Sohal Tang Trouble!

[exomanic]

Hi everybody,ive recently set up a marine tank and got a sohal tang and im having problems with it. During the 3 wks of quarantine, it ate dried pellets and occasionally brine and mysid shrimps, but once it came to my display tank, it stopped eating completely. it finally died of starvation, not illness..I tried Algae flakes, seaweed clips but to no avail, currently i have another sohal tang in quarantine, a bigger and more mature specimen, and its eating, but im wondering now, will it happen again when in enters my display tank? Does anybody have experience with sohal tang?

Could it be that i have too much live rock so much so the sohal just wants to peck on the rocks for algae? cos he grazes all day on the rocks.. appreciate any help out there thanks!

this is a video of my tank ->

[onizukaa]

hello,

looking from your tank video, seems like you have quite a number of fishes, how big is the sohal tang?

it might be bullied by the mature fishes in the tank..

as this sohal that you are getting is bigger, you can release it from the Qurantine tank when the lights are out (better chance of it finding a hiding spot of it's own)

feed abit more to distract other fishes if you see it fighting and the sohal will have left over food from the spam feeding (not too many times as it will polute the water).

hth

[tench1]

There's a sohal in your video, was that the one that died?

or??

[exomanic]

yes the sohal in the video is the one that passed away,the funny thing is i read from several websites that sohal tangs are quite voracious in eating, and quite agressive and territorial, but mine was quite stand-offish, it did not bother other fishes, neither did other fishes disturb it, however, when it came to feeding time, it just swam right past the food! it saw but it did not even try to eat 1 bit..i tried spamming but even so, it didnt want to eat, after a few tries, i stopped cos the nitrite level was gettin dangerous..

[exomanic]

hello,

looking from your tank video, seems like you have quite a number of fishes, how big is the sohal tang?

it might be bullied by the mature fishes in the tank..

as this sohal that you are getting is bigger, you can release it from the Qurantine tank when the lights are out (better chance of it finding a hiding spot of it's own)

feed abit more to distract other fishes if you see it fighting and the sohal will have left over food from the spam feeding (not too many times as it will polute the water).

hth

The sohal in the video did not have a hiding spot and he did not have a hiding spot among the live rocks at night, and there was alot of leftover food, but the sohal was not at all interested. But he just kept grazing on the live rocks and grew thinner and thinner until he finally died, are sohal tangs really this hard to keep? Or, did i do something wrong? Thanks

[tench1]

yes the sohal in the video is the one that passed away,the funny thing is i read from several websites that sohal tangs are quite voracious in eating, and quite agressive and territorial, but mine was quite stand-offish, it did not bother other fishes, neither did other fishes disturb it, however, when it came to feeding time, it just swam right past the food! it saw but it did not even try to eat 1 bit..i tried spamming but even so, it didnt want to eat, after a few tries, i stopped cos the nitrite level was gettin dangerous..

Joey, sad for your loses. But, please bear in mind, thought its known to be a aggressive and territorial specis, individual still differ.

The main concern i guessed, would be the qualtity of the enivorment in the Q tank and main tank, was the parameter similar or differ dramatically?

Minor concern would be the aggressiveness of your other fishes in the Main Tank.

Noticed from your video, you have 1 x PT, 1 x YT, they are well known to be terriortial.

My suggestion would be as follow.

1. Release newcomer at night or during off-light period. (As Bro Oniz suggested)

2. Since there's so many terrorital fishes ard, break the territorial of each different tangs, by doing a new scape. This will confused the fishes and hence allowed the new fish to adapt to the new environment.

Best of luck to your next try!

Ten

[exomanic]

Joey, sad for your loses. But, please bear in mind, thought its known to be a aggressive and territorial specis, individual still differ.

The main concern i guessed, would be the qualtity of the enivorment in the Q tank and main tank, was the parameter similar or differ dramatically?

Minor concern would be the aggressiveness of your other fishes in the Main Tank.

Noticed from your video, you have 1 x PT, 1 x YT, they are well known to be terriortial.

My suggestion would be as follow.

1. Release newcomer at night or during off-light period. (As Bro Oniz suggested)

2. Since there's so many terrorital fishes ard, break the territorial of each different tangs, by doing a new scape. This will confused the fishes and hence allowed the new fish to adapt to the new environment.

Best of luck to your next try!

Ten

thanks for advice, i guess it could be the difference between the quarantine tank and my display tank..and not really the purple n yellow tang didnt give much issues..haha but i gota keep a sohal tang cos they just look so majestic

[yikai]

very happy to see a reefer practicing quarantine!

[FuEl]

Given the amount of fish in the tank I would think you need more flow. Sohal tangs in nature are found in surge areas, meaning they probably have higher oxygen demands compared to Zebrasoma tangs.

Check out this article by Copps. I would think that if you can provide conditions that suit an Achilles Tang, your Sohal would probably thrive as well.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13199939

Dissolved Oxygen levels has always been rather overlooked in the health of marine organisms.

[tench1]

Fuel Bro made a great pt.

I used to have 4 Ehiem wave makers in my fowlr tank.

[exomanic]

ahh.. maybe that is the root of all evil =)

[tench1]

Mistake in my post, should be tunze Wave maker...

I had been thinking alot on my ehiem pump.

hahaha

Sorry for the mistake