What the heck happened to my powder brown tang?

[jc061471]

So my powder brown tang which I had for only a little over a week was fine yesterday and all week swimming all about and eating well. Then when I come home from work this morning (I work the graveyard shift) I find him wedged somewhat between a live rock and the sand substrate in my 120g FOWLR tank not moving and devoid of life. All my other fish are doing fine and eating well. As you can see from the pics I attached, there are no signs of ICK. The little white particles you see on him is the sand from my tank.

The only thing I can think of is it's been hot and humid here recently so the temp in my tank has gone as high as 81F but no higher (no chiller). My tank as result has been evaporating water at a higher rate so I've had to do larger than normal top offs (RO DI water). I am experiencing a bit of a diatom problem but it's not too bad. Other than that everything else is normal or close to normal.

I feed only once a day but I feed various types of food; frozen brine shrimp, seaweed wafers, seaweed sheets, marine flake food with garlic, various brands of pellet food.

I drip acclimated for 90 minutes before putting him in the tank.

- 120g FOWLR tank sumpless
- 3 months old
- cycled for 5-1/2 weeks
- REEF OCTOPUS BH-2000 HOB skimmer (130g-200g rating)
- HOB fuge with chaeto macro algae
- AQUAMAXX reactor running 1 cup rowaphos GFO and 1 cup carbon (not mixed but separate water goes thru GFO first and then carbon)

Being I have a fairly large tank my water parameters are pretty stable except when the temp got high like I mentioned earlier. I test using API saltwater master test kit.

pH 8.0 (could be a little higher)
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrites 0 ppm
nitrates somewhere between 20-40 ppm (could be lower I know)
salinity 1.022-1.023
temp 77F-78F

2 blue/green chromis
2 ocellaris clownfish
1 pajama cardinal
1 foxface rabbitfish
1 yellow tang
1 atlantic blue tang
1 powder brown tang :sad2:

[m0nkie]

dang. sorry to hear. notice any aggression between the tangs? no QT? ich is the fairly easy to manage, and usually won't kill this fast.

one thing I noticed, I would not drip for 90 minutes. As soon as the bag opens, ammonia starts building up. 90 minute can be deadly. 30 minutes top! I usually set up a 20gal QT with exact same salinity. Toss fish in after temperature acclimate. let salinity slowly climb up to DT level.

[scooter31707]

Possible Velvet. You had 3 aggressive Tangs in a 120. You might have been pushing that limit,

[curtcherry]

I agree with the drip acclimation. I stopped doing that. Match salinity and temp acclimate. Then put them in. If no other fish are having issues, hard to say. if no visible signs of problems, makes it even harder. To not QT for at least a short period of time, makes it all the harder...

[Deinonych]

dang. sorry to hear. notice any aggression between the tangs? no QT? ich is the fairly easy to manage, and usually won't kill this fast.

one thing I noticed, I would not drip for 90 minutes. As soon as the bag opens, ammonia starts building up. 90 minute can be deadly. 30 minutes top! I usually set up a 20gal QT with exact same salinity. Toss fish in after temperature acclimate. let salinity slowly climb up to DT level.



I agree.

[curtcherry]

Also, get a refractometer. Check the salinity YOURSELF by checking the water the fish comes in. I have learned my lesson the hard way of a LFS telling me they were running 1.025 and finding out they were running 1.020 when I went back in with a dead fish and pressed them for the salinity they were running. How did I know it wasn't right? I run 1.025 and when I mixed the two waters together in a clear dish, it looked like heat coming off the pavement.

[moe103]

What would be the best way to match the salinity in the bag, without leaving the fish in the bag for too long? My understanding is that newly mixed water should be left to aerate for several hours before use.

[curtcherry]

Get your water setup to 1.020 or whatever you normally run in your tank. Leave room in the QT tank to add water. Wether that is RODI water or salt water. Temperature acclimate for 15 minutes then open the bag. Check the bag water with a refractometer. Then get the water in the QT tank to match the bag water salinity. I have not had it take longer than 10 minutes to get the bag water and QT water to match. Not hard to do. Never heard that the water has to aerate for several hours. I have noticed that just mixed salt water is sometimes a little cloudy but that clears in an hour or two.

[curtcherry]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1959576&highlight=death+in+a+bag

[m0nkie]

What would be the best way to match the salinity in the bag, without leaving the fish in the bag for too long? My understanding is that newly mixed water should be left to aerate for several hours before use.

pretty much what curtcherry said.

newly mixed salt needs a few hours because salt dissolves at different rate under different temperature. the salinity could increase after a few hours. When the salt is all mixed, lowering the salinity can be done right away. no need to wait a few hours

you should call the store first before you make the purchase and ask for their salinity. Liveaquaria, DD, Bluezoo, they all have different salinity..

you should have a QT ready when the fish arrives. most stores keep fish between 1.10 - 1.20.. I keep the QT around 1.20. If QT salinity is higher than bag, just add some fresh water into QT. mix for 30 seconds. good to go. If the QT salinity is lower, you can just toss the fish in. They can handle lower salinity much better. don't top off for 1-2 days and your salinity should match the DT

[Deinonych]

What would be the best way to match the salinity in the bag, without leaving the fish in the bag for too long? My understanding is that newly mixed water should be left to aerate for several hours before use.

The assumption is that you would be placing the fish in QT first, not directly into the DT.

[lagatbezan]

was the fish eating? was it purchased online or from a local store. If a local store then the long acclimation shouldn't be an issue since it didn't spend so much time in the bag.
I'm not an expert but it looks like it has a pinched stomach in the pics which could be from an internal parasite.

[Breakthecycle2]

You can also add prime directly to the acclimation bucket if you prefer to drip longer then 30 minutes.

[Mishri]

yeah, belly does looked pinched. it was certainly sick, internal parasite most likely if it was still eating well.