Sick Yellow Tang

[cararosalie]

Cool, thanks for all of the advice. I really like your tank set up. One question, though: If I am to get more rock, how on earth do I stack it? I tried stacking some of the rocks I already have, and they keep falling over. Should I lean them against the glass?

I don't think I'll be purchasing LR anytime soon, due to the price and also that I have no idea how to maintain it. I think I'm too new to the fish tank thing to properly maintain LR. Maybe not? I dunno! Possibly in the future, though. I'll have to read up on it a little more.

[unclejed]

First off, you don't need to maintain live rock, it maintains itself. There are any number of ways to stack it and most do lean it against the back glass. It's up to each individual as to how they build it up. Others will come in and tell you their ways.
One trick is to have the larger flat bottom base pieces on the bare floor of the aquarium that way the sand helps to hold it up. Then, you just start piling it on top of each other to try and create tunnels, caves, nooks and crannies. It can take some rearranging a few tomes until you get it how you like it.

[greengoblin]

Greengoblin i have the same problem with my tangs it is due 2 stress and causes them produce a bacteria that is harmful the medication i used is maracyn plus antibacteria

[lostanime]

Originally Posted by greengoblin

Greengoblin i have the same problem with my tangs it is due 2 stress and causes them produce a bacteria that is harmful the medication i used is maracyn plus antibacteria

Greengoblin... this thread was from last year!

As a quick warning/heads up - anti-bacterial treatments can indirectly wipe a tank out. They kill (or otherwise seriously compromise) bacteria. Sounds good, right? Not entirely...

The problem is your biological filtration is based solely on bacteria, and anti-bacterial treatments indiscriminately kills them, disrupting your nitrogen cycle (basically starting "new tank syndrome" all over again and requiring recycling a tank)...

anti-bacterial treatments will frequently also change water properties in ways that causes very strange skimmer issues (some cause skimmers to overflow within minutes!)

[bablu]

There's a video that may be of some use for you on Yellow Tang fish at http://www.saltwaterhub.com/Fish.shtml I've been finding the site useful.

[Alice]

Hello all,
I also have a question about a yellow tang. I has an unfortunate experience with an automatic feeder when I went on vacation last week, it didn't work. I came home to half dead fish, I have 3 clown fish, one hippo fish, one yellow tang and a shrimp. Fortunately, all of them seem to have revived after two days, especially the hippo fish which was virtually gray when I found her, however, my yellow tang started looking sad and unenergetic on day two, today, day thee after they've been fed, I found him stuck in one of the decoration flowers with his fins being all soggy. I am worried, he regained his bright yellow collor, but barely moves and just sits there at the bottom of the tank. I check ph, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia yesterday, and all looks average for my tank (my nitrate is always higher and I can't bring it down).
What can I do?

Thanks.

[Judge]

Welcome Alice. Sorry about your Tang. I have never had much luck with them. If your Nitrates tend to be high, how long has it been since you completed a large water change? I am wondering because I did not feed any of mine over the Christmas holiday vacation and had no issues at all. (Freshwater was a different story). Am I correct in understanding that you were gone for a week? That might be a little long with no food, and there are differing views on this subject. Please provide the numbers on water params. I think it is best to start from scratch here and see what we can rule out. Has the Tang been eating? Get back to us.

[Alice]

Originally Posted by Judge

Welcome Alice. Sorry about your Tang. I have never had much luck with them. If your Nitrates tend to be high, how long has it been since you completed a large water change? I am wondering because I did not feed any of mine over the Christmas holiday vacation and had no issues at all. (Freshwater was a different story). Am I correct in understanding that you were gone for a week? That might be a little long with no food, and there are differing views on this subject. Please provide the numbers on water params. I think it is best to start from scratch here and see what we can rule out. Has the Tang been eating? Get back to us.

Thanks for getting back to me, Judge, I was away for a week, but a friend of mine came by a few times and gave them food, apparently not enough though. We did not expect the feeder to stop functioning and that particular model has no way of determining whether it is working or not. I have a 26 gallon tank and I do water changes every one to two weeks (almost half the tank). The nitrate level was always high because when I was given the tank and fish they were first abandoned when one of the tenants moved out and left the tank behind and then housed by someone for a couple of months who knows nothing about the fish and didn’t know how to clean or change filters, so she basically just fed them. So when I took the tank, it was so dirty that all water parameters were critical. It was last August, and it took me almost two months to finally get all numbers lowered to the desired results (I go by color on the paper pallet that came with the kit). By nitrate was always higher (light orange instead of a yellow) no matter what. I used the allgone(?) packets for nitrate removal, frequent water changes, but no luck. However, my fish were always happy and never showed any signs of distress, until this incident. This morning I noticed that the yellow tang has excess skin at the stomach area. My guess is its not eating. I tried to give it smaller pallets, but it’s just sitting there looking very sad.

[Judge]

It almost sounds like there is something else working here. If you had a friend who was supplementing the food I would think that would have been enough. How big is this Tang? Could someone be picking on her? What does she normally eat? Have you tried adding some garlic to get her tempted to eat?

[Alice]

Originally Posted by Judge

It almost sounds like there is something else working here. If you had a friend who was supplementing the food I would think that would have been enough. How big is this Tang? Could someone be picking on her? What does she normally eat? Have you tried adding some garlic to get her tempted to eat?

no, the food didn't change, I feed them flakes and sinking pallets both with garlic, alternating every so often. The tang is a mid size, and normally would eat anything given, at least I haven't noticed it being picky about the food.