Sailfin Tang loseing all its colour ??

[AaronH]

i have had a sailfin tang for about 2 weeks now. at first he was wicked was perfectly healthy and now he has started to loose all his yellow colour in his stipes and his fins looks like they have been niped at possible by my yellow tang as he kinda bosses around the tank. All of my levals are spot on nitate is about 10ppm part from that temp and salinity and all that are spot on. i have currently got a juwel rio 125 with live rock (£180 worth) nano skimmer. 2x juewl hight light 28w marine bulbs. and a blue LED set. i cureently have stock as follows

2x clown fish
1x regal tang
1x sailfin tang
1x Yellow tang
1x oriental sweetlips
1x spotted grunt
1x sea hair
5x turbo snail
1x sea slug
1x dwarf red leg hermit crab
1x electric blue hermit crab
1x anemone crab
1x cleaner shrimp
1x chocolate chip starfish

i have a power head in there aswell which is on when i turn the ights on when i get home from work and dont turn them off til i go bed ( from 4pm ish - 10pm ) all of my other fish are fine sometimes my yellow tang will loose a littel colour in the mornig and will regain it all by the time i get home from work.
my sailfin tang doesnt really eat alot anymore
i feed my fish two cubes of brine shrimp. when i get home from work and the starfish a frozen silverside every other day. Any help would me much appreciated. this is my verry first sw tank which has been running since mid december 10. i hope i have given u lot enought info.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58831577@N05/5425090810/ this is the best pic i could get

 

[melosu58]

Tangs are herbivores and need plenty of vegetable matter. Are you feeding any dried seaweed to your tangs?

 

[AaronH]

no all i feed is brine shrimp i was thinking about getting one off them blankets of algee or something like that for my inverts n box fish i forgot to mention the boxfish in the description lol. so u think thats he his looseing his colour because he is not getting enough food. my regal tang and yellow tang love the bine shrimp and my sailfin used to aswell its weird lol

 

[mr_X]

it's probably just the yellow tang as you mentioned as far as the tattered fins go. as big as your tank seems, you are really maxed out for fish. the tang could be changing color due to the stress of being picked on.
it's very important to give these fish a varied diet. nori, which you can buy at the LFS or supermarket, is the popular choice for grazers like tangs.
you should also run that power head 24/7. if you don't have enough flow in the tank you are going to get a build up of detritus on the sand bed and it's going to cause you problems in a short while.
how many pounds/kg of rock is in the tank again?

 

[jamesH]

rio 125 what litre/gal i think i had 1 sum time ago n if its 125litres thats a small tank for all them tangs

 

[melosu58]

Also brine is not a thing you want to feed all the time. It has no nutrional value at all. It`s like you sitting down to supper to a plate of twinkies. If you do feed brine occasionaly it needs to be vitamin fortified brine.

 

[AaronH]

125 litre i cant remember how much kg but it cost me about £180 im in uk. i no that i am on the limit for fish. what is detritus on the sand bed. at the moment there is tiny red dots on my sand but not that many. i spoke to my lfs and they sed that i was not much to worry about. what is nori aswel i have never herd of that. i some time mix a bit of mysis shrimp in with the brine and may use flakes aswel but not that often they dont seem to be as popular only to my clowns

 

[mr_X]

is this tank 125 gallons, or liters?
detritus- uneaten food and fish poop.
nori is the algae sold in aquarium stores as herbivore food. it's also sold in supermarkets/asian markets for sushi-

 

[AaronH]

125 liters i may have to run dwn my lfs n get some then thanks. have u any idea what the red dots are on my sand bed

 

[jamesH]

tank isnt at the limit its well over stock im in the uk and had the same rio 125 tank its 125 litres i dnt think u cud keep any of those tangs happly in there

 

[mr_X]

na..those fish are doomed if you try to keep them. most of the fish you have require MUCH larger tanks. that tank is headed for a crash.
did your LFS know what size tank you had when they sold you these fish?

 

[AaronH]

so what should i do ?

 

[pat8you]

Agree. All of those tangs need to be returned. 33gallons is far to small for those fish. Even when they are very small tangs are active swimmers that need a lot of room or they quickly get stressed. Hate to deliver the bad news but all the fish in that tank with the exception of the clowns should be returned for the health of the fish.

 

[jamesH]

if i was you i would take the tangs back to wear you got them from or get a much bigger tank i have a 300l tank and can only keep 1 tang just to give u a idea of how much swimming space they need. (some1 plz correct me if im wrong because im still new at this)

 

[AaronH]

na..those fish are doomed if you try to keep them. most of the fish you have require MUCH larger tanks. that tank is headed for a crash.
did your LFS know what size tank you had when they sold you these fish?

yea i bought everything from them and made sure that the same person served me all the time so he knows what i have got. the ony thing i bought from a difrent shop is the clownfish and the starfish.

 

[AaronH]

so what can i have in my tank ?

 

[melosu58]

I too have to agree that the tank is way overloaded. Any tangs in a tank that small let alone 3 will have problems.

 

[pat8you]

The clowns are the only fish that will be able to stay in your tank. All the other fish need tanks that are 4 feed wide at a minimum. You may be able to get one or two other small fish like gobies or blennies after you clear out some room. I would stop going to what ever fish store sold you all that since they really must not know what they are talking about.

 

[mr_X]

beside the tangs, the grunt and sweetlips also need a much larger tank. i would return the fish. i would go online and research any fish you like and find out their tank requirements first before purchasing. that store doesn't care about your tank or the fish they sell. they don't care if you throw money away and kill fish- either that or they just don't know any better. i would not trust their advice from now on.

 

[David S]

Definately take all but the clowns back,that sweetlips grow to 50cm in length,your just killing the fish now,where in the uk are you,and which store did you get them from,any chance of upgrading to a 200 g tank(thats whats needed for those fish without the sweetlip)plus I doubt your nano skimmer could keep up with the bio load in there.

Live rock in oxford cost £25/kg,