My yellow tang I bought three weeks ago at OG11 died last night. He was young meaning small, but he was very active and swimming around yesterday morning when I saw him last. This morning I checked on the tank and he was laying on the bottom. I checked some of parameters this morning and ph is 8.5, nitrates around 20, nitrites 0. Wil check others when I get home today. Will do a water change also. Looking for reasons why he would die off after seeming to be doing well, eating and everything.
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Yellow Tang
- Thread starter Karenvas2
- Start date
First off, sorry for the loss.
As far as the parameters you’ve listed thus far, nitrates are approaching a high level, and at this level, more of a concern for your corals. Also pH is a touch high, but acceptable for fish. At this high pH you need to watch for carbonate precipitation. Although I’m scratching my head on this, and questioning the pH result, because to get that high you’d need to be dosing limewater or one of the “super” dosing alkalinity products, and I don’t think you are.
A couple questions:
1. I don’t believe you have a known killer fish in your tank that could have taken out the tang. This might be obvious in the external condition of the fish….chewed up fins as an example. So the first query is who are the tank-mates?
2. What has your temperature been doing?
3. And, did you closely examine the fish for the signs of infection…..cloudy eyes, red areas on the body, swollen belly, color of the gills, frayed fins, etc.
As far as the parameters you’ve listed thus far, nitrates are approaching a high level, and at this level, more of a concern for your corals. Also pH is a touch high, but acceptable for fish. At this high pH you need to watch for carbonate precipitation. Although I’m scratching my head on this, and questioning the pH result, because to get that high you’d need to be dosing limewater or one of the “super” dosing alkalinity products, and I don’t think you are.
A couple questions:
1. I don’t believe you have a known killer fish in your tank that could have taken out the tang. This might be obvious in the external condition of the fish….chewed up fins as an example. So the first query is who are the tank-mates?
2. What has your temperature been doing?
3. And, did you closely examine the fish for the signs of infection…..cloudy eyes, red areas on the body, swollen belly, color of the gills, frayed fins, etc.
i HATE being "that guy" but... Isnt your tank a 55 gallon? I would have thought that would be way too small for a yellow tang...for any tang for that matter. I've always been told that putting them in a 75 was even pushing it. Maybe it got stressed due to that?
Not dosing anything. Fins all look good. The temp is 77 degrees. Is in tank with a maroon clown, which I have an ongoing issue with. Will try to get out again this weekend. A green Chromis, lawnmower blenny. Gary at OG said would be ok in a 55 until he started getting big but by then I thought I would be upgrading anyway. The tang was pretty small, he said I had a good year before he would out-grow tank. I will examine him more closely when I get home,but did not notice anything strange this morning. I am bummed.
falconut
NJRC Member
From my experience, it isn't uncommon for a fish to die during the 1st month. Even if they're eating great. It's possible that the Maroon did it, but you'd probably see signs of it. If the other fish are all fine, then it might have just been something with the handling or collecting. Sometimes the smaller fish are more delicate ones.
falconut
NJRC Member
Yes. I usually tread lightly until a month or 2 have passed. I've had fish eat and look great for almost 2 months, then die the next day. It' very discouraging.
As much as it sucks, sometimes fish just die. I had my sixline wrasse for 3-4 months before one morning when i found him breathing heavy in a bolthole and it wasn't long before he was gone. I still don't really know what happened and some people on a different forum said it was most likely a parasitic infection.