Blue Hippo Tang is Dying… Why?
by Aquaboy on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 | 4 Comments
Saltwater (for those who don’t know)
He was fine this morning, very cheerful.
My blue hippo tang is lying on the bottom of the tank dying, he has lost all his coloring. What is going on? None of the other fish seem sick, just him. I checked all Ph, nitrate/ite and others and they are all within normal range. The temp is 77 degrees…What could be happening? He has only been in our tank for 3 days.
Our tank has been established for about 2 months with plenty of live rock/gravel. There have been no other problems associated with the fish in this tank except for normal (sometimes weird) fish behavior)
He is just twitching on the bottom of the tank… so sad.
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Tangs have very high oxygen requirements. That may be his problem. Is there any way you can provide more oxygen to the tank (if you have a powerhead, aim it just slightly at the water surface to cause more of a ripple effect).
If you’ve got a canister filter, the return should be close enough to the surface that it makes a good ripple as well.
Any chance one of the other fish may be picking on him? Any signs of white spots (marine ich) or a thickened slime coat? See the photos on this link for examples: http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/disease.html
This fish may have been caught using cyanide. The timng is right. I think I would buy my fish elsewhwere from now on.
They stress very easy and are prone to ich. I’ve had salt water and reefs tanks for about 10 years and I can’t keep one alive. You can give it a fresh water bath. hold it under a cold running water for a sec.”BE CAREFUL THERE FINS ARE RAZOR SHARP.” then put it into a sick tank and see if it get better. ” get a small tank with lots of water movement and oxygen. then you can give it meds without hurting your other fish.
if you have an anemone, he could have posibly ran into it by accident…if not, check the oxygen levels….is any other fish picking on him?….. also, the tank may be too small for him (probably not, but possible) sorry…if he does pass, try returning him and bring some water to be tested with you and see whats wrong….hope i helped and good luck!!!!