Skinny tangs

[troypt]

I have tried in the past to keep a maculiceps tang on a couple of different occasions, but they have slowly gotten skinnier and skinnier and then died. They would eat and were active and appeared to be fine, except for getting skinnier and then dying.
I set up a quarantine tank and let it run for a few months and then 2 weeks ago, I bought another one. It is currently eating mysis shrimp, a home made food blend, and nori. I have run prazipro for the past 2 weeks (first dose for a week, then a water change and a second dose for another week). I was thinking of using metroplex and focus to feed for the next 2 weeks and then if all is doing well, move it to the display tank.
Are there other things that I should do? Any other suggestions? My best guess was that the previous tangs had some kind of parasite, but I don’t know for sure.
Thanks
Troy

 

[threebuoys]

I have several questions for you.

How much do you feed the tang daily?

What are the ingredients in your home made food blend?

Have you, or do you intend to treat your QT with copper?

What is your objective using metroplex?

I believe getting tangs to eat a variety of high protein food is critical to long term success. Home made products are good for variety and complexity. Mysis or brine shrimp, especially in the various cube offerings, are very tasty to the fish, but very low in protein and fat due to the high water content. When I get a new tang, during QT I add a pinch of New Life spectrum mini pellets to the mixing cup I use to thaw the frozen cube. Then, the thawed food adds flavor to the pellets, the water softens the pellets, and the fish chows down on all of it since its all mixed together. After a week or so, the tang will eat the pellets directly without the addition of the frozen cubes.

Edit: Keep an eye of the fishes belly. If the fish isn't getting enough food you will see it is pinched and very thin.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have tried in the past to keep a maculiceps tang on a couple of different occasions, but they have slowly gotten skinnier and skinnier and then died. They would eat and were active and appeared to be fine, except for getting skinnier and then dying.
I set up a quarantine tank and let it run for a few months and then 2 weeks ago, I bought another one. It is currently eating mysis shrimp, a home made food blend, and nori. I have run prazipro for the past 2 weeks (first dose for a week, then a water change and a second dose for another week). I was thinking of using metroplex and focus to feed for the next 2 weeks and then if all is doing well, move it to the display tank.
Are there other things that I should do? Any other suggestions? My best guess was that the previous tangs had some kind of parasite, but I don’t know for sure.
Thanks
Troy

Metroplex would be a good move as if there is any internal parasites causing it to be thin, Metro will address it
As For foods, step up the diet. Add aminos and vitamins such as Selcon to those foods. I feed at minimum:
-Spirulina brine shrimp
- LRS Herbivore diet
- mysis shrimp
- small plankton
- Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract
- Hikari Marine cuisine
- Formula 2 flake and frozen
- Hikari veggie marine

Add selcon vitamins to the foods 2-3X per week and on alternating days, garlic extract for stamina and immunity health

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I have tried in the past to keep a maculiceps tang on a couple of different occasions, but they have slowly gotten skinnier and skinnier and then died. They would eat and were active and appeared to be fine, except for getting skinnier and then dying.
I set up a quarantine tank and let it run for a few months and then 2 weeks ago, I bought another one. It is currently eating mysis shrimp, a home made food blend, and nori. I have run prazipro for the past 2 weeks (first dose for a week, then a water change and a second dose for another week). I was thinking of using metroplex and focus to feed for the next 2 weeks and then if all is doing well, move it to the display tank.
Are there other things that I should do? Any other suggestions? My best guess was that the previous tangs had some kind of parasite, but I don’t know for sure.
Thanks
Troy

Metroplex only treats protozoans. Orally dosing it is tough: it should be dosed at 5000 ppm in the food, fed every day for three days. Trouble is, at a proper dose, it is so bitter, many fis refuse it. The old joke is - if you are feeding metronidazole in food and the fish are eating it, your dose is too low.
Many internal worm parasites can be counter balanced by a higher calorie diet - remember, these worms didn’t evolve to kill their host, since they would die as well.
Jay

 

[troypt]

I currently feed twice a day besides nori. Homemade food contains:
salmon; tuna; squid; octopus; shrimp; mussel;
clams; scallops; PE mysis shrimp; cyclops; brine shrimp; Vita C; minced garlic; Selcon; Clanus Powder; Copepod Powder; Spirulina Powder; Golden Pearl; green Nori; spinach; carrots;
broccoli; green peas; seaweed; reef and veggie pellets; reef flakes; fish eggs (roe); krill; Garlic Power: vitamins A, B and C; RO water.

If it is not some kind of parasite, any ideas of what would cause the fish to slowly get skinnier until it dies?

There are 10-12 other fish in the tank and no one else has a problem. My other tangs- a hippo and a gold rim are fat and did fine. The hippo I have had for 3-4 years and the gold rim, I have had for ~2 years. Having had this happen a couple of times, I made sure the maculiceps was getting food. I didn’t see aggression problems with the other tangs.

 

[troypt]

I have not used copper and did not plan too. My plan was the prazipro and metroplex was to prophylacticly treat for parasites and intestinal worms

 

[threebuoys]

Your custom made food sounds delicious!

I worry that for some reason the fish just is not eating enough even though you are providing a special meal to him. Does he seem to be eating a lot? I'm out of ideas.

 

[Uncle99]

QT is already a “scary place” so stress will be on the higher end already, another treatment and time will add additional stress.
My rule of thumb is to only treat what I can reasonably diagnose, and focus on feed and lowering stress where possible until I’m sure what’s up if anything. Not sure why people use so much meds these days. Use of “meds” Likely kills more fish in QT than we know.

 

[troypt]

So the one I have now is eating great and looks great. I’m wondering what else I can do now while it is in quarantine to try and prevent it from slowly starving and dying in the future like the ones I had in the past.

 

[troypt]

So my maculiceps tang is getting skinny just like the previous ones I’ve tried. It eats aggressively, but maybe not getting enough? I feed heavy and 2-3 times a day in an effort to have this one survive. I moved it on Saturday to my sump, so that it wouldn’t have any competition for food, but I’m worried it is too far gone to survive. Are there any ideas to try to help it to gain weight? Do maculicep tangs have special dietary requirements?
Yesterday, I switched from green nori to purple just to try something. I also bought masstick last night in an attempt to let it have some food that it can eat on over a longer period of time during the day. I don’t know if it even tried it last night, but I will try again today