purple tang QT wont eat

Jay Hemdal

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BTW how does everyone keep the PH up in QT?

Mine drops to 7.7 right away and I cant maintain anything above that without that little skimmer+co2 scrubber. I dont want to have to buy another one.
It depends if the low pH is caused by high CO2 or lack of buffering or both. If good aeration doesn’t resolve it then it isn’t high CO2. Really though, as long as the tank is aerated, I wouldn’t worry about a pH of 7.7, at least any ammonia present will be less toxic!
Jay
 
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Risk1994

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TANG TOOK A BITE OF NORI! AND I WITNESSED IT!!

Really happy about this, I've never seen him eat but he's been in here for over a month so he must be sneaking food at some point.

Since I removed the yellow and hes been alone the purple is out most of the time, hes not shy and doesnt jump when you go near him. Looks much better..and today I saw him EAT!

Problem is the yellow is on the tank on the floor and hes miserable...really skittish but still eating.

Im putting the purple in the DT this weekend, then the yellow goes in the purple's tank off the floor. Once I see purple eat, Ill add the Yellow.

Yipee!
 

Jay Hemdal

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TANG TOOK A BITE OF NORI! AND I WITNESSED IT!!

Really happy about this, I've never seen him eat but he's been in here for over a month so he must be sneaking food at some point.

Since I removed the yellow and hes been alone the purple is out most of the time, hes not shy and doesnt jump when you go near him. Looks much better..and today I saw him EAT!

Problem is the yellow is on the tank on the floor and hes miserable...really skittish but still eating.

Im putting the purple in the DT this weekend, then the yellow goes in the purple's tank off the floor. Once I see purple eat, Ill add the Yellow.

Yipee!

Can you get the purple tang to eat mysids? Nori isn't very nutritious. What is the yellow tang feeding on? My general advice is not to move fish out of a QT into a DT unless it has been 14 days since the last symptoms were seen, I know there are circumstances where you can't do that, but you don't want to do that to try and save one fish, but put the other fish in the DT at risk.

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Risk1994

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Can you get the purple tang to eat mysids? Nori isn't very nutritious. What is the yellow tang feeding on? My general advice is not to move fish out of a QT into a DT unless it has been 14 days since the last symptoms were seen, I know there are circumstances where you can't do that, but you don't want to do that to try and save one fish, but put the other fish in the DT at risk.
No, only Nori at this point but Im assuming he MUST have eaten something, hes been in there for over 40 days. Normally I feed seaweed pellets, frozen brine and angel food mixed and nori (green and purple) occasionally soaked in selcon. I have never witnessed him eat anything until yesterday. His behavior changed almost immediately after moving out the yellow. The yellow gets the same food and has eaten everything. BUt I can tell he hates being on the ground floor, hes very skittish now.

Im hesitant to wait another 2 weeks. I think QT has caused much of this stress. Hes been in 2.0 copper for 30 days now...he was with the yellow for most of that time and the yellow seems ok.
 

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WEll, it shouldn't be in copper longer than 30 days unless there are on-going symptoms. I'd say you can move it out now with less risk than I had thought.

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WEll, it shouldn't be in copper longer than 30 days unless there are on-going symptoms. I'd say you can move it out now with less risk than I had thought.

Jay
If I keep him for another 14 days I'd need to empty it out and get his tank going with no copper. I think for sure he doesnt have anything that is copper treatable, His 2 big symptoms were the twitchyness and not eating. The twitchyness is gone, I guess I never figured out what that was but it was gone about a week after removing the yellow. The yellow is now skittish since being on the bottom tank, although he doesnt really twich, he's just very skittish. I really want to get him off the floor.

I guess I need to weigh the benefits vs drawbacks of keeping him in QT. I guess I could put the yellow in DT and keep purple in QT for another 2 weeks, but then I'd have to remove the yellow before putting in the purple to limit aggression...

My gut tells me its best to get this guy out of this 20g.
 

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Read the thread and glad the purple tang is doing better !

Just my two cents and I could be wrong but I noticed he improved drastically once you put him in his own tank . My guess would be the guy was super stressed from being in a small QT tank with a similar fish to him the yellow tang. This might explain the twitching, the hiding, the not eating. Yellow and Purple are of the same family of tangs and fish do get along more often then not sometimes resulting in death.

I might think twice about adding them to the same tank or at least have an acclimation box to observe them in the display for a few hours or days to watch for aggression in the same tank
 
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This is not a good day...

Woke up this morning and my flame angel was dead against the powerhead...no outward symptoms ever shown...he was QT'd along with the other fish in there, hes been in my DT for months eating great with no signs of any issues....I looked at his body and nothing at all seemed out of the ordinary, no dark patches/growths/white spots, nothing....also my screen was slightly offset and my large clown jumped out, dead.

The purple tang has been ok in the DT but he really doesn't eat much and his color just isn't fully back yet. When my wife called out "the fish died" this morning I just assumed she meant the purple tang, honestly a part of me was relieved it was over.

This fish thing really is much less fun than coral. I really prefer corals...fish are nice but trouble. So discouraged.
 
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Read the thread and glad the purple tang is doing better !

Just my two cents and I could be wrong but I noticed he improved drastically once you put him in his own tank . My guess would be the guy was super stressed from being in a small QT tank with a similar fish to him the yellow tang. This might explain the twitching, the hiding, the not eating. Yellow and Purple are of the same family of tangs and fish do get along more often then not sometimes resulting in death.

I might think twice about adding them to the same tank or at least have an acclimation box to observe them in the display for a few hours or days to watch for aggression in the same tank
You are right about this...he became MUCH less shy and the first time I saw him eat nori was after the yellow was moved out completely (a barrier wasnt enough) Purple is in the DT until Im totally satisfied hes happy, the yellow is still in QT (no copper) until then.
 
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Temp is 78.9 PH is 8.15, Ill have to check all the other parameters.

The only real change is that I put my co2 scrubber in recirculating mode a few days ago. I added the scrubber many weeks (months?) ago and it really helped bring up my PH from high 7's to low 8's, but never to 8.3. I put it in recirculate mode with the scrubber/skimmer a few days ago...thats the only change I can think of in this tank. I did notice condensation in the air tubes and scrubber insides, but no liquid got into the tank.
 
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Risk1994

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Best shot I could get of his stomach pinched. I never see him eat but I've had him for months, must be eating something.

The Yellow tang now aggressively attacks purple whenever food is introduced. I've taken to placing nori on one side first, then the other, but yellow seems more determined to keep purple away from food then he does in eating himself. Its so frustrating.

In a last ditch attempt to keep these guys I'm considering adding ANOTHER tang. Perhaps a kole. Im thinking perhaps if the aggression can be spread out it will calm things down.

Any thoughts?

20210902_213927.jpg
 
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His mouth has always been like this...Im not a tang expert but doesn't this seem odd?

 
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Purple Tang died last night....RIP :(

After 3 months he finally gave up the ghost, was awful to watch. I really tried everything I could think of with this fish. I honestly think it was something with his mouth. He just had no outward symptoms of anything else. He would swim right up to food excitedly, then not eat. I saw no other blotches, spots, red patches...no scratching or flashing. Just that weird way his mouth was white and wide open. Wish I had the resources for an autopsy.

Anyway all my other fish are doing great. Thanks for all the help on this forum.
 

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Purple Tang died last night....RIP :(

After 3 months he finally gave up the ghost, was awful to watch. I really tried everything I could think of with this fish. I honestly think it was something with his mouth. He just had no outward symptoms of anything else. He would swim right up to food excitedly, then not eat. I saw no other blotches, spots, red patches...no scratching or flashing. Just that weird way his mouth was white and wide open. Wish I had the resources for an autopsy.

Anyway all my other fish are doing great. Thanks for all the help on this forum.
Sad to hear but awesome job OP for giving the animal a fighting chance. I just picked up a PT this past weekend
 
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