reefriot Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Im looking for some advice for a new fish I picked up from a tank tear down. Shes a very large blue tang. I put her in my 150 with 4 chromis and a mated pair of tomato clowns, and 2 cleaner shrimp. she hid in the rocks for the first 2 days. then came out a bit and was eating with the other fish. 2 days ago i noticed she was back in the rocks and i saw the cleaner shrimp on her a little here and there. this mornin when i got up she was fluttering at the top got sucked to the side of the powerhead once and got her tail stung by my large carpet nem. at that point i netted her and placed her in my 20gal frag tank. Im in the process of setting up a 10gal QT tank as i type. her color is washed out and her tail has what kinda looks like fin rot, after reading about differant diesese HLLE and hole in head seem like the closest to her symptoms. can anyone give me some rock solid advice for a treament. she had become my kids favorite fish. the person I got her from was in a 210 that had 3 clowns a purple tang and 7 fire fish. he had her for over 2 yrs. i do know he had stopped feeding as much towards the end of his tear down. my buddie bought the purple tang and while its hiding he was able to hand feed it the other day. thanks (scratch) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toby Flenderson Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Your fish sounds like its in rough shape. It should defiantly spend up to 8 weeks in quarantine but the 10 gallon is WAY too small for this. I'll let others chime in about tank size but I'm going to say minimum of 60 gallons and that is pretty small even for temperary housing. Over the quarentine time you can hopefully nurse this fish back to health, treat with meds if nesesary, observe and fatten up with plenty of garlic soaked food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefriot Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 She died about 20 mins later after posting this. PLEASE NO TANG POLICE! I realize a 10gal is too small for a tang but when a fish is not swimming any size tank so treatment can be made will work. I have inspected her and it looks like it was some sort of fin rot. tail and front fins were turning clear and rotting along with washed color. I am quite upset and feel horrible my wife keeps telling me its not my fault, we have only had her since Saturday. I waited a month for the guy to finish selling off the coral and rock to get her. when i showed up i brought a 5 gal bucket to transport and he had already caught her and stuck her in a 1 gal ziplock, she was pissed and had poked holes in it. We had decided to buy her as I was under the assumption that a very large adult should be pretty hardy as i have seen alot of 50 cent size tangs not make it in the pet stores. All other fish in the tank are always hungry and always out and look great, water parameters are all great with the exception of 2 small patches of cyano in the back corners from low flow, which i had ordered 2 more powerheads that are showing up today. I even kept the lights out for 2 days after we got her and did a 30 min drip from my sump to bucket before placing her in the tank. We have decided not to purchase any more fish for now and let the tank mature for 6 months. I hope to gain some experiance from this so it never happens again. thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberlee Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Just for the record your wife's right not your fault, but I think we all feel bad when something dies whether we're at fault or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 That's a bummer. Blue tangs are pretty sensitive untill they get a chance to settle in. P.S. a ten gallon is too small due to the concentration of ammonia (or lack of dilution) not really anything to do with swimming room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefriot Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 Thankyou all for the kind words. After taking her down to the lfs he saw some red marks on side and tail but that could have been caused by the carpet nems sting and the sting most likly was the final thing to kill her.he knew the original owner and said she was at least 5 yrs old. Most likly was because he stopped feeding the fish and the stress of being moved to a new system. We have decided that another tang will be the last fish we intro and not for at least 6 months. On another note what are some good recommendations for very active fish similiar to tangs personality that are peaceful and semi reef safe incase I decide to turn it into a reef down the road? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Sorry to hear of your loss, its always sad to lose a little fishy friend :( For active actracive fish have you thought about the wrasses. Some of them are absolutly stunning and all are active. And they have dozens of reef safe spiecies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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