Qt help

[BeccaMel]

I purchased 2 tangs from my LFS yesterday they were both in the same tank and doing beyond well in said tank. They’d been quarantined in the store for a month and I had gone to see them a few times this past week deciding on the purchase and every time I went in the tangs and tank looked immaculate. I bring the tangs home and immediate issues. The purple tang is perfect, no problems whatsoever, the royal blue tang on the other hand is suffering and I can’t figure out why. The RBT is laying on the bottom of the quarantine tank (which yes is a metal kitchen bowl for the time being as I was preparing my 20 gal actual quarantine tank for them). The RBT started laying on the bottom of the bag when they were in there at first so I assumed it was just stress. After a day it seems to have only gotten worse as the RBT had lost so much colour (his black stripes looked grey) and when he would try and swim he would swim stomach up. I checked the salinity and it was dangerously low so I added a small amount of water from my QT to their bowl, since doing that the RBT has gained some colouring but hasn’t moved. I’m not sure what to do. I’ll attach photos and videos of both tangs as some help would be greatly appreciated. The RBT has some fin damage but he was shipped to the store like that so I do not believe it to be related. Thanks in advance!

 

[saltypepper]

You said your salinity was low and you added some water from your QT tank. What was it after adding the water? Still low or at the desired range? If not bring it up some more, but slowly drip aclimate probably would be good.

You said you got the water from your QT tank. Why not put them in that instead of the bowl?

 

[BeccaMel]

You said your salinity was low and you added some water from your QT tank. What was it after adding the water? Still low or at the desired range? If not bring it up some more, but slowly drip aclimate probably would be good.

You said you got the water from your QT tank. Why not put them in that instead of the bowl?

It was only 1.021 SG after adding the water from the qt tank while the qt tank measures at 1.023-1.024 SG. I would have added the tangs directly to the tank instead of the bowl but the water in the tank was only 15° C yesterday and I didn’t want to add them until it was at least 23° C - 25° C so they wouldn’t get ich. I have been slowly drip acclimating them (roughly 1 cup every hour or so). I also just checked the RBT and he is back to his muted colours with some splotches of purple

 

[saltypepper]

Well 1.022 is not bad because some vendors actually keep their fish at around 1.019 such as Reef Beauties. Just a question how are you keeping the temp in the metal bowl? It may be the fish is just stressed being in a small kitchen bowl after coming from the LFS. If it was my fish and the temp is close to the 23 C range I would aclimate it to the QT tank and out them in there since fish in the wild swim up and down thermoclines in the reef.

 

[BeccaMel]

Well 1.022 is not bad because some vendors actually keep their fish at around 1.019 such as Reef Beauties. Just a question how are you keeping the temp in the metal bowl? It may be the fish is just stressed being in a small kitchen bowl after coming from the LFS. If it was my fish and the temp is close to the 23 C range I would aclimate it to the QT tank and out them in there since fish in the wild swim up and down thermoclines in the reef.

I slowly am acclimating it to the qt tank. I have been drip acclimating the fish to it all day. The water temp of the metal bowl is roughly 21° C so a little low but I don’t have another working heater I could use. The salinity within the bowl is now jumping between 1.021 and 1.022 SG. Should I just move the tangs over to the qt tank?

 

[saltypepper]

All day? That seems a bit too excessive I would recommend next time a 30 minute drip acclimation and put them in the tank. All day now you worry about not getting oxygen to the fish and more.

 

[BeccaMel]

All day? That seems a bit too excessive I would recommend next time a 30 minute drip acclimation and put them in the tank. All day now you worry about not getting oxygen to the fish and more.

Oh wow okay I didn’t know that thank you! I’ll place the fish in the qt tank and update should anything happen in the positive or negative

 

[saltypepper]

Yeah best bet would be put them in the tank. Shut the lights off and walk away from the tank and let them be fore a bit. That way they don’t stress out anymore by being able witches by something the don’t know (till they get use to you) and you don’t stress out watching them and over thinking things. In the next few days besides feeding them (don’t over feed) spend a couple times a day for 10-20 minutes just sitting and watching them just to make observations. If you find fast breathing or some other issue take a video of the fish and come back to the forums and post it. The folks on here would be more than glad to help diagnose.

 

[BeccaMel]

Yeah best bet would be put them in the tank. Shut the lights off and walk away from the tank and let them be fore a bit. That way they don’t stress out anymore by being able witches by something the don’t know (till they get use to you) and you don’t stress out watching them and over thinking things. In the next few days besides feeding them (don’t over feed) spend a couple times a day for 10-20 minutes just sitting and watching them just to make observations. If you find fast breathing or some other issue take a video of the fish and come back to the forums and post it. The folks on here would be more than glad to help diagnose.

I added both tangs to the qt tank and the purple tang was immaculate, no issue in transfer or when in the tank. I go to grab the royal blue tang and it doesn’t move at all, I had to carefully lift him up and slide the net beneath the fish. When placed in the tank the fish immediately sank to the bottom corner of the quarantine tank where I believe he still is as I watched them for a few minutes and they didn’t move. I have a small light on away from the tank that’s causing a slight bit of illumination but not much so I hope that won’t be an issue. I will check on them in the morning and post an update on how they’re all doing

 

[BeccaMel]

I awoke this morning and went to check on the tangs in qt. To my dismay the RBT didn’t make it through the night. I don’t know if it had been swimming last night as where I found it was the opposite side of the tank from where it had been last night after being placed in and sinking to the bottom. I removed the fish after a few minutes of observation as to make sure I wasn’t going to remove a living fish. No breathing/gill movement and it was a completely different colour. Most of the fish was purple but it had some very muted colours around its face. The purple tang seems to be doing completely fine and was buzzing around the tank very actively. I will keep observing them to make sure nothing similar happens

 

[saltypepper]

Sorry to hear about your loss