Blue Tangs

[stuartgiam]

[B]As a new comer to this marine hobby. i hope that some bro can give me some advice why my Blue Tangs are always hiding in the rocks. I am only afraid they might die inside without me know .When I first bought them they were all actively swimming around

[glim18]

Were the tangs swimming around when you first put them into your tank?

[Qxnviolet]

Its normal for blue tangs to hide within your rockworks or even lodge themselves within the crevices when they fell threatened. From what i know, just leave them alone and they'll be fine....IF they are feeding that is.....

[glim18]

get into a routine to feed only after you switched on the lights for about 1 hour. My tanks sleep by hiding in the rocks after lights out and will only come out to play and eat when lights are on. It might take up to 2-4 weeks for the tangs to understand the routine, but they'll get there if and only if they are willing to eat.

[stuartgiam]

My only fear that these guys ( all 3 of them will die under these rock and i will have a big isue at hand.

Do you think removing / rescaping the rock will help ?

[glim18]

You'll stress them even more if you rescape now. Don't rescape, hope that they get hungry enough to want to eat when you feed. Buy the red bamboo-like plant and put into the tank. Tangs will naturally eat the plant if they're not overly stressed. That's just one way of getting them to survive. My blue tangs, even after a year, will still hide when they are surprised in any way. Feeding time is a major frenzy, but also because they know it's time to eat.

[stuartgiam]

Thanks for the great advice guys! Hve to see what's next!!

[hoczi]

Btw, what exactly is Red Bamboo? and where to buy this?

[stuartgiam]

Updated info. Two of the three tangs came out last night but had white spots on the bodies and looks really bad! Any way of getting rid of these spots. Have got two doctor fishes picking away but does nt really help that much. Hope they dont die !

[STORM TROPPER]

Btw, what exactly is Red Bamboo? and where to buy this?

red bamboo is a long strand red in colour grow on rock many of it.

it is a natural food for the fishes especially the tangs they luv it u can get in farms

n lfs.

if not so sure ask them if u r there in the farm or lfs.

[cornyfish]

Updated info. Two of the three tangs came out last night but had white spots on the bodies and looks really bad! Any way of getting rid of these spots. Have got two doctor fishes picking away but does nt really help that much. Hope they dont die !

Oh no... Very likely a case of ich, a parasitic infection. Blue tangs are notorious ich carriers... will develop ich very very very easily when stressed (eg. when moved to a new tank).

[glim18]

Now can onlyt hope that they eat to get strong enough to repel the ich. Same thing happened to my blue tangs. They got strong enough to withstand the ich over the course of 2 weeks. Try feeding with mysis shrimp soaked in garlic guard or something similar.

Good luck!

[Bio528]

ya u juz hope that they can withstand this is time round, once ich go off ur fishes will be very stable, btw soak whatever food u intend to give fishes with GARLIC GUARD, soak overnight will be good. good luck, mine tank juz cure and free from ich now haha

[stuartgiam]

Thanks for all your concerns ... all three Blue Tangs died yesterday . Two of them looked blind to me as their eyes are clouded white in color. I noticed that one of the Yellow Tangs has the same disease.

Any advice on curing this problem.

It cannot be the water as I checked all the Nitrate , Nitrites , Ammonia and PH are at the lowest level.

[reeftask]

I think your tank is still very new and insecure. Try cycle your tank for 2 months more. Dont be desperate. After cycling period, try adding one/two cleaner shrimp for a month to clean off those parasites,... Feed only when you see this shrimp belly is empty for 2 days. Their belly are behind the head. After that add slowly one fish/month or better two months.

Beware if during cycling, you see diatoms or red algae, that means your LR are bad and need to cycle for 6-12 months until they are gone and water is changed.

For a new setup it is a big commitment but you will enjoy after 3-4 yrs old tank.

[Jakuson]

As Blue Tangs are very prone to ich...Acclimation should be done slowly to let them get use to tank water slowly...Food should be soaked in garlic guard or can also try spirulina to let them grow stronger...I fed my Blue Tang mysis soaked in spirulina and after 1-2 weeks, the ich nv come back anymore...

[Ah-lim]

Hi, for blue tang that are small, such as 50 cents coin.

What is their recommended diet? since they are still small? Spirulina? can fit into thier mouth?

Thanks in advance !

[stuartgiam]

I think your tank is still very new and insecure. Try cycle your tank for 2 months more. Dont be despera....

Thanks for your solid advice bro reeftask

What kind of food diet you feed them with ? Mine keeps dying so I dare not keep any Tangs but wuld love to . I bought a 4 BT about three weeks ago, just to test the condition, so far only one is surviving but hides in the rocks and qite skinny.comes out only for food then goes back in again.

Also, do you think that damsels are responsible in killing them, I have about five damsels in a 4 ft. tank.

I keep blaming on the water condition but other fishes seemed to be doing ok.... it's only the tangs

[stuartgiam]

Thanks for your solid advice bro reeftask

What kind of food diet you feed them with ? Mine keeps dying so I dare not keep any Tangs but wuld love to . I bought a 4 BT about three weeks ago, just to test the condition, so far only one is surviving but hides in the rocks and qite skinny.comes out only for food then goes back in again.

Also, do you think that damsels are responsible in killing them, I have about five damsels in a 4 ft. tank.

I keep blaming on the water condition but other fishes seemed to be doing ok.... it's only the tangs

[stuartgiam]

Thanks for your solid advice bro reeftask

What kind of food diet you feed them with ? Mine keeps dying so I dare not keep any Tangs but wuld love to . I bought a 4 BT about three weeks ago, just to test the condition, so far only one is surviving but hides in the rocks and qite skinny.comes out only for food then goes back in again.

Also, do you think that damsels are responsible in killing them, I have about five damsels in a 4 ft. tank.

I keep blaming on the water condition but other fishes seemed to be doing ok.... it's only the tangs

[kareen]

Do these 4 damsels show any aggressiveness between them? Do they mark their terriority already? If so, do some major rescape so that the terrioriy is mixed up. Add tangs that are bigger in size at the same time after the rescape.

[blackpuma]

The secret to keeping tangs is good quarantine. You will save yourself and your tang a lot of grief if you QT the fish for at least 3 weeks with seachem cupramine, something which I have had great sucess with. Sechem recommends .5ppm but I found .3 to .4 ppm to be equally effective.

For now, just leave your tank fishless for about a month and QT all new arrivals subsequently. This will erradicate the ICH once and for all from your sytem and you will never have to deal with it again.

I am telling you this beacuse I learnt the hard way, I wished I have QT'ed all my fishes when I first started this hobby 20 years ago.

[thedidavid]

I have one BT at my 24 gallon Nano Tank indeed this fish is sicko, sick easily. So far it almost died 2 times but it get through it and very active now when light on playing around with his best friend domino black damsel. I have 3 damsel and one damsel (domino damsel) is very aggresive against other damsels but it go along with my BT and Nemo.

[Bali Brain]

Acclimation, QT - these are prerequisites especially for BTs. You might want to lower salinity of QT. Don't forget to test for ph and dKH, not just Ammonia and NO2. You can't really compare with Damsels. Just because the Damsels are doing OK doesn't mean water is fine. Any stress, and the fish's resources are channeled to cope with the stress, and the body's defences/ immunity is lowered, giving rise to parasitic infestations, etc.

[Jakuson]

Thanks for your solid advice bro reeftask

What kind of food diet you feed them with ? Mine keeps dying so I dare not keep any Tangs but wuld love to . I bought a 4 BT about three weeks ago, just to test the condition, so far only one is surviving but hides in the rocks and qite skinny.comes out only for food then goes back in again.

Also, do you think that damsels are responsible in killing them, I have about five damsels in a 4 ft. tank.

I keep blaming on the water condition but other fishes seemed to be doing ok.... it's only the tangs

Spirulina comes in powder form...and u have to use some water to make it into like a paste then add mysis shrimp or brine shrimp to it and let it sort of marinate/soak for about 15mins-30mins then add in only the shrimps that have turn green due to the spirulina marinating...filtering off the spirulina and left with the shrimps before feeding as the spirulina will foul ur water and rise nitrate.

Tangs should be offered algae to eat for it to have a healthy diet and also it will help in their immune systems against ICH...can try Julian Sprung's algae or maybe buy red bamboo algae...I have algae in my tank to feed my tang and also I use spirulina once in a while...after my tang have totally fight off the ICH problem, normally I just feed it mysis shrimp or brine shrimp once in a while with spirulina sometimes...

My 2 cents worth