Please help my new Sohal Tang!

[randiLee]

Hi! Brand new member here.

I found a very active Sohal tang at our local aquarium store. They’ve had him 9 months. I brought him home because he was SUPER interactive through the glass, ate like a piggy, and just seemed like such an active and healthy guy.

We added him to our tank yesterday and he has been acting extremely weird. Swimming vertical, flapping his side fins and barely using his tail.

At the store, he was kept in a smaller aquarium but with no live rock or anything else in the tank…they had him 9 months with no issues.

Is he potentially afraid of all the stuff in our tank? Is this usual Sohal behavior? Could he have been stung by our Condy anemone?

Our tank is very well established but we recently had a major accident and lost all our fish (went out of town and accidentally left the filter off. Fish died by the next morning, it was devastating. We now have extensive alarms set so we can prevent this tragedy from ever occurring again.).

We’ve just been taking care of our invertebrates for a few weeks and are just now adding fish back. Water parameters are all normal.

We added this Sohal along with a wrasse, moorish idol, powder blue tang, & coral beauty. No bullies have been identified. All other fish doing great. Invertebrates still doing great as well.

We’re currently considering removing the condy and some of the rock to give him some more open space in the tank. He is quite larger than we expected him to be for our tank so, we need to make some adjustments for him. Upgrading to 400+ gal in the next 3-6 months.

Any feedback or help is appreciated.
I don’t want to lose him

 

[W31Olds]

Randi, need a bit more information. The Sohal was in a separate system from the other fish you purchased, correct? Was it using a common filtration LFS type system or using its own filter like say a DT. If so, I would be looking hard at a large jump in Salinity from low at the LFS to high in your tank. Call the LFS and have them measure that specific tank.

 

[W31Olds]

Oh, I see no need to remove some of your rock.

 

[Uncle99]

The Sohal is a tough player and ain’t going to get along with the powder blue.

Very dominating fish except in the largest of systems.

He’s likely establishing territory everywhere.

How big is your system now, 400g, that could work.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi! Brand new member here.

I found a very active Sohal tang at our local aquarium store. They’ve had him 9 months. I brought him home because he was SUPER interactive through the glass, ate like a piggy, and just seemed like such an active and healthy guy.

We added him to our tank yesterday and he has been acting extremely weird. Swimming vertical, flapping his side fins and barely using his tail.

At the store, he was kept in a smaller aquarium but with no live rock or anything else in the tank…they had him 9 months with no issues.

Is he potentially afraid of all the stuff in our tank? Is this usual Sohal behavior? Could he have been stung by our Condy anemone?

Our tank is very well established but we recently had a major accident and lost all our fish (went out of town and accidentally left the filter off. Fish died by the next morning, it was devastating. We now have extensive alarms set so we can prevent this tragedy from ever occurring again.).

We’ve just been taking care of our invertebrates for a few weeks and are just now adding fish back. Water parameters are all normal.

We added this Sohal along with a wrasse, moorish idol, powder blue tang, & coral beauty. No bullies have been identified. All other fish doing great. Invertebrates still doing great as well.

We’re currently considering removing the condy and some of the rock to give him some more open space in the tank. He is quite larger than we expected him to be for our tank so, we need to make some adjustments for him. Upgrading to 400+ gal in the next 3-6 months.

Any feedback or help is appreciated.
I don’t want to lose him

Its likely an adjustment to new tank and environment . Lower white light intensity 48 hrs and how did you acclimate fish to your tank? Having many tangs, this is not unusual behavior with new arrival, in fact last Saturday I added a 15" Vlamingi who actually started grabbing food first today, otherwise was eating a flake here and there
I dont see this as a salinity issue

 

[randiLee]

Randi, need a bit more information. The Sohal was in a separate system from the other fish you purchased, correct? Was it using a common filtration LFS type system or using its own filter like say a DT. If so, I would be looking hard at a large jump in Salinity from low at the LFS to high in your tank. Call the LFS and have them measure that specific tank.

I will reach out to them immediately.

 

[randiLee]

The Sohal is a tough player and ain’t going to get along with the powder blue.

Very dominating fish except in the largest of systems.

He’s likely establishing territory everywhere.

How big is your system now, 400g, that could work.

Our system now is 260? I think. I’ll confirm with my husband.

He’s definitely too big for this tank. He seemed so much smaller at the store. But I already bought him and now I just need to get him comfortable in the tank for a few months while we’re building out the new system. He was in a much smaller space at the store for 9 months.

He doesn’t seem to be aggressive, whatsoever. We have a camera on the tank and he has had no bullies and hasn’t done ANYTHING other than swim vertical in this one position. He is not interested in food, other tank mates or anything. I’ve scrolled through the entire video and he literally hasn’t moved and no other tank mate even acknowledges him.

His other tank mates are less than half his size and they were all introduced to the tank at the same time. We have a close eye on everyone and have other tanks available to relocate, if any bulling occurs. But the Sohal cannot be moved to the other tanks because they are too small for him.

Do you think moving the powder blue might help him relax?

 

[randiLee]

Its likely an adjustment to new tank and environment . Lower white light intensity 48 hrs and how did you acclimate fish to your tank? Having many tangs, this is not unusual behavior with new arrival, in fact last Saturday I added a 15" Vlamingi who actually started grabbing food first today, otherwise was eating a flake here and there
I dont see this as a salinity issue

 

[randiLee]

He was given to us to bring home in a bucket and we dripped him over 1 hour but with the water at full pressure (using one of those little drip lines). I discarded 1/2 the water and let the drip
refill maybe 2-3 times over the course of the hour and then we scooped him out and added him to the tank. We’ve been dripping fish like this for over a year with no issues.

He swam around for maybe 5 minutes and then layed on his side at the bottom of the tank for about 5 minutes. We thought we lost him immediately. But he eventually started the weird swim pattern in the video and hasn’t stopped since.

 

[randiLee]

Its likely an adjustment to new tank and environment . Lower white light intensity 48 hrs and how did you acclimate fish to your tank? Having many tangs, this is not unusual behavior with new arrival, in fact last Saturday I added a 15" Vlamingi who actually started grabbing food first today, otherwise was eating a flake here and there
I dont see this as a salinity issue

This is promising. I really really hope it’s just an adjustment. We’ve adjusted lights to be pretty low intensity but I will double check to be sure. Thank you.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is promising. I really really hope it’s just an adjustment. We’ve adjusted lights to be pretty low intensity but I will double check to be sure. Thank you.

Adding an air stone often helps if breathing is elevated from stress of a new tank

 

[TwelveL16]

Fish don’t die over night from turning a filter off? What’s your salinity at and how are you checking it?

 

[randiLee]

Fish don’t die over night from turning a filter off? What’s your salinity at and how are you checking it?

The filter was turned off around noon to add copepods to the tank. We planned to leave it off for an hour and turn it back on before leaving town. Right before it was time to leave the house, we got word that our kids flight was landing early and we rushed out the door to pick them up from the airport….forgetting about the tank. We left straight from the airport to hit the road to Destin, Fl for family vacation.

We checked the cameras on the tank several times throughout that day/evening and all looked fine.

At 5am the next morning, my sister came down to feed the fish and she called us to tell us that every single fish was dead. When checking the cameras, we estimate the first fish died around 3am and by 5am, they all were gone.

We had a professional come over to remove all the dead fish and try to salvage any survivors. He’s a friend and came over immediately. All invertebrates survived. And actually, one clown goby survived as well.

Salinity is always around 35. We have an auto top-off and an alarm that alerts us to any changes in salinity.

Our heater was located in the sump. With the filters off, there was no water return to the main display and the temp dropped several degrees. There was also no surface agitation in the main tank and the oxygen likely dropped low as well.

We have since added a heater to the main tank as a backup, moved some wave makers around to create surface agitation and fine tuned the default alarm settings to alert us to changes sooner.

Prior to this accident, all fish were extremely healthy and had zero indication of disease or illness. They’re very well taken care of.

After this tragedy, we cleaned the tank really well but did not start over. We monitored the water chemistry and waited until we felt ready to add fish again.

 

[randiLee]

Fish don’t die over night from turning a filter off? What’s your salinity at and how are you checking it?

Salinity in the tank is monitored via Apex system but I use a Hannah marine digital tester when mixing buckets of water. I keep the mixed salt water in a separate container with filter, heater, and pump (to collect it until I have enough to do a water change). When it’s time to do a water change, we test it with a refractometer before adding it to the tank.

 

[TwelveL16]

Fish don’t die over night from turning a filter off? What’s your salinity at and how are you checking it?

The filter was turned off around noon to add copepods to the tank. We planned to leave it off for an hour and turn it back on before leaving town. Right before it was time to leave the house, we got word that our kids flight was landing early and we rushed out the door to pick them up from the airport….forgetting about the tank. We left straight from the airport to hit the road to Destin, Fl for family vacation.

We checked the cameras on the tank several times throughout that day/evening and all looked fine.

At 5am the next morning, my sister came down to feed the fish and she called us to tell us that every single fish was dead. When checking the cameras, we estimate the first fish died around 3am and by 5am, they all were gone.

We had a professional come over to remove all the dead fish and try to salvage any survivors. He’s a friend and came over immediately. All invertebrates survived. And actually, one clown goby survived as well.

Salinity is always around 35. We have an auto top-off and an alarm that alerts us to any changes in salinity.

Our heater was located in the sump. With the filters off, there was no water return to the main display and the temp dropped several degrees. There was also no surface agitation in the main tank and the oxygen likely dropped low as well.

We have since added a heater to the main tank as a backup, moved some wave makers around to create surface agitation and fine tuned the default alarm settings to alert us to changes sooner.

Prior to this accident, all fish were extremely healthy and had zero indication of disease or illness. They’re very well taken care of.

After this tragedy, we cleaned the tank really well but did not start over. We monitored the water chemistry and waited until we felt ready to add fish again.

That’s sad. Still don’t think it adds up though.

1. Your live rock is your tanks main filtration

2. The temp drop would have been gradual and most homes are in the 70s so I don’t think temperature is the culprit here.

3. Even with no surface agitation in a 200 some gallon tank there should have been enough oxygen to last over night. I mean people ship fish in a bag overnight and they do just fine.

What’s done is done. I just don’t want it to happen to you again. You never really answered me how you check your salinity.

 

[randiLee]

That’s sad. Still don’t think it adds up though.

1. Your live rock is your tanks main filtration

2. The temp drop would have been gradual and most homes are in the 70s so I don’t think temperature is the culprit here.

3. Even with no surface agitation in a 200 some gallon tank there should have been enough oxygen to last over night. I mean people ship fish in a bag overnight and they do just fine.

What’s done is done. I just don’t want it to happen to you again. You never really answered me how you check your salinity.

I did in another post.

I’m open ears for anything that will prevent a tragedy like this again.

We’ve been doing this successfully for over 18 months with very minimal fish loss until the filter was left off.

 

[TwelveL16]

That’s sad. Still don’t think it adds up though.

1. Your live rock is your tanks main filtration

2. The temp drop would have been gradual and most homes are in the 70s so I don’t think temperature is the culprit here.

3. Even with no surface agitation in a 200 some gallon tank there should have been enough oxygen to last over night. I mean people ship fish in a bag overnight and they do just fine.

What’s done is done. I just don’t want it to happen to you again. You never really answered me how you check your salinity.

I did in another post.

I’m open ears for anything that will prevent a tragedy like this again.

We’ve been doing this successfully for over 18 months with very minimal fish loss until the filter was left off.

I see it now. Hard for me to tell at this point what happened.

I’ve never owned a sohal tang. I have owned a clown tang. Pretty similar. It could just be stress from a new tank. However it strikes me as a salinity issue (possibly during acclimation) or lack of oxygen issue but he’d probably be closer to the top if it was oxygen and all your fish would likely be doing it.

If he dies, I’d be cross checking your water parameters .Such as ammonia and Salinity. Especially coming off a total loss. If you have not had fish in there for awhile you can shock your tank by adding several at once. Biome should react pretty fast to that though.

Also, you aren’t really doing things the “conventional” way by using a canister filter as your drain and return. You need power heads to move water around.

 

[randiLee]

I see it now. Hard for me to tell at this point what happened.

I’ve never owned a sohal tang. I have owned a clown tang. Pretty similar. It could just be stress from a new tank. However it strikes me as a salinity issue (possibly during acclimation) or lack of oxygen issue but he’d probably be closer to the top if it was oxygen and all your fish would likely be doing it.

If he dies, I’d be cross checking your water parameters .Such as ammonia and Salinity. Especially coming off a total loss. If you have not had fish in there for awhile you can shock your tank by adding several at once. Biome should react pretty fast to that though.

Also, you aren’t really doing things the “conventional” way by using a canister filter as your drain and return. You need power heads to move water around.

We haven’t run a canister filter before. We have a pretty large weir wall system in our sump with filter socks, bubbler waste collector thing, UV sterilizer, sponges, carbon, etc. We purchased this setup from someone leaving the hobby and we’ve just been adding to it. Haven’t had any water quality issues come up yet so, I don’t think adding a canister filter ever crossed our minds. We have wave makers which I think are called power heads inside the tank

 

[Uncle99]

Our system now is 260? I think. I’ll confirm with my husband.

He’s definitely too big for this tank. He seemed so much smaller at the store. But I already bought him and now I just need to get him comfortable in the tank for a few months while we’re building out the new system. He was in a much smaller space at the store for 9 months.

He doesn’t seem to be aggressive, whatsoever. We have a camera on the tank and he has had no bullies and hasn’t done ANYTHING other than swim vertical in this one position. He is not interested in food, other tank mates or anything. I’ve scrolled through the entire video and he literally hasn’t moved and no other tank mate even acknowledges him.

His other tank mates are less than half his size and they were all introduced to the tank at the same time. We have a close eye on everyone and have other tanks available to relocate, if any bulling occurs. But the Sohal cannot be moved to the other tanks because they are too small for him.

Do you think moving the powder blue might help him relax?

The behaviour seems odd to me for that specific fish. That’s good size water!

Perhaps he sees himself in the glass and thinks that’s another competitor, you can test that theory by seeing if it stops when lights out.

I would have expected him/her to be constantly on the move, likely letting all know who the boss is.

If there’s no agressive behaviour, I leave the PB in.

Sometimes things just work out for no apparent reason.

Beautiful fish, very fast.

Likely will not accept any new entries going forward.

 

[TwelveL16]

I see it now. Hard for me to tell at this point what happened.

I’ve never owned a sohal tang. I have owned a clown tang. Pretty similar. It could just be stress from a new tank. However it strikes me as a salinity issue (possibly during acclimation) or lack of oxygen issue but he’d probably be closer to the top if it was oxygen and all your fish would likely be doing it.

If he dies, I’d be cross checking your water parameters .Such as ammonia and Salinity. Especially coming off a total loss. If you have not had fish in there for awhile you can shock your tank by adding several at once. Biome should react pretty fast to that though.

Also, you aren’t really doing things the “conventional” way by using a canister filter as your drain and return. You need power heads to move water around.

We haven’t run a canister filter before. We have a pretty large weir wall system in our sump with filter socks, bubbler waste collector thing, UV sterilizer, sponges, carbon, etc. We purchased this setup from someone leaving the hobby and we’ve just been adding to it. Haven’t had any water quality issues come up yet so, I don’t think adding a canister filter ever crossed our minds. We have wave makers which I think are called power heads inside the tank

I see the gyre now.

So when you say you “turned off” your filter what are you referring to?