Stress
 

Is their anyway to make a fish less stressed in your aquarium other then lights off?

I have My new Blonde Naso tang who is haveing a real hard time in my tank, the first night he was fine hiding in a cave but this morning he was laying on the sand breathing very hard, and I thought I was gonna lose him. Since I got home tonight I saw that he had left his cave and went to another cave...still breathing hard and resiting on the rocks, and now he has gone somewere where I can't see him so I can't tell how he is doing..


Is their anything I can do to help him through this, I don't want to lose him cause I have been waiting for a Naso for quite some time now and I don't see them come in very often!

This is just an idea
You could try moonglows.

ummmmm, whats moonglows....I tried to google it but I got nothing related to aquaria

actinics.....

Already use them

A QT tank would allow you to observe while allowing the fish to relax.

Doug

Moon glows are a coralife blue led 3/4w

The only problem I beileve with putting him in a QT is that he will get stressed from me putting him in a QT tank that is to small for him as he is at least 9" in length, Then I would have to chase him down in the QT tank and throw him in the big tank stressing him out again....I don't see how that would help....

Hi Kevin.
Your tang could be experiencing stress for many reasons, some might be beyond your ability to detect (ammonia damage via shipping, internal parasites, severe mental distress etc...)
A couple of things to check first though:
pH
Salinity
Nitrates
Bully fish

After that think about your rock work. Does it provide ample spaces for the fish to swim behind and "feel" sheltered? If there isn't then the fish may need to flatten against the rock or jam itself into crevices to gain a feeling of safety. It then only has two choices - swim in the open unprotected or jam itself in the rock. Providing arches and back routes allows for a third option - sheltered swimming.

Next, you could try putting a screen in front of the tank, like big plants or something. Most fish become accustomed to looking out the glass at us but it must be a shock to some initially. When we approach the tank and peer in perhaps we look like large predators closing in. If I were a Tang I'd hide in the rocks too.

(This last ones just a guess)
You might try putting something on top of the tank too. I don't know about SW but many FW fish fear predators from above (birds) more than the side. I've noticed a dramatic change in behavior when I floated plants or driftwood on the surface of my FW tanks.
I don't know if any of this helps, just some thoughts.
Good luck with the Tang

Dale, I have a 230gal tank and I built a huge cavern on the one side for him to hide in and some slightly smaller ones on the other side aswell....It's hard to give him alot of hidden swimming space due to the fact that my tank is visible from both sides.

I have eggcrate on the top of the tank and my lights pretty much sit on top of that.

All my perameters are good...no ammonia, no nitrates, ph is at 8.1 temp is constant at 80 F and a SG of 1.0125

No fish bully him cause of his size....the next closest fish in size is probably 4", they just seem to swim in his cave to say hi and then leave again.