POWDER BLUE TANG suggestions pls
 

Hello,
Just got my first pbt yesterday. From what I hear from the few people I've talk to this fish is very hard to keep. So I'm looking for some suggestions from anyone that has experienced with keeping this tang. Set up a 10gal qt tank with half water from my md and freshly mixed water. Qt tank has a small rock, flower clay pot (never used), heater and a small fluval 2plus filter.

Ive been monitoring the fish and its appetite for the last 18 hrs. Not interested in flake food. Nipping at some garlic soaked nori and some red algae off the rock but doesn't seem to be very interested.

Just took some parameters
Ph 8.4
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
salinity 1.024

Lots of good info here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1668058

Yes, I would reiterate what Peter said above. But watch your water for ammonia.

Don't know the size of your fish, but just for future reference, ten gallons is a little little for tangs even for QT. Plus it is much harder to keep parameters stable in smaller tanks.

Thanks for the forum link Peter. I'm learning a lot. I hope I didn't make a bad decision by purchasing the pbt. I'm starting to feel a little uneasy about my tank size after reading some of it.

Tim I do have a 30 gal I could be using for qt. Since he has been in the 10 gal for almost 24hrs now. I'm hesitant to mess move him. He is about 3" in size. Looks like he is breathing heavy but not hard.

Don't be alarmed yet, it's only been a day. The first powder blue I kept took a few days before he started to accept food, while the second one was eating right out of the bag. Try some NLS and frozen mysis; that's what worked for getting both of mine to start eating.

In the future, I would use a larger tank for quarantine. I quarantine tangs in a standard 55 gallon.

I QT'ed my PBT in a 12g tote. IME smaller tanks are easier, because it's easy to change a lot of water often, to keep up on water quality.

So I'm 8 days in with my new PBT and she has just broke out with ich. Did a 50% water change and starting to lower the salinity. I'm going to try hypo her. Does any one have first hand experience doing this to a PBT? I've read a lot of what "I should do " forums. So I'm just looking for some testimonials on what has worked. Thanks in advance.

Mix all new water for at least 24 hours. Match ph, temp and salinity exactly.

Move him to the 30. Very slowly scoop him with a plastic container for the move, no net.

Cover the walls of the tank to reduce stress from traffic outside of the tank.

Test for ammonia every day.

Try some frozen preparations for herbivores over the flake.

Soak everything in Selcon, or Zoe/Zoecon.

Make sure the clay pot has nothing toxic on/in it. Consider a few PVC tees from Home Depot instead.

I'd be careful here. Messy frozen formula foods and additives can really muck up water quality in a QT tank. Your PBT won't die of of poor nutrition in the few weeks of QT. So long as it's eating something, and keeping weight on, I wouldn't worry.

Rinse most frozen foods using a brine shrimp net before using in any of your tanks.

You can tell which ones are messiest by thawing in a small cup of water.

Sigh...well thanks for everyone's thoughtful advice..she just died :( Maybe I will try again another time. I'm not sure why this seems to happen. When I rescued my clown fish from a friends abandoned rental it had ich. I did the hypo on it and within days it was showing signs of improvement and is now living happily in my DT. I was certain I could do the same with this fish. The PBT was covered within hours of noticing the ich. More then my clown was. Guess they are more sensitive.

The fish might have been stressed out due to the qt tank being too small. I also want to ask how quickly you lowered the salinity? Let me just add that I don't think the 85 gallon tank would have worked out for this fish for the long haul anyway. I didn't say anything before because you already had the fish...my advice would be to hold off 'trying another one' until you've upgraded the tank you currently have.

;)

24 hrs ago it was 1.025. I dropped it to 1.023 last night and when I woke up today I dropped it every few hours until it was 1.016. So it was dropped about .002 every 3 to 4 hrs. I read it should take 48hrs to get to 1.009. I was going to leave it at 1.016 until tomorrow then continue to 1.009 . I do have a refractor and I checked the ph everytime I dropped it. Next time I will set up the 30gal qt.

Was this a good pace?

I quarantined my PBT in a 10 galon as well, he did just fine. Obviously a larger tank would be prefered, but then again when isn't a larger tank prefered!

To fast. I use the search option like a madman on here and catch myself far to often up at 3am reading and reading on a purchase I am considering. As mentioned the 30 you have would be great for your next qt tank.
I agree with tampa

this may be wrong, but when i bought my PBT or for that matter any other fish all i do is make sure it looks healthy when i buy it, take a real good look while acclimating it and just drop it in the tank when it is done acclimating.

i have never once had an ich outbreak. my PBT ate mysis the first day and grazed the rocks for algea. only thing i noticed with mine is how aggressive it is if you introduce a new fish to the tank. my wife just had to have a new flame hawk after seeing it in the store and it barely survived the first night. the PBT turned into a shark that was in a feeding frenzy. beyond that the PBT is pretty shy, a pretty good eater and friendly to all the other tankmates.

It only takes one bad experience to realize how important QT is.

I think I agree with holding off. Last thing I want is an angry fish due to the size of my tank. Thanks for the advice everyone. Lessons learned.

Knock on wood. It's bound to happen sooner or later. Tangs definitely need to be qurantined especially the ich monster such as a PBT.

I think you are reducing your salinity just fine... Reducing over a 3 day period worked for me. However, when you increase salinity do it more slowly as the adjustment is harder on fish.

I have use hypo twice with good results on a tang and wrasse. For me, the hardest part was adjusting the PH and salinity when making water changes in the QT. I had a 20 gal QT and perhaps 10 gal is too small. Good Luck.

Thing with hypo is it takes a while to rupture skeletons of inverts. I once hypo'd a bunch of live rock and after 2 weeks stuff started to ooze out the rock, hence I believe it takes 2 weeks to work.

So if you get a fish and it breaks out in ich before then the ich will beat you, and the fish.

Therefore, what I do, is Formalin dips when I first get a fish. This seems to knock off a good proportion of any ich poplation, buying the fish the time it needs if it has Ich already. I also dose Formalin in the QT for the forst few weeks of hypo.

The PBT is an incredible active fish. It paces up and down my tank non-stop all day so I think an ich infected PBT would do better in a larger QT. If it doesn't have ich, and therefore can handle more stress, a smaller QT would be viable.