Figuring Out why Kole Tang Died

[mynameisnick4]

I had a Yellow Eye Kole Tang that went from healthy looking and eating to dead in the span of 2 1/2 days. Background of the tank, it is a 125 gallon FOWLR with a 29 gallon sump. The tank is an upgrade from my 15 gallon nano reef that got over run with algae (despite my best efforts). I broke down the nano reef 3 weeks ago and made the move over.

The rock wasn't brought over from the nano reef BUT I did bring over marine pure balls that had been in the tank for over a year, I thought this would save me from having to cycle the tank. The only live stock brought over from the nano was a pair of clowns and a snail. The first day I had it up I put in a yellow tang that I got from trading in the coral/clams I had in the nano. No, I didn't not QT (I know, I know.) It was like this for a week and everything seemed good, tang was eating and clowns were eating.

The following week I added the Kole Tang. Again everything seemed fine, both tangs were eating and being peaceful. So one week later I got a Powder Blue tang as I wanted to get the three tangs first and fairly close together to curb any fighting. The powder blue went in fine (slow acclimation like all the others) and he also was eating right away. The difference with him was that he would hide and lay under the rock during the day, but would come out every now again to swim around and eat before going back.

Fast forward to the following weekend (this past weekend) and I see what I think is ich on the fins of the powder blue. He still seems fine but now I am also seeing that the Kole Tang is laying down under the rock which he normally doesn't do much when the lights are on. Sunday the kole tang is starting to look bad. His swimming is erratic, hes not eating, and he's laying under the rock even more. Here is a video of this behavior:


Today he was looking even worse, laying on the bottom breathing heavily most of the time. This afternoon he was out of the rock but staying in one corner, swimming with only one fin and the other tucked against his body. About three hours after he started that, he was gone. I never noticed any white spots or anything like that on him. The only thing I noticed is the slight discoloration around his belly which I figured was from scraping against the rocks. From what I have read about ich, it doesn't seem like it would kill this fast. And he didn't have anything on him that looked like velvet.

The other fish seem fine. The powder blue doesn't lay down under the rocks anymore but still has what looks like ich on his fins (you can probably see it at some points in the video.) I did test my water and while ammonia is reading 0, I do have a high nitrite reading. I'm assuming I went too quick with adding fish and have overloaded the biological filter on the tank. I'm currently prepping a 30 gallon water change.

Any ideas on what this could be? Could it be water quality that caused this? Could ich do this without showing any actual white spots?

Tl/Dr:

• New 125 gallon tank, cycled media brought over from nano (along with two clownfish)
• Yellow tang added during move to new tank, kole tang one week after that, powder blue one week after that
• Possible ich on powder blue
• Kole went from eating and acting normal to dead in 2.5 days
• Possibly water quality issues with high nitrite readings

 

[Punchanello]

It's possible that two different things are going on. The first is that the tank may not be properly cycled and there has been an ammonia spike killing the Kole. This is my best guess in the absence of any other indicators. It might have affected him worse than the others.

The second is ich. In my experience acanthurus tangs like the PBT are almost 100% guaranteed to have ich at purchase..

If it were me I would pull both tangs and treat for ich leaving the DT fallow for 78 days. Even with good ich management in place acanthurus do not tend to survive long-term. To ensure it does you must treat and ensure the DT is ich-free.

 

[mynameisnick4]

It's possible that two different things are going on. The first is that the tank may not be properly cycled and there has been an ammonia spike killing the Kole. This is my best guess in the absence of any other indicators. It might have affected him worse than the others.

The second is ich. In my experience acanthurus tangs like the PBT are almost 100% guaranteed to have ich at purchase..

If it were me I would pull both tangs and treat for ich leaving the DT fallow for 78 days. Even with good ich management in place acanthurus do not tend to survive long-term. To ensure it does you must treat and ensure the DT is ich-free.

Does the behavior in the video indicate ammonia poisoning, or something else? I'm getting worried about velvet since how fast he went but the lack of the typical velvet indications on him has me questioning that.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

He was showing behavioral signs of either ich or velvet. Flashing, scratching, breathing very quickly, discoloration, and loss of appetite.

Your tank is very new so that might be causing some issues. How long has it been setup?

 

[Punchanello]

Does the behavior in the video indicate ammonia poisoning, or something else? I'm getting worried about velvet since how fast he went but the lack of the typical velvet indications on him has me questioning that.

Sorry, I was just able to see the video on another device. Someone like @HotRocks who has helped me a bunch might be able to help further. The flashing along with the PBT showing ich, I think it may have been ich that killed it but certainly with a sick fish any ammonia spike might have been a contributor.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Agree on comments about age of tank and status of cycling and in my concern the amount of stocking of fish in a short amount of time.
Some parameters will be helpful to know such as ammonia, nitrate, ph, salinity and water temp in addition to age of tank and type of test kit used

 

[Katrina71]

I'm sorry for your loss

 

[mynameisnick4]

Agree on comments about age of tank and status of cycling and in my concern the amount of stocking of fish in a short amount of time.
Some parameters will be helpful to know such as ammonia, nitrate, ph, salinity and water temp in addition to age of tank and type of test kit used

The testing kit I'm using is an API freshwater master kit I had from my brackish tank. From researching it, it shouldn't matter that I am using the freshwater vs saltwater kit. The only difference is that 0 ammonia in the saltwater chart is slightly green where as in the fresh it's yellow, and that the freshwater kit has a low range PH.

• Ammonia looks to be 0
• Nitrite is the same if not darker than the highest reading on the chart which is 5 ppm
• Nitrate is between 10 and 20 ppm
• PH is 8.2
• Temp is 78.5, controlled by a reefkeeper with .3 hysteresis
• Salinity is 1.025 with an ATO keeping it stable
• The tank itself is coming up on 4 weeks, but the marine pure balls in the sump were in my nano reef for over a year.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

I’d invest into a good saltwater test kit personally. Can you setup QT?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nitrite/nitrate is high, alarming to me is suggestion that you could use a FW KIT for saltwater in why im in total disagreement. The reason I asked what type of kit is I suspected it to be API which is less than reliable in most cases.
I would highly suggest for the sake of success to take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test these for you at see what type of readings they come up with for comparison with your test results.

 

[mynameisnick4]

Nitrite/nitrate is high, alarming to me is suggestion that you could use a FW KIT for saltwater in why im in total disagreement. The reason I asked what type of kit is I suspected it to be API which is less than reliable in most cases.
I would highly suggest for the sake of success to take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test these for you at see what type of readings they come up with for comparison with your test results.

I've never heard too much bad talk about their kits. Here is someone comparing the salt vs fresh where it shows them to be basically the same outside of the areas I pointed out:

I'll look into getting better kits, haven't needed one like this in awhile as the nano I was mainly testing reef things such as alk, calc, phosphate, etc.

I agree the nitrite is high but is 10-20 ppm nitrate that bad especially in a FOWLR? I will be doing a 30 gallon water change in the morning to bring things down. More importantly would the levels of nitrite/nitrate, and possibly an ammonia spike cause that behavior in the kole tang and eventual death?

As far as setting up a QT, I have an old 55 in the basement from my brackish tank. I could set that up but wouldn't I potentially be in the same boat with the water quality even if I pulled some of the marine pure out and threw it into a HOB filter? Or is it expected to do daily water changes to keep up with it.

My other option is to treat the display itself (if it is indeed ich and I want to kill it versus live with it.) My long term plan was to eventually make this a reef tank which is why I am trying to avoid ruining my rock with copper.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Behavior in tang- yes. Heavy breathing, loss of appetite, loss of color and more. That is the reason I suggested water sample to assure something else going on that you’re not getting an indication on