??? About tangs

[Matt bussell]

Got two regal tangs two days ago, both of them died today! All my other fish are fine. Any comments?

 

[carey]

How big is the tank? How long did you acclimate them for? And what are the tankmates?

Did they show any signs of sickness or not being well? Any scraping or dots?

 

[Matt bussell]

I have a 125 oceanic, I let them aclimate for thirty minutes and I have a clown, three damsels, an oyster and a cleaner shrimp. They were rubbing themselves on my rock this morning and then one died around ten and the other around four.

 

[carey]

That is short for acclimation in my opinion, could have caused stress. You also don't know if those damsels may have harassed it. But with scratching it could be ich. Were there any white dots on them, in the gill area or anywhere? I would be concerned adding anything else right now, especially tangs. They are very prone to stress and ich, very sensitive fish. How long has the tank been all set up?

 

[Matt bussell]

Should I move my tangs to my quarantine tank? And how long is a good acclimation, because I thought twenty minutes were enough?

 

[Matt bussell]

But no white dots and for sure monicker. My tank has been up for about 2 months.

 

[carey]

With fish i start at an hour for acclimating, longer for finicky fish like tangs or butterflys. Inverts like starfish or shrimp gt 2 hours usually. I may go over board a bit but I have never had a bad acclimation. knock on wood. lol

Could the source of the fish be bad? How is your water? What are your parameters as far as ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? Temp, salinity ph...

 

[Matt bussell]

I Checked my parameters as soon as I found the first one dead, my ammonia was .25, my nitrites 0, and my nitrates were 5.0. I used an ammonia and nitrate detoxifier. And plan on doin a water change tommrow. Do you do a drip acclimation or just float the bags? And I didn't think my levels were high enough to hurt anything.

 

[carey]

If you have ammonia readings then it;s one of two scenarios: one, the tank isn't cycled fully OR two, you added too much of a bioload and the beneficial bacteria could not keep up.

definitely do that water change, you need to get the ammonia to 0 and keep it there.

I take the bag the item comes in and float it for about 15-20 minutes to get the temperature the same, then I put the fish or invert into a small bucket and drip to there. I use small one gallon painters buckets that I got in home depot, perfect for this kind of stuff and you can have a bunch around when you need to acclimate a bunch of things or to dip a bunch of corals.

The stress combined with the ammonia may have been the culprit. I would urge you not to add anymore livestock til you can keep the ammonia and nitrites at 0. Your nitrates arent high enough to cause any damage is the plus side.

 

[Matt bussell]

They were in the tank two days before they died. I thought if it was stress they would die sooner than that.

 

[carey]

The stress of being moved around and the ammonia could have played a role. keep in mind how many times these poor fish are moved.....from the ocean to your tank there are probably 4-6 stops at least.

Sometimes there really is no answer for sure, and it sucks but that's kinda how it goes. :-(

Just get that ammonia down and stable and then you can try again. Do you have a qt tank? You can qt the fish in there for a few weeks and be able to tell if somethings not right.

 

[Matt bussell]

I'm still letting it cycle but yes i have abwy tank

 

[Matt bussell]

I did a 25 percent water change yesterday but my nitrates are still a little high. My ammonia and nitrite are at zero.