Yellow Tang Help!

[Funky_Fish14]

Hey Everyone,

Last night I went to bed knowing that my tank was fine, all the fish were fine, etc.. and this morning I woke up to a yellow tang who currently has his lower fin torn at the bottom corner and a little piece from the bottom of his tail. Im not sure if it was like this when I woke up however. He just sits on the bottom or on some rocks and is sometiems leaning on something and sometimes sitting on the bottom but sitting straight up.

I fed him nori 3-4 times a week at first and in the past couple weeks it was only twice a week and I forgot to feed him any for the past week. He did have meaty food available though.

I had yet to see any fish ever be agressive to him, when I put the second largest fish in(the coral beauty) he(the tang) displayed to it and followed it around and kept displaying to it for 5 mins and they have ignored each other ever since. Tank livestock(minus corals and snails) includes:

1 Cinnamon Clown
1 Coral beauty
1 Yellow Tang
1 Dispar Anthias
1 Pajama Cardinal
2 Scooter Blennies
2 Engineer Gobies

2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 Sally lightfoot crab(Kicks any shrimp or fish that get near him, yes, kicks them)
1 Misc hitchiker crab that lives in a hole of a rock that leads to the buroow of one of the engineer gobies(So I doubt he is to blame for anything)
10 or so blue-leg hermits
5 or so Scarlet hermits
5 electric blue-leg hermits

I just watched him leaning on a blue-leg hermit and it had no interest what so ever in chomping down on him lol.

Any advice please help!

Also, is Melaflix something for helping healing fin damage? Thanks for any help!

Chris

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

Also, is Melaflix something for helping healing fin damage?

Yes. (Melafix).

[Funky_Fish14]

Too late

I saw him once alive at 10:10PM tonight or so then I came back up and looked at the tank again at 11:30-40 and there was a shrimp chewing on him so he obviously died late tonight sometime. No idea what it was.

Man, this sucks!

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

After a discussion with Imran(Winters on the site.....Thanks!), I am going to add something else.

One of my Dispar Anthias, whom I believe was turning into a supermale, exhibited the same symptoms about a week ago, was acting the same, etc.. and I am now guessing that the disease causes them to act in such a way that those activities result in torn lower/tail fins(the anthias' tail had a small tear in it aswell). They also died in about the same amount of time. They had been fine the night before and the next day I noticed the symptoms and then they went down during the night. The anthias went down a little earlier during the day and I noticed him being a little more lethargic during the prior evening of his passing.

Can anyone think of anything?

Im off to pick up a QT tank sunday, maybe even two.

Thanks everyone.

Cheers,

Chris

Edit: Also, my LTA, whom I purchased about a week or a little more ago would not plant itself and would move around the bottom of the tank while sitting on its side, and one morning I awoke to find it laying in a cave with its insides spewed out infront of it!

Im quite worried at this point! Any advice would be very appreciated! Thanks!

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

Anyone have any ideas? I have lost my second anthias overnight, he was fine yesterday and early this evening I found him being munched on by a shrimp and NO INJURIES on his body but I didnt pay attention to the tail. I would hazard to guess that this is the same thing that killed the other fish because he died so quickly.

Thanks.

Chris

[reeferaddict]

What are your parameters? Any adjustments in maintenance lately? Any reason for dissolved oxygen to sharply drop? Almost sounds like ammonia toxicity to me.... when the anemone died did you remove it?

[Funky_Fish14]

The annemone was removed imediately after it died. I checked my params after the first two fish died and no spikes ammo, trites, and tratres were way down, normal levels. No changes in maitnance. I dont think the DO would drop because the return from my above tank fuge causes major micro-bubles in the tank.

Thanks,

Chris

[Johnny Reefer]

I don't know...goin' out on a limb here, but the major micro-bubbles makes me think of "Gas Bubble Disease", but then I think torn fins are not conducive to that.
I have been told, however, that most Reef inhabitants do not like the micro bubble thing goin' on. I suggest you resolve that.
Does your return have an anti-siphon hole drilled in to it?
Is the hole above the water line?
The hole should be just below the water line. This will eliminate your micro bubbles.
Providing adequate surface agitation, (with a powerhead,say, directed upward), will be sufficient for gaseous exchanges. You do not need micro-bubbles for gas (O2, CO2, Nitrogen) exchange.

HTH and cheers,

[Funky_Fish14]

Thanks for the tips on the micro bubles. I will try to do something about it. Syphon holes do not affect this however seeing as its set up the way it is and it is an above tank fuge.

I will try to put a stop to the microbubles however. Thanks!

Chris

[mr_alberta]

There are a couple possibilities:

Problem:
Chemicals in the tank (could be aerosol cleaners or anything like that).
Solution:
Water changes and Carbon

Problem:
Tank aggression/Overstocking. Mainly from either of the crabs of the Cinnamon clown.
Solution:
Removal of said items from the tank and see if the problems stop.

Problem:
Some type of internal parasite or disease since there are no external signs.
Solution:
Quaratine of fish/treatment with medication, though without knowing the actual illness it will be nearly impossible to treat.

Your tank is a 77G correct? I would do the solutions for problems 1 and 2 and see if it helps. You may also have another hitchhiker that you have not seen or even know about!