what is the problem....got a sailfin(died) now a PBT died

[slb11106]

i dont understand,
i got a sailfin a month or so ago, it lived about a week or so, eating fine active then lost color and died

almost two weeks ago i got a PBT and it died this morning, it was also eating fine very active and colorfull. it had a horizontal line on his body (i thought it was just not eating enough) well it died and i dont know why

i have eight other fish 4 shrimp, 2 crabs, 4 corals (soft) all perameters are great...(nitrates 0 ,nitirtes 0, amonia 0, cal 400, ph 8.2, kh 12)and they all have been in there a while and they are perfect ! just seems to be the tangs, anyone know what the *#$% is going on with them ?

this is very disturbing to me, might it be that they were doomed from the start ?maybe cyanide collecting or something.

[fidojoe]

Did you buy them from the same store? Did you get your other fish from the same place too? If you got the tangs from the same place, try another store. It is possible that the store introduced a bad disease into their system.

[slb11106]

they were from two different stores.....and a month apart and everything else is doing fine...

[Reefstick]

How are you acclimating them? and what are you feeding them?

[mps9506]

Assuming they had proper diet, I would assume poor collection or shipping that lead to a delayed death.

[slb11106]

when aclimating them i put the bag in the tank for an hour or so, then add some tank water two or three times (every 30 min) then put the fish (no water) into the tank, i did not think that the aclimation was the problem due to them living over a week, but i could be wrong.

i was feeding the PBT cyclops and regular dry food, but he would only eat the cyclops and algea off of the rocks. i also have a red macro algea in the tank, (one small red tree type thing with little balls on the limbs, dont know what it is) and he likes to eat off that

i tried some dried seaweed and he did not touch that

[Charlie97L]

it sounds like to me they were just not good from the beginning... what are your water params?

i've also read a lot about acclimation, and pretty much everything states that the whole process shouldn't take more than an hour... i doubt that had anything to do with it, but an overly long accilmation (to what i've read anyway) puts undue stress on the fish. someone else feel free to correct me on this if i'm in error... it's probably not relevant, but something to keep in mind. i also usually try to double the water volume with the added water, so before i put the fish in, the bag water is at least 50/50. preferably about 60 my water/40 other water. sometimes you have to dump out some of the initial water to get that. it's worked well for me.

i'm sorry for your losses!

[slb11106]

yea, i am a little disturbed by the whole thing.....maybe part of the problem was that i got the PBT for 35.00, and that is aprox. 1/2 to 1/3 of what most LFS sell them for...maybe that should have been a clue.


well i decided it was not my setup so i went today and got a new "health" PBT and just because a purple tang, they were in the same tank at the LFS for 2 weeks so i figured both were comming home with me.

anyone have any info please let me know....so i dont make the same mistake with htese guys......

[Charlie97L]

after having two larger fish die in your system, you might want to check all your params, make sure everything is cool. i'm assuming you have, just double checking.

you might want to do a little night watching with a red flashlight, and during the day from across the room, as far away as you can get. with a damsel and an angel in there, any sign of weakness or shock might incite harassment and attack, from those aggressive fish, especially if the tangs are juvenile, and the other fish are not. tangs may be aggressive, but a 2-3" tang isn't necessarily going to win against a 3-4" dwarf angel, just because it will when they are adults.

also, initially, you might have to tempt them with more expensive and desirable food to get them to eat enough, and then wean them off. of my fish, my wrasse and chromis took flake and frozen mysis immediately, but my cardinal needed live food for a few days before he took the mysis cubes. i don't know a lot about tangs, but you can also try nori sheets soaked in garlic on a clip, they should go nuts for that, and the garlic will help their immune systems, as well.

another tip is to have the lights off during acclimation. i forgot that before. hopefully these guys will be ok. keep us posted.