odd tang behavior --> death

[mopey83]

I recently purchased a juvenille white face tang at my LFS (although I was repeatedly told it was a powder brown by the LFS, it was not). He/She was about 6 inches and was doing great in my tank. It was eating macroalgea from all over the tank, as well as mysis, and sea weed given to it on a veggie clip.
My water is of good quality (0 ppm NH3/4, nitrites, and nitrates; SG = 1.024). I have peaceful tank mates; 2 true percs, 2 blue-green chromis, and one mandarin (my tank has lots of LR and has been up for over a year with no copepod predators; for people that want to get on my case about keeping a manadarin). I have a GBTA and various other soft corals.
My tank is only 55 gallons but I have it set up for lots of swimming room and the tang was still really small.
Anyways my issue is that the tang was doing great, it was very active, responsive (to people walking by the tank), and ate all the time. The only odd thing that it did was constantly swim at the return, like a person swimming in a lap pool. This morning I left at 8 and the tang looked great, this afternoon I got home around 3 and the tang was being "cleaned up" by my clean up crew. I have no idea what caused my tang to die and I am pretty upset by the whole thing. It had no visible signs of disease, nor did it display any other odd behaviors.
Any ideas to the cause of death? Anyone ever hear of such behavior? Sorry this is so long and if it seems like I am a little defensive, I have read lots of posts and people tend to rip on each other here sometimes.

[backyardspecial]

Uhhh...you say that you don't want people ripping on you and your putting at 6inch tang in a 55G?!?!? You could have no rock in the 55 and it would still be too small. I have a friend with 55 thats has a 2.5 inch blue tang and the tang is going crazy because it's so cramped.

Dude, I have a 6 inch tang in a 145 with tons of flow and he still flies across the tank in a blink of an eye. Some tangs tend to tread water in front of returns so thats normal. The death could be any number of things. I've lost fish for no obvious reason. It happens.

[CarlC]

Is the return the only source of flow you had in the tank?

Carl

[Sk8r]

Sounds as if the poor fish suffocated. THeir demand for oxygen is met by high, long movement ramming water through their gills.

[xxseawolf]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10575159#post10575159 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mopey83
I recently purchased a juvenille white face tang at my LFS (although I was repeatedly told it was a powder brown by the LFS, it was not). He/She was about 6 inches and was doing great in my tank. It was eating macroalgea from all over the tank, as well as mysis, and sea weed given to it on a veggie clip.
My water is of good quality (0 ppm NH3/4, nitrites, and nitrates; SG = 1.024). I have peaceful tank mates; 2 true percs, 2 blue-green chromis, and one mandarin (my tank has lots of LR and has been up for over a year with no copepod predators; for people that want to get on my case about keeping a manadarin). I have a GBTA and various other soft corals.
My tank is only 55 gallons but I have it set up for lots of swimming room and the tang was still really small.
Anyways my issue is that the tang was doing great, it was very active, responsive (to people walking by the tank), and ate all the time. The only odd thing that it did was constantly swim at the return, like a person swimming in a lap pool. This morning I left at 8 and the tang looked great, this afternoon I got home around 3 and the tang was being "cleaned up" by my clean up crew. I have no idea what caused my tang to die and I am pretty upset by the whole thing. It had no visible signs of disease, nor did it display any other odd behaviors.
Any ideas to the cause of death? Anyone ever hear of such behavior? Sorry this is so long and if it seems like I am a little defensive, I have read lots of posts and people tend to rip on each other here sometimes. how much gph do you have? and by the way a 55g is WAY TOO SMALL FOR ANY TANG-IMEO).

[xxseawolf]

i had a purple tang in a 55g(temporarily, so dont hate me) with 900+ gph and she was fine. these fish need high water movement, enough room to move, and a variety of diet, but she needed more swimming room and is now HAPPIER in my 135g. point being it is possible with the right environment to make it happen in a 55g but not responsible(imeo)

[aastretch64]

White faced tang is a powder brown tang:

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/tangs/japonicus.php

[Lahn Doe]

I had an Acanthurus japonicus for about four months. It died on me also and I don't know why. I would like to know the reason also.

[FishAreFriends2]

Did you put it in your 29g?

[xxseawolf]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10580498#post10580498 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishAreFriends2
Did you put it in your 29g? ^^^^ i hope not

[Lahn Doe]

Updated my profile. It went into a 125. Any ideas?

[mopey83]

OK. So I agree that I definately should not have placed the tang in my tank. However I was tempted by stories and seeing other reefers with tangs in 55 gallon tanks. I also looked at a ruler and realized that the fisherman in me got the best of me and that the tang was really only 3-4 inches. Either way I will avoid them in the future.

aastretch64: I would double check on your assertion. According to Fenner and several other sources there is a major difference between white face and powder brown tangs. You can check it out here --> http://www.wetwebmedia.com/GoldRimSs.htm

I really hope that suffication was not the cause of death, cause then I would feel cruel. But I really thought my tang was doing GREAT. He/she was eating greedily and swimming all the time, I guess I was just so shocked about the suddeness of the death, cause with all my other fish I usually notice a period of a week or two when the fish is sluggish before it dies... All well, good luck to others who are going to try and keep tangs, I am done till I upgrade tanks.

[mopey83]

Also I have two MJ1200s in my tank to complement my return. So I made sure to have the best water movemet possible before adding the tang.