Tang died quickly today, help with I’d please

TheWB · Aug 26, 2024

My Tomini Tang, to the best of my knowledge was fine yesterday. It was eating and swimming normally. I was gone for most of the weekend so I may have missed some signs of trouble. This morning the Tang looked terrible. It would not eat and was gasping for breath and swimming into a wavemaker. Later on in the afternoon today it got a little more active and appeared to be perking up a little but then it quickly died. Here’s a picture I took just after I removed it from the tank.

I’m not very good at disease ID and would appreciate some help identifying what this looks like. I had this guy for 4-5 years with no issues and it’s a little stunning to lose him in half a day.

No other fish in the tank are currently showing any signs of disease. All are breathing normally and eating with no signs of anything on their bodies that might indicate disease. I realize that doesn’t really mean anything and I’m hoping for some help with an ID here so I can decide what treatment may be needed in the tank.

AetherealKnight · Aug 26, 2024

What are your tank parameters? Did you have any new additions? Swimming into the power head and gasping for breath could mean velvet but your tomini doesn’t appear to have any sugary fine spots on it or maybe it does? It’s hard to tell for me..

TheWB · Aug 26, 2024

AetherealKnight said:
What are your tank parameters? Did you have any new additions? Swimming into the power head and gasping for breath could mean velvet but your tomini doesn’t appear to have any sugary fine spots on it or maybe it does? It’s hard to tell for me..

Thanks for responding.
Salinity is 1.025
Temp is 77 +/-
PH is 8.37
Have not tested anything else recently as no major algae is present and there are no corals in the tank.
I did add three new small fish yesterday evening all of which visually look fine. I’m aware that one or all of them could be a problem but so far only the Tang exhibited any issues. I’m really more looking for some help visually identifying what went wrong with the Tang based on the whitish splotches on its body in the picture I posted. Maybe @Jay Hemdal will have a look?

AetherealKnight · Aug 27, 2024

Tangs are much more prone to ich and velvet and will exhibit symptoms far sooner than other fish. Velvet can kill fish even before spots appear. It is possible that your new additions may have introduced velvet if they were not quarantined but if they were then I’m out of ideas on what killed your tang. Sorry for your loss though

Jay Hemdal · Aug 27, 2024

TheWB said:
Thanks for responding.
Salinity is 1.025
Temp is 77 +/-
PH is 8.37
Have not tested anything else recently as no major algae is present and there are no corals in the tank.
I did add three new small fish yesterday evening all of which visually look fine. I’m aware that one or all of them could be a problem but so far only the Tang exhibited any issues. I’m really more looking for some help visually identifying what went wrong with the Tang based on the whitish splotches on its body in the picture I posted. Maybe @Jay Hemdal will have a look?

Generally, for a fish to die from ich or velvet, the infection needs to reach a critical point. Adding fish yesterday doesn't give enough time for the tang to have caught a disease from them yet (you do need to watch your other fish over time). Also, if new fish bring a disease into a tank, they are usually the first to show signs.

In virtually all cases with fish parasites, the other fish in the tank with be affected to some degree, so if parasites were the issue, there will be symptoms in the other fish. One symptom that is easily missed is "rapid breathing"....people often miss that because they aren't really looking for it, and a fish breathing, say 25% faster than normal is tough to spot.

So what happened? Tough to say for sure, but it might be isolated to this tang. I can see some very minor fin erosion, not enough to kill the fish, but a sign of something. What three fish did you add? Can you get some video posted of the tank?

Jay

TheWB · Aug 27, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
Generally, for a fish to die from ich or velvet, the infection needs to reach a critical point. Adding fish yesterday doesn't give enough time for the tang to have caught a disease from them yet (you do need to watch your other fish over time). Also, if new fish bring a disease into a tank, they are usually the first to show signs.

In virtually all cases with fish parasites, the other fish in the tank with be affected to some degree, so if parasites were the issue, there will be symptoms in the other fish. One symptom that is easily missed is "rapid breathing"....people often miss that because they aren't really looking for it, and a fish breathing, say 25% faster than normal is tough to spot.

So what happened? Tough to say for sure, but it might be isolated to this tang. I can see some very minor fin erosion, not enough to kill the fish, but a sign of something. What three fish did you add? Can you get some video posted of the tank?

Jay

Thanks Jay.
I’ll try to get a video posted but at the moment it’s not working out due to glare.
This morning all fish went after food.
The small yellow wrasse is flashing on the sand. No other fish are exhibiting physical signs on their body or flashing.
The fish added on Sunday are a second yellow wrasse and two Royal Grammas.
The grammas are in isolation boxes.

TheWB · Aug 27, 2024

Here’s a short video. I don’t know that it will be helpful but it’s the best I can do right now. I only have apple products and my understanding is that these videos are only playable on a pc so hopefully you can see it @Jay Hemdal

Edit. Never mind. It wouldn’t even let me upload the video.

vetteguy53081 · Aug 27, 2024

Tangs startle easily and can ne impact damage, something ingested but hard to tell with a dead fish especially after two hours from death

Jay Hemdal · Aug 28, 2024

TheWB said:
Here’s a short video. I don’t know that it will be helpful but it’s the best I can do right now. I only have apple products and my understanding is that these videos are only playable on a pc so hopefully you can see it @Jay Hemdal

Edit. Never mind. It wouldn’t even let me upload the video.

Sorry - videos are an issue. Hosting on YouTube works well.

Tamberav · Aug 28, 2024

Did you add anything else WET recently in last few weeks, month? besides fish.

Snails, corals etc.

The description sounds like velvet but time frame of new fish doesn't make sense. I would keep a close eye on your other inhabitants. Watch for elevated breathing and any off behavior, hiding, twitching, etc.

TheWB · Aug 28, 2024

Tamberav said:
Did you add anything else WET recently in last few weeks, month? besides fish.

Snails, corals etc.

The description sounds like velvet but time frame of new fish doesn't make sense. I would keep a close eye on your other inhabitants. Watch for elevated breathing and any off behavior, hiding, twitching, etc.

I added live rock and sand from TBS on 6/25.
I added a clean up crew from Saltwateraquarium.com on 7/18.
The Tang and a couple of snails were moved from the old tank to the new one on 8/11.
In between the CUC and moving the Tang in I had some issues with slightly elevated ammonia that was resolved through multiple water changes and the addition of some additional bacteria. Don't know what caused the ammonia issues. I suppose thee Tang may have suffered some from that but its so hard to tell and there were no outward signs of distress on the body or rapid breathing. The Tang was acting as normally as it usually did up until Monday morning and then it was swimming into the wave maker and breathing heavily or hiding in a cave. Then is was gone. Happened very quickly. I was hoping for some ID of the problem by looking at the picture of the deceased fish but that's been a dead end so far other than identifying some minor tail and fin erosion by Jay.
The older yellow wrasse is still flashing intermittently. It completely stops while trying to dominate the newer yellow wrasse (think stalking, not fighting). I did dose some Prazi on the chance that it was Flukes but there are no other clues other than the death of the Tang and the wrasse flashing a little bit. No symptoms in any of the other fish yet but something isn't right, just need to figure out what.