AQSstudent
Community Member
Hello all,
I recently purchased a small (3") scopas tang from the LFS who had been sitting in the 10x10 glass box since last july. He is now in my 75 gallon mixed reef, happily chowing on what I call a slight outbreak of hair algae and Ulva. Not enough for anybody not in the hobby to notice, but enough to bother me enough to consider adding a tang who had been living in the equivalent of a jail cell for the last 5 months, lol.
At the store, he was always slightly thin and perky. I put him through 14 days of hypo and the tank transfer method with freshwater dips in between. No sign of external parasites, and he had no signs of internal parasites either (no white stringy poop).
Now, with an actual reef tank to swim around in that's full of naturally growing food, he has quite the stomach bulge. Like, his entire organ area seems to be bulging out, faster than his body is. I know it is common for tangs especially to put on weight when added to a healthy tank, but this seems excessive.
NH3/4, NO2 are both 0, PO4 is .03 ppm (salifert testing kits).
pH is about 7.9-8.1, a little lower than I want but in the winter as CO2 builds up in the house it happens. Alkalinity is about 8.5
NO3 is about 25-30 ppm.
Temperature remains between 70-80 year round, right now the tank is sitting at about 72.
The tang swims, eats, hides, explores, orients himself in the water properly, and flashes the spine on his caudal peduncle when the clarkii gets too close; AKA a completely normal acting fish. The tank has a marine betta, a clarkii clown, a swalesi basslet, a yellow watchman goby, and an ornate leopard wrasse who have all been in the tank for close to or over a year now, showing no symptoms of disease or discomfort. There is a mix of SPS, LPS, and softies growing.
The only thing different is that his gut seems to be expanding, and seeing as the tank is healthy as well and no other fish show symptoms of anything; could this be an issue of constipation/impaction?
I feed mainly rod's Pacifica plankton, along with formula 1 frozen cubes and some ocean nutrition flakes if I don't feel like going all the way to the freezer for fish food. He constantly grazes on filamentous algae and Ulva, which there is slightly more of than I'd like in the tank due to the way the sun shines in the room this time of year.
Anybody want to weigh in with any opinions or experiences? Any potential treatments for constipation? Should I chop up a chocolate laxative and mix it into some mysis? :D
I recently purchased a small (3") scopas tang from the LFS who had been sitting in the 10x10 glass box since last july. He is now in my 75 gallon mixed reef, happily chowing on what I call a slight outbreak of hair algae and Ulva. Not enough for anybody not in the hobby to notice, but enough to bother me enough to consider adding a tang who had been living in the equivalent of a jail cell for the last 5 months, lol.
At the store, he was always slightly thin and perky. I put him through 14 days of hypo and the tank transfer method with freshwater dips in between. No sign of external parasites, and he had no signs of internal parasites either (no white stringy poop).
Now, with an actual reef tank to swim around in that's full of naturally growing food, he has quite the stomach bulge. Like, his entire organ area seems to be bulging out, faster than his body is. I know it is common for tangs especially to put on weight when added to a healthy tank, but this seems excessive.
NH3/4, NO2 are both 0, PO4 is .03 ppm (salifert testing kits).
pH is about 7.9-8.1, a little lower than I want but in the winter as CO2 builds up in the house it happens. Alkalinity is about 8.5
NO3 is about 25-30 ppm.
Temperature remains between 70-80 year round, right now the tank is sitting at about 72.
The tang swims, eats, hides, explores, orients himself in the water properly, and flashes the spine on his caudal peduncle when the clarkii gets too close; AKA a completely normal acting fish. The tank has a marine betta, a clarkii clown, a swalesi basslet, a yellow watchman goby, and an ornate leopard wrasse who have all been in the tank for close to or over a year now, showing no symptoms of disease or discomfort. There is a mix of SPS, LPS, and softies growing.
The only thing different is that his gut seems to be expanding, and seeing as the tank is healthy as well and no other fish show symptoms of anything; could this be an issue of constipation/impaction?
I feed mainly rod's Pacifica plankton, along with formula 1 frozen cubes and some ocean nutrition flakes if I don't feel like going all the way to the freezer for fish food. He constantly grazes on filamentous algae and Ulva, which there is slightly more of than I'd like in the tank due to the way the sun shines in the room this time of year.
Anybody want to weigh in with any opinions or experiences? Any potential treatments for constipation? Should I chop up a chocolate laxative and mix it into some mysis? :D
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