Sick Kole Tang

[Waffle3008]

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've posted, but that has been a good thing to say the least lol.

I've had a Kole tang for about a month now and he has been acting fine, actually he is sort of the bully of the tank. He doesn't push fish in the corner or anything but since he is much larger than the rest of the fish in the tank, he feels that he can swim over them.

This past Saturday (not today) I added a Raccoon Butterfly. He has been fine, but since then, around Wednesday my kole tang has gone from a dark purple to pink and has marks on his body. I wasn't sure what the marks or loss of color was from. Also the color comes and goes. Sometimes he is fine, sometimes he is pink. I also haven't seen any difference in behavior or loss of hunger.

If it helps its a 90 gallon tank with:

two clown fish
coral beauty
foxface
scooter blenny
pajama cardinal
and the kole and raccoon mentioned earlier.

here are pictures. the first is of how he was when we got him to how he is now.

 

[Jlsardina]

What are you feeding them?

Are you feeding seaweed???

 

[Waffle3008]

They are getting seaweed, flake food, and Frozen Spirulina Brine Shrimp

 

[Jlsardina]

Are you soaking their food in vitamins? Like vitachem?

 

[Waffle3008]

I haven't. I've been using garlic, but not sure if thats of any help.

 

[Jlsardina]

Garlic is good for enticing food to eat and some (me as well) say it has some effect on treating. I would start to treat with a vitamin and see if he gets his color back. I use vitachem- but I know there are other brands out there....
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4998

 

[Waffle3008]

cool, thanks for the advice. I will give it a try on monday since the LFS is closed on sundays here

 

[Jlsardina]

Not a problem. I dose my tank weekly with vitachem and also place about 5-10 drops in the food once a day. You may not do as much though cause I have a 220.

 

[Waffle3008]

Sad to say that my kole tang is not doing any better...here are some newer pictures of him. he is still acting normal like he has before but the marks are getting worse. Could they be bite marks?

 

[carey]

Fish can loose their color from stress...is it possible to remove the other fish that caused this?

 

[Waffle3008]

Thing is I haven't seen any fish attack each other. If anything this guy was the bully of the tank. he would purposely swim over my foxface even though he would stick his spikes out.

I added a raccoon butterfly two weeks ago, but could it have been caused by him?

 

[carey]

I would pinpoint when exactly it happened, which fish was introduced at that time? Tangs are very susceptible to stress, blue tangs will fade to an almost white when stressed, mine did when I first got him. But feeding good food, and removing the stress factors will hopefully get him back to healthy.

The garlic is a good idea too, I feed mine garlic infused seaweed sheets. It can boost their immune systems and help them fight off stress.

 

[Waffle3008]

only other fish that is newer than him was the butterfly and he was in the tank for for about a month before I added him just fine. I will just have to sit and watch and see if any of the fish are picking on him.

 

[Jlsardina]

Just out of curiosity, do you have a lot of caves for him to hide in???

 

[Waffle3008]

About 4 or 5 caves