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powder blue tang not eating

J

jrjackson

okay so I got him about two weeks and I have not been able to get him to eat anything. ive tried brine shrimp, squid, algae sheets and spirulina flakes with no luck. at this point if there is someone who has an established tank like I mean years and years in the hobby who thinks they can get him to eat pm me and we can talk. he is also about 4 inches and will need to have a large tank. thanks jen
 
dan_k

dan_k

My pb would go crazy for dainichi marine FX please give that a try did you see it eat when you picked it up
 
J

jrjackson

no...looks good, even perfectly healthy, swims fine, no spots no chunks out of its fins, no cuts or abrasions or anything like that.
 
Sobo's Reef

Sobo's Reef

The only thing I can think of is he has an internal parasite but I'm not too familiar with that bc I've never had a fish like that, or at least one that I noticed.
 
ahvrivera

ahvrivera

If you can isolate him in a smaller tank until he eats imo it would be your next step. I had the same thing happen with pb that wouldnt eat. Try some garlic elixir and selcon to get the appetite going.
Does he show any intrest at all?
 
J

jrjackson

okay so steve from ultracoraals gave me some meds in case it was an internal paricite. after dipping in med all he does is swim in one continuous circle. im at a complete loss
 
dnov99

dnov99

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
You probably don't want to hear this now, but in the future it would be best to purchase a PBT that you can observe to be eating and in complete health. This is one of those fish that are more sensitive to shipping and other stressors and is best to purchase one in person. They have a very sensitive internal micro fauna and once its depleted its hard to get them to recover. Good luck with it....
 
dppitone

dppitone

It's something that can happen with any new fish. Powder blue tangs have a reputation to be extra sensitive. That said, I'd suggest, and I'm just shooting from the hip, to put him in a small like 10 gallon or 5 gallon with a rock that has algae "and" a veggie clip with nori. He will pass the time poking at surfaces and hopefully will start eating the algae. I can lend you a small 5 gallon acrylic with in and out bulkheads if you want to tube it into the flow from the DT to sump to separate him for a bit. I've done this before and it's worked and hasn't worked, depends on the individual.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Any fish can be sensitive to change, I got a pair of cardinals from AO that he had for 6M I have yet to see them eat after 2 days. For sure they are healthy and all acclimation was done over the right amount of time. And they are in a 120 G tank with a pair of clowns that are in the opposite corner so hardly overstocked or anything.
 
J

Jcurry@wesketch

If it's in a barren QT tank it may be disoriented. Tangs like most reef fish are grazers and look for food on the rocks. Try tying the nori to some live rock and leaving it there all day. Also add some of those cheap plastic plants so it has some where to hide. (personally I would just add him to your reef)

Is there any substrate in the QT? when I ran a bare bottom tank many of my fish wouldn't leave the rockwork and were visibly stressed. So I painted the underside of the tank beige with latex paint which seemed to calm them down. I guess they were afraid jaws would attack from blackness below. LOL
 
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