Help with purple tang that ate coral glue

[RtomKinMad]

Hi everyone! I have a strange situation. One of our coral fell and we reglued it this am and a few minutes later I noticed something white on my purple tangs mouth. Locked like maybe a white piece of crushed coral but then i fed the tank and the purple was not dropping whatever was in his mouth.... oh no it’s fresh coral glue and his mouth is stuck together. He is swimming and trying to eat maybe got a few small pieces of my sis or brine. But it isn’t coming off. We tried to catch him but our structure is a large hallow cave for the tang and he just hides in the cave and we can not reach him. If the glue is still there tonight when my husband gets home from work we will take the Rock structure down and try to catch and remove the glue manually. This will be long and difficult and will disrupt the whole tank. Any other suggestions to get the glue off other than manually removing it ourselves. He is super healthy and I don’t want to loose this tang! Thank you anyone and everyone for your input. Here is a few pictures.

 

[Mike N]

I searched a little bit and found a couple threads of the same incident. It ended up coming off after a day or two. I'd definitely not disturb your rockwork yet.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-my-tang-has-his-mouth-shut-with-glue.239497/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-ate-super-glue-what-to-do.123101/

 

[RtomKinMad]

I searched a little bit and found a couple threads of the same incident. It ended up coming off after a day or two. I'd definitely not disturb your rockwork yet.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-my-tang-has-his-mouth-shut-with-glue.239497/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-ate-super-glue-what-to-do.123101/

Thank you so much. Do think he will ok for a day or two? Our whole rock structure is hallow with about ten opening on all sides and the fish swim in and out and around the structure all day. It’s a 93 cube tank. We can wait a couple days and watch him and him looks distressed then try to catch him. I feel so bad, my fault for not watching it closer. It’s trying to eat the nori from a clip but can’t. I haven’t seen it rubbing but has tried to shake it off.
Thank you for your help.
Kindel

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I have a curious yellow eye kole that has this happen when I added a larger acro colony. It investigated and ended up with some on its mouth. It came off after 2 days. The biggest thing to watch is it's breathing. A few days of not much food will not kill it. But not being able to breath well will.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Thank you so much. Do think he will ok for a day or two? Our whole rock structure is hallow with about ten opening on all sides and the fish swim in and out and around the structure all day. It’s a 93 cube tank. We can wait a couple days and watch him and him looks distressed then try to catch him. I feel so bad, my fault for not watching it closer. It’s trying to eat the nori from a clip but can’t. I haven’t seen it rubbing but has tried to shake it off.
Thank you for your help.
Kindel

If you have to catch him, best to try and do it a few hours after lights out.

 

[mtfish]

I well fed fish will not be harmed by going a couple of days without eating. But I think you stated it ate a few bits? I also would wait it out instead of disturbing the rock work. Best of luck!

 

[RtomKinMad]

Thank you so much everyone. I also don’t want to stress the others out. We have a small wrasse in the tank that is a jumper. I read the other threads that MikeN shared ( thank you for looking it up for me) and it seems the glue should fall off somewhere between 2-7 days. I guess this happens quite often. I will watch his breathing and activity. My husband was dreading taking the rocks apart since the tank cave is set up so well and we have a nice healthy balance in space for the fish. It is lightly stocked tank. Too bad the copperband butterfly couldn’t pick the glue off with his long beak!
Thank you everyone for your help and support, I appreciate very much! Will let you know how it goes!
Kindel

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Thank you so much everyone. I also don’t want to stress the others out. We have a small wrasse in the tank that is a jumper. I read the other threads that MikeN shared ( thank you for looking it up for me) and it seems the glue should fall off somewhere between 2-7 days. I guess this happens quite often. I will watch his breathing and activity. My husband was dreading taking the rocks apart since the tank cave is set up so well and we have a nice healthy balance in space for the fish. It is lightly stocked tank. Too bad the copperband butterfly couldn’t pick the glue off with his long beak!
Thank you everyone for your help and support, I appreciate very much! Will let you know how it goes!
Kindel

Keep us updated, and best of luck.

 

[RtomKinMad]

I will thank you everyone!

 

[RtomKinMad]

I just saw him get some nori in his mouth! Yeah! So we will hold tight and watch for a bit! Thank you!

 

[BestMomEver]

I had a cleaner shrimp get stuck in some. He’s a wee bit too curious. I had to remove the coral frag (with the shrimp attached) and free him. It took forever because he was jumping around and I was trying to hold him and the frag at the same time while still keeping him in the water. My worst fear was that he’d yank a leg off. Eventually I got him loose. But... he’s still too curious for his own good!

 

[RtomKinMad]

I had a cleaner shrimp get stuck in some. He’s a wee bit too curious. I had to remove the coral frag (with the shrimp attached) and free him. It took forever because he was jumping around and I was trying to hold him and the frag at the same time while still keeping him in the water. My worst fear was that he’d yank a leg off. Eventually I got him loose. But... he’s still too curious for his own good!

Oh boy that would be scary! I’m glad he came off!

 

[Mariette]

This is off topic but I’m intrigued by the description you gave of your rock work. I’d love to see a full tank shot

Good luck w the tang

 

[ngoodermuth]

I have a curious yellow eye kole that has this happen when I added a larger acro colony. It investigated and ended up with some on its mouth. It came off after 2 days. The biggest thing to watch is it's breathing. A few days of not much food will not kill it. But not being able to breath well will.

Unless his gills are glued shut he should still be able to breathe ok

 

[BestMomEver]

Oh boy that would be scary! I’m glad he came off!

Yea.... shrimp brains don’t even measure up to bird brains. Still, if I glue down a new frag, I have to shoo him away... dumb shrimp.

 

[RtomKinMad]

Unless his gills are glued shut he should still be able to breathe ok

Thank goodness, I was worried about that! Thank you!

 

[RtomKinMad]

Yea.... shrimp brains don’t even measure up to bird brains. Still, if I glue down a new frag, I have to shoo him away... dumb shrimp.

That’s funny! I wonder if it smells good to them? Animals are silly sometimes!

 

[ngoodermuth]

Thank goodness, I was worried about that! Thank you!

Just reading a little more, you might be a little more concerned if it is completely blocking his mouth. Is his mouth open at all? Does it look like his gills are moving more rapidly?

I might have spoken too soon, I’m not sure he will be able to get enough oxygen without water being able to pass through his mouth and over his gills... apparently the amount of water movement needed to meet oxygen requirements is pretty incredible.

Always learning in this hobby...

 

[RtomKinMad]

This is off topic but I’m intrigued by the description you gave of your rock work. I’d love to see a full tank shot

Good luck w the tang

Hi! We created this tank as a rescue tank for our powder brown tang that was being a bully in my 300 gal reef. It was a smaller tang. This was the only size tank we had room for since we also have another 300 gal FO with a Sohal. First we tried PB with Sohal that almost killed it so we kept him 20gal quarantine for a bit while we bought and cycled this tank. We figured the only way to keep a tang happy in this size tank was to have lots of hiding and swimming space. Unfortunately we added a couple other fish at the beginning and got velvet that killed 3/4 of the fish including the PB. But we took the tank apart dried the rock out and waited a month and started over while the fish went through 45 days of copper. We then had an emergency with our tomini tang it was beaten almost to death in the 300 bus blue eyed kole so I was able to save it and use antibiotics so we added him to this 93 cube then our purple tang also in the 300gal reef was getting bullied by a Caribbean blue so we caught him and also put him in this tank. Added a few more friends. The clowns actually survived the velvet.
So back to your question, my husband built the structure with 70lbs of dry rock. He created like a pyramid started with an outer large circle and narrowed as he built the structure upwards. Leaving the middle hallow and many many openings. The fish seem very happy. Here is a couple of shots of the rocks including the opening the fish swim in and out of. We waiting several months before adding coral. We hope to have a zoa garden someday. The structure is stable. This is actually our favorite rock work in all three tanks. Please don’t mind the tank is dirty it missed scraping on Sunday.
Thank you for asking. We hope this tank can keep the tangs happy omg term.
The stock list for tank is
Two phantom clowns
Tiny foxface (will move to 300gal when larger)
Purple tang
Tomini tang
A large damsel
Swallow tail angel small
Three chalk basslets
One red Joanne’s wrasse
Pink diamond goby
Copperband butterfly
Will not add anymore fish.

 

[RtomKinMad]

Just reading a little more, you might be a little more concerned if it is completely blocking his mouth. Is his mouth open at all? Does it look like his gills are moving more rapidly?

I might have spoken too soon, I’m not sure he will be able to get enough oxygen without water being able to pass through his mouth and over his gills... apparently the amount of water movement needed to meet oxygen requirements is pretty incredible.

Always learning in this hobby...

Hi his gills look ok maybe a little fast but not in any distress. His mouth is open a bit and he was able to eat some nori and mysis
Here is another picture of him. Left side of his moth is open a bit, but not right side. Looks like the lower mouth is open it must be stuck on his upper lip. At least he lets me take his picture. Lol