rsarvis February 28, 2008 Share February 28, 2008 My large-ish yellow tang looks gaunt; I only noticed this morning. When I fed mysis, he didn't look like he was eating, so I added nori, and again no eating. I had to leave for work, though. He doesn't look outwardly unhealthy, other than his gauntness. I can't believe I didn't notice before; I can see his spine. Any idea what might be the problem? Should I try different food? Soak something (what?) in garlic? He ate like a horse since I got him several months ago, and I hadn't seen him not eat until today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 February 28, 2008 Share February 28, 2008 sounds stressed out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishWife February 28, 2008 Share February 28, 2008 My large-ish yellow tang looks gaunt; I only noticed this morning. When I fed mysis, he didn't look like he was eating, so I added nori, and again no eating. I had to leave for work, though. He doesn't look outwardly unhealthy, other than his gauntness. I can't believe I didn't notice before; I can see his spine. Any idea what might be the problem? Should I try different food? Soak something (what?) in garlic? He ate like a horse since I got him several months ago, and I hadn't seen him not eat until today. How long have you had him? And what has his diet been during that time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsarvis February 28, 2008 Author Share February 28, 2008 I think it's been 4 months. I mostly feed mysis and chaeto, plus nori when I remember. Should I be feeding something more specific to tangs? I was considering stress as an issue, but wasn't sure. I put in two other tangs a month or two ago and was watching closely to see if it became a problem. They were skittish at first, but calmed down fairly quickly. When the lights are all on and all off, there's no fighting; with the dusk lights only, there's some jockeying around. They've all been eating all this time, and I'm pretty sure I saw the big guy eat very recently. And this guy is the biggest by far, so I'd think it would be a smaller one that would be stressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmax7774 February 28, 2008 Share February 28, 2008 Same thing happened to my powder blue tang last month he was the king of the tank, then one day he stopped eating. 2 or 3 weeks later he died from apparent starvation. I have No idea why he stopped eating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rascal February 28, 2008 Share February 28, 2008 I think you need to first get it to eat something veggie, then feed as much of whatever that is as the tang will eat until he fattens back up. You can try nori with garlic. I just cut a clove in half and then rub the juice on the nori sheet. I think fish eat food soaked in garlic for the same reason people do - it tastes good. You have a lot of flow in your tank (good) so the nori has a tendency to break off the clip in large pieces before the tang has much of a chance at it (at least this is what I noticed when I was watching your tank, but I think that was before you added the other two). Anyway, you could also try attaching some nori to a small piece of rubble with a zip-tie or rubber band and placing this rock in a lower flow area of the tank. If it won't go for nori, try a variety of live macro-algaes other than chaeto. Based on my experience, grape caulerpa and red gracilaria seem tasty for yellow tangs. Superpets had some green ulva and red gracilaria in last week, but you'd probably be better off getting some from a fellow member if possible. If none of that works I would try lettuce, spinach, etc. . . anything from the vegetable kingdom that you can get it to eat. One last thought with regard to stress, do all of your tangs seem happy with their places to sleep? The reason I ask is you have a nice open aquascape with plenty of swimming room, but this sometimes leaves secure "bed rooms" for larger fish in short supply. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishWife February 28, 2008 Share February 28, 2008 Agreed. Mysis (unfortified) is like potato chips. These fish eat veggies in the wild: specifically algae on rocks, not so much cheato. Could be a combination of being heckled at night and not enough nori, imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthworks February 29, 2008 Share February 29, 2008 I thought Mysis shrimp were a good staple food. Brine shrimp is not that great. Add supplements to the food like selcon for more vitamins they need. I feed a mix of foods from PE Mysis to prime reef. I also have an auto feeder set for 3 small feedings a day of flake and cyclopeze. I also have 7 anthais that need to be fed alot along with several tangs. I feed 1/4 sheet of Nori, golden pearls and oyster eggs every other day. With all the feedings I need more water changes and I try to stay on top of cleaning the skimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishWife February 29, 2008 Share February 29, 2008 That sounds GREAT to me, but I'm kind of new. All I know is what I've read, and our experience with tangs (which we have kept for years). From your earlier post, I thought that you were ONLY feeding your tang brine shrimp with occasional nori ... and I just know that that's not all they need. Bowing out now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsarvis February 29, 2008 Author Share February 29, 2008 I appreciate all your comments. I rearranged sine rockwork last night, but alas I don't think I created any new sleeping places for a big fish. I'll have to try again. Terrible time to have to go out of town for a couple days, but I will take further action when I get back. I recognize I rely on feeding mysis too much for the other fish, but I didn't realize chaeto wasn't appropriate as a base food for the tang. I added nori or boiled broccoli or some nuisance algae from the sump every now and then, but not every day and not huge pieces. Since doing a little cleaning of my sump last weekend, I have less nuisance algae to feed, so I'd been adding nori more often, but this morning I couldn't even get anyone eating nori and the broccoli and spinach don't look like they've been touched. Looks like I'll probably have to take the big guy out immediately when I get back and try to get him back into shape. Is it going to be problematic to put him in a 10g even temporarily? That's all I have in the way of other tanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsarvis February 29, 2008 Author Share February 29, 2008 Do you think increased temperature has anything to do with the increased aggressiveness toward each other? I noticed my tank temperature had been low for quite a while (around 76.5) and finally got around to increasing it (now about 78.5) to what I used to have it at. Maybe temperature has an effect on hormones or something? Or does that not make sense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highland Reefer February 29, 2008 Share February 29, 2008 It could be that your tang has some kind of disease. This is a site that discusses different types of tang diseases and problems: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/Tangdisease.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rascal March 1, 2008 Share March 1, 2008 Do you think increased temperature has anything to do with the increased aggressiveness toward each other? I noticed my tank temperature had been low for quite a while (around 76.5) and finally got around to increasing it (now about 78.5) to what I used to have it at. Maybe temperature has an effect on hormones or something? Or does that not make sense? That's interesting. Have you notice increased aggressiveness with the temp change? I am not so sure it would be a good idea to pull the fish and put it in a 10g. The stress of capture combined with drastically changed environment combined with much too small quarters just might prove to be too much for it. If you thought one of the other tangs was a source of stress for the yellow, maybe you could remove that one for a while, but from what you've described that doesn't seem to be the case. Therefore if I were you I would just keep trying different stuff until you can get it to eat something. This may mean overfeeding, in which case you will need to step up the water change schedule. It is also possible that the fish has just lost the will to eat. Sometimes there just isn't anything you can do about it. I know it isn't pleasant to watch, and I hope that isn't the case. Maybe the temp change just threw it into a temporary funk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal March 1, 2008 Share March 1, 2008 If you do need to pull him out, consider using a large plastic tub rather than a small 10g tank. This would give him more swimmng room and the dark or opaque walls may reduce stress overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsarvis March 1, 2008 Author Share March 1, 2008 If you do need to pull him out, consider using a large plastic tub rather than a small 10g tank. This would give him more swimmng room and the dark or opaque walls may reduce stress overall. Oh, yea, I do have a tub I could use, it's not huge but will certainly provide more swimming room. Thanks. That's interesting. Have you notice increased aggressiveness with the temp change? Yea, it was either last weekend or the previous one, I did a major cleaning of the aquarium and turned up the heaters a tad and moved their location. Definitely thermometer is measuring a couple degrees higher. And it's only very recently that the fish spend all day being aggressive (or that I've noticed). And I also noticed the clown fish doing the shaky-shake thing, which I hadn't seen them do in a long time. (I hear that's a mating thing? I've never seen them lay eggs, though.) Depending on how he looks when I get back on sunday, I'll try feeding different things, and maybe remove him if he's looking worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longchamp March 2, 2008 Share March 2, 2008 You could try some formula 2 pellets. Formula 2 is for herbivores, my tang got pretty chubby off of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsarvis March 4, 2008 Author Share March 4, 2008 I got home Sunday night, but the lights were off, so I couldn't tell how everyone was doing, but the tangs were still alive. (One of my flaming sea scallops was dead, though, a casualty of my hasty rock-rearranging from Thursday night, I guess.) Monday, it looked like they were all doing pretty well; the big one didn't look as gaunt and last night and this morning, they all seemed to be eating. Not sure if everything's totally back to normal, but I'm going to keep feeding some random veggies rubbed with garlic. Last night I also turned down my heaters a bit; this morning, temps were reading a little lower, maybe half a degree, if even that. So things are looking good. Maybe it was the rock-rearranging that added some sleeping quarters to reduce stress; maybe it was just me worrying too much and seeing things that weren't a problem; maybe it was just that time of the month for the big tang; maybe it was something else entirely?? I'll keep a watch on them, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishWife March 4, 2008 Share March 4, 2008 Good to hear things are looking up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quazi March 4, 2008 Share March 4, 2008 (edited) How long have you been able to keep flame scallops alive? I have been able to keep mussels alive, but not flame scallops. I thought they would not last long in an aquarium. Edited March 4, 2008 by quazi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkb8 March 4, 2008 Share March 4, 2008 I think its the tangs messing with you. They purposefully don't eat when you are around just to see you become distraught, anxiuous, worried. Then, when they lights are out, they party all night long. Tang humor .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsarvis March 5, 2008 Author Share March 5, 2008 At least 6 months, but I'll have to look it up to see exactly. I originally had 3, one died fairly quickly after delivery, though. Didn't know they were hard to keep, other than that they're filter feeders. This one dying was my fault, though. He was doing fine until I moved the rock he was on; I think I accidentally pushed him into the sand and he couldn't get out. :( How long have you been able to keep flame scallops alive? I have been able to keep mussels alive, but not flame scallops. I thought they would not last long in an aquarium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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