young hobbyist as well as my own education. So please understand that I know I probably shouldn't have put a Blue Tang in a 37 gallon tank as I have done plenty of research on the minimum size needed for a Blue Tang. I want to understand the why and and not make the same mistake again. Constructive criticism is wanted not chastisement.
Tank Parameters:
37 gallon - 12"D x 22"H x 30"W
Used Doctor Tim's with the 2 Clowns you see in one of the pictures below. Started the cycle on 7/19/2023. The Tank is fully cycled (or so I assume) as the Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates were all 0 on the day I put the Tang in. See below for the list of readings for tank over the last 3 weeks which is when I put the first Clown Fish in. Tank has dry rock in it, a hang on back (HOB) TopFin 50 gallon (newer version) with the surface skimmer, and the carbon bag. Put fresh carbon in the system and took the old out the day I brought the fish home. Cleaned both sponge filters that come with the system the same day. Didn't clean the bio media ceramic rings that the TopFin filter came with as I assumed it probably had a lot of beneficial bacteria on it. Tank also has a Jebao MP70 Crossflow (would like to start reefing oneday). I have used it sporadically because I have read that it can help with fish exercise however I have some questions further in this post specific to pumps and FOWLR tanks. I have air pump, pumping through a secondary sponge filter. It has been going pretty much continuously since I started cycling the tank.
The day I brought the Tang home I also brought home 2 other fish, a Flame Hawkfish and a Yellow Watchman Goby. As you can see the ammonia and nitrates both went up over the last 2 days which is expected considering new bio load and I haven't checked this morning but I assume ammonia could be around .25 or .5. I will check this evening and report back. The blue tang as you can see is roughly 1-2 inches in length. My plan was to grow him a couple inches this year maybe up to 4 and then buy a bigger tank like a 100 gallon or so. As I have mentioned I understand the size of the tank does not match the size of the fish but the fellow at the fish store said that the tang would be fine for the first couple of years. I took his word for it because I was eager (as well as wanted to show the Tang to my kids) and figured I would just see if I could keep the fish alive for that long. Apparently not which is very disheartening.
I do not have a quarantine tank. I have one ready to go but I don't have a filter and have a question about that later on in this post. Having said that, I floated all the fish for roughly 30 min and then acclimated via the bag for another 1-1.5 hours based on the amount of water in each of their individual bags. I released them and immediately the Blue Tang stuck his head under a rock and laid on his side. It had a whiteish hue on its belly right out of the bag and didn't really think anything of it at first and thought maybe it was light so Ill give it until morning. I fed all the fish that night Mysis Shrimp. I don't think the Tang ate but he wasn't near any of the other fish and I fed him separately. I did see him put some shrimp in his mouth but he spit it out quickly, so I assumed he had eaten at least a little but maybe not. Monday evening I fed the fish Mysis Shrimp again and again I saw him put some food in his mouth and spit it out so I am not sure if he ate anything that night either. He was swimming around the tank Monday night and nothing appeared to be wrong although I still did see the white hue on his belly. Again I thought it might be the light.
I did some research and found out they like Green Nori, so I bought some on Tuesday. When I got home from work, the fish just appeared to be hiding but also not moving at all, almost as if he was dead. I did see a little tail wag and gills moving so I knew he was alive but probably just hiding behind the rocks close to the bottom. You will notice the Nori holder on the far right bottom of the tank (blue clip). This is basically where he was ate last night when I fed the fish. All the other fish were on the left side of the tank (expect Yellow Goby I have no idea where he is. Assume he is under the rock in the back based on all the research I have done), and I fed them all Mysis Shrimp, then put that Nori right beside him. He didn't move whatsoever when I put my hand that close to him, so I knew something was wrong. I research the white hue and realized it may be a problem and figured I would resolve it today. After all the other fish had eaten and the Blue Tang was still down in the bottom of the tank I turned the Jebao on to circulate water so that the food would get sucked up by the filter. When I did this, I walked off and came back 5 min later and noticed that the water circulation was pushing the fish all over the tank and he wasn't able to swim past the current like he was both days prior. I turned off the pump and he fell straight to the rock. He was still breathing last night at around 12:00 pm, but didn't move his head out of the rocks. I assumed the worst but went to bed and this morning he wasn't breathing.
For clarity, I watched the fish pretty well all day Sunday, and was able to work from home on Monday and watch the fish all day Monday. All the fish got along, and not a single fight broke out that I saw.
Suffice to say I don't know what caused him to die and would like to understand from the masses what the cause might be. Here are my thoughts/questions
1. Tank might not be fully cycled - I don't think this could be the case because if it wasn't cycled, then how can other fish be tolerating it so well? How long would it take for it to be fully cycled for this type of fish? I have read your tank never really finishes cycling which makes sense, but when does a tank become truly fully established if not now?
2.Fish Tank was too small and the fish became stressed - I am a newbie but I still don't understand how this could be the case. I might be missing something but typically I have heard quarantine tanks being like 10 gallons, and if that is the size of the quarantine tank that I am supposedly supposed to put them in prior to my display tank, how does it make any sense that they require a bigger tank?
3. Too many fish all at once - I don't know if this could be it but maybe Blue Tangs can't handle that large of an ammonia spike that early on? .25 doesn't seem like that much and all the other fish don't seem to be having issues in the slightest.
4. Could it have been that there was something already wrong with the fish when I brought it home? I don't know all the diseases out there but it certainly looked like a healthy fish with the exception of the whitish hue.
5. Any parameter issue that sticks out to you? FYI the last salinity reading from yesterday was read from my new digital tester so it may be a fuzz off on calibration. 29 doesn't seem that low comparatively
6. Not related but semi related - can I run my pump continously throughout the day/night? or will that tire the fish out some much that they become exausted? I have mine running at 40% which is I believe 40% of the maximum rating of the pump itself but I could be wrong.
7. Any other comments that may help me understand what I may have done wrong?
Again I am not looking forchastisement as that deters people away from the hobby. I am really looking for help and want to understand so any help would be appreciated.
Tank Parameters:
37 gallon - 12"D x 22"H x 30"W
Used Doctor Tim's with the 2 Clowns you see in one of the pictures below. Started the cycle on 7/19/2023. The Tank is fully cycled (or so I assume) as the Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates were all 0 on the day I put the Tang in. See below for the list of readings for tank over the last 3 weeks which is when I put the first Clown Fish in. Tank has dry rock in it, a hang on back (HOB) TopFin 50 gallon (newer version) with the surface skimmer, and the carbon bag. Put fresh carbon in the system and took the old out the day I brought the fish home. Cleaned both sponge filters that come with the system the same day. Didn't clean the bio media ceramic rings that the TopFin filter came with as I assumed it probably had a lot of beneficial bacteria on it. Tank also has a Jebao MP70 Crossflow (would like to start reefing oneday). I have used it sporadically because I have read that it can help with fish exercise however I have some questions further in this post specific to pumps and FOWLR tanks. I have air pump, pumping through a secondary sponge filter. It has been going pretty much continuously since I started cycling the tank.
The day I brought the Tang home I also brought home 2 other fish, a Flame Hawkfish and a Yellow Watchman Goby. As you can see the ammonia and nitrates both went up over the last 2 days which is expected considering new bio load and I haven't checked this morning but I assume ammonia could be around .25 or .5. I will check this evening and report back. The blue tang as you can see is roughly 1-2 inches in length. My plan was to grow him a couple inches this year maybe up to 4 and then buy a bigger tank like a 100 gallon or so. As I have mentioned I understand the size of the tank does not match the size of the fish but the fellow at the fish store said that the tang would be fine for the first couple of years. I took his word for it because I was eager (as well as wanted to show the Tang to my kids) and figured I would just see if I could keep the fish alive for that long. Apparently not which is very disheartening.
I do not have a quarantine tank. I have one ready to go but I don't have a filter and have a question about that later on in this post. Having said that, I floated all the fish for roughly 30 min and then acclimated via the bag for another 1-1.5 hours based on the amount of water in each of their individual bags. I released them and immediately the Blue Tang stuck his head under a rock and laid on his side. It had a whiteish hue on its belly right out of the bag and didn't really think anything of it at first and thought maybe it was light so Ill give it until morning. I fed all the fish that night Mysis Shrimp. I don't think the Tang ate but he wasn't near any of the other fish and I fed him separately. I did see him put some shrimp in his mouth but he spit it out quickly, so I assumed he had eaten at least a little but maybe not. Monday evening I fed the fish Mysis Shrimp again and again I saw him put some food in his mouth and spit it out so I am not sure if he ate anything that night either. He was swimming around the tank Monday night and nothing appeared to be wrong although I still did see the white hue on his belly. Again I thought it might be the light.
I did some research and found out they like Green Nori, so I bought some on Tuesday. When I got home from work, the fish just appeared to be hiding but also not moving at all, almost as if he was dead. I did see a little tail wag and gills moving so I knew he was alive but probably just hiding behind the rocks close to the bottom. You will notice the Nori holder on the far right bottom of the tank (blue clip). This is basically where he was ate last night when I fed the fish. All the other fish were on the left side of the tank (expect Yellow Goby I have no idea where he is. Assume he is under the rock in the back based on all the research I have done), and I fed them all Mysis Shrimp, then put that Nori right beside him. He didn't move whatsoever when I put my hand that close to him, so I knew something was wrong. I research the white hue and realized it may be a problem and figured I would resolve it today. After all the other fish had eaten and the Blue Tang was still down in the bottom of the tank I turned the Jebao on to circulate water so that the food would get sucked up by the filter. When I did this, I walked off and came back 5 min later and noticed that the water circulation was pushing the fish all over the tank and he wasn't able to swim past the current like he was both days prior. I turned off the pump and he fell straight to the rock. He was still breathing last night at around 12:00 pm, but didn't move his head out of the rocks. I assumed the worst but went to bed and this morning he wasn't breathing.
For clarity, I watched the fish pretty well all day Sunday, and was able to work from home on Monday and watch the fish all day Monday. All the fish got along, and not a single fight broke out that I saw.
Suffice to say I don't know what caused him to die and would like to understand from the masses what the cause might be. Here are my thoughts/questions
1. Tank might not be fully cycled - I don't think this could be the case because if it wasn't cycled, then how can other fish be tolerating it so well? How long would it take for it to be fully cycled for this type of fish? I have read your tank never really finishes cycling which makes sense, but when does a tank become truly fully established if not now?
2.Fish Tank was too small and the fish became stressed - I am a newbie but I still don't understand how this could be the case. I might be missing something but typically I have heard quarantine tanks being like 10 gallons, and if that is the size of the quarantine tank that I am supposedly supposed to put them in prior to my display tank, how does it make any sense that they require a bigger tank?
3. Too many fish all at once - I don't know if this could be it but maybe Blue Tangs can't handle that large of an ammonia spike that early on? .25 doesn't seem like that much and all the other fish don't seem to be having issues in the slightest.
4. Could it have been that there was something already wrong with the fish when I brought it home? I don't know all the diseases out there but it certainly looked like a healthy fish with the exception of the whitish hue.
5. Any parameter issue that sticks out to you? FYI the last salinity reading from yesterday was read from my new digital tester so it may be a fuzz off on calibration. 29 doesn't seem that low comparatively
6. Not related but semi related - can I run my pump continously throughout the day/night? or will that tire the fish out some much that they become exausted? I have mine running at 40% which is I believe 40% of the maximum rating of the pump itself but I could be wrong.
7. Any other comments that may help me understand what I may have done wrong?
Again I am not looking forchastisement as that deters people away from the hobby. I am really looking for help and want to understand so any help would be appreciated.