Tang death scare

[njreejer]

So I just got home after 2 days away. It was around 1am & my tank lights were off because my light period is from 11am to 11pm. I thought I’d turn them on to feed the fish since they’d probably be at least a little hungry from not having their 4x daily feeding. For some dumb reason I didn’t put up my auto feeder before leaving. But anyways, I look inside & see my two clowns are doing fine, they get up in a few seconds and start moving around. Then I look around & see my yellow tang & he looks ok, super pale but that’s expected in the middle of the night. Then, I see my Kole tang wedged up in a cave sleeping & not moving at all. Thought alright he’s just asleep & I started looking for the blue tang. I looked everywhere & he was nowhere to be found. I even checked the sump but he wasn’t there. I was finally able to locate him. He was behind the Kole tang. Right when I saw this I thought what thef because this isn't usual at all. Neither seemed to be moving at all. I thought one might have killed the other or something of the sort. I put my hand in the tank and started waving my hand towards it to push flow & the Kole tang started squirming & swam away slowly but the blue tang didn’t move at all. I told myself alright he could still be alive so I got a turkey baster & started lightly poking at him & he still wouldn’t move at all! I also gave some good forced pokes too along with moving his tail fin. Btw he’s upside down. I was really upset after not seeing any movement. I started to pick up my some of my rock work to get him out and while I was doing this I saw him move a little bit. I was super relieved. He went downwards, wedged himself under another rock & back to sleep he went ;Hilarious I’m not sure if all blue tangs are like this but mine seems to be a suuuper heavy sleeper. I often catch him sleeping during the day too. I’m still shocked he didn’t move at all from my force & poking. Super glad he’s still alive though & thought I’d share this story on here

 

[GrandmaRaff]

Tangs can handle long periods without food. When they are shipped from the indo-pacific they are generally starved for two weeks prior to shipping to keep ammonia levels down in the shipping bags. That is why most tangs in the LFS have pinched bellies. I feed mine Nori from my local Asian market. It generally comes in sheets about the size of copy paper and is very inexpensive. One of the LFS in my area buys it at the Asian market then repackages it for 5 times the price. Anyway fold a sheet up several times and rubber band it to a rock and let them go at it. Anyway Hippo tangs will sleep right side up, upside down or sideways.

 

[njreejer]

Tangs can handle long periods without food. When they are shipped from the indo-pacific they are generally starved for two weeks prior to shipping to keep ammonia levels down in the shipping bags. That is why most tangs in the LFS have pinched bellies. I feed mine Nori from my local Asian market. It generally comes in sheets about the size of copy paper and is very inexpensive. One of the LFS in my area buys it at the Asian market then repackages it for 5 times the price. Anyway fold a sheet up several times and rubber band it to a rock and let them go at it. Anyway Hippo tangs will sleep right side up, upside down or sideways.

Oh wow, 2+weeks without feeding? guess I didn’t really have much to worry about lol & yeah I feed my tangs atleast a sheet of LRS seaweed in their aqua grazer/on a rock daily along with frozen, freeze dried & mix of diff pellets. I was thinking about checking out an Asian market for Nori

 

[Squidward]

Yeah 2 days is nothing. Since they're used to their lighting cycle..you kind of interrupted their sleep that's all.

 

[fishguy242]

cool ,now we need pic's good story, expecting worst

 

[njreejer]

Didn’t wanna post a full tank shot since the scape is pretty messed up after moving rocks but luckily for me they all like grouping up

 

[fishguy242]

Really cool,nice colors..

 

[Hugh Mann]

I'm sure glad I read this, in my reading I had never come across anything saying they'll sleep upside down or sideways. Guess that just goes along with the weird behavior they're supposed to have. If I ever saw my Hippo (coming next Friday, was supposed to be Tuesday, but ich reasons) doing this I would've died a little.

 

[njreejer]

I'm sure glad I read this, in my reading I had never come across anything saying they'll sleep upside down or sideways. Guess that just goes along with the weird behavior they're supposed to have. If I ever saw my Hippo (coming next Friday, was supposed to be Tuesday, but ich reasons) doing this I would've died a little.

Yeah man my heart dropped a bit when I saw him upside down, behind my other tang, completely still lol fish can be quite odd, I guess we just gotta learn to quit worrying too much. Hope all goes well with your new tang

 

[DeniseAndy]

They are silly. They wedge themselves under and in rocks and look dead. Maybe it is a good strategy in the wild. Playing possum.

 

[najer]

Ok I have to play devil's advocate, unless you are trying to catch a fish don't put lights on and poke things, big stress for fish.

 

[Qasimja]

my hippo tang sleeps on his side wedged in between 2 rocks when i got him he was 3 inches or so its been 6 months and hes close to 4 inches now and much thicker im wonderin what happens when the day comes when cant fit in there anymore lol

 

[beginer reef owner]

So I just got home after 2 days away. It was around 1am & my tank lights were off because my light period is from 11am to 11pm. I thought I’d turn them on to feed the fish since they’d probably be at least a little hungry from not having their 4x daily feeding. For some dumb reason I didn’t put up my auto feeder before leaving. But anyways, I look inside & see my two clowns are doing fine, they get up in a few seconds and start moving around. Then I look around & see my yellow tang & he looks ok, super pale but that’s expected in the middle of the night. Then, I see my Kole tang wedged up in a cave sleeping & not moving at all. Thought alright he’s just asleep & I started looking for the blue tang. I looked everywhere & he was nowhere to be found. I even checked the sump but he wasn’t there. I was finally able to locate him. He was behind the Kole tang. Right when I saw this I thought what thef because this isn't usual at all. Neither seemed to be moving at all. I thought one might have killed the other or something of the sort. I put my hand in the tank and started waving my hand towards it to push flow & the Kole tang started squirming & swam away slowly but the blue tang didn’t move at all. I told myself alright he could still be alive so I got a turkey baster & started lightly poking at him & he still wouldn’t move at all! I also gave some good forced pokes too along with moving his tail fin. Btw he’s upside down. I was really upset after not seeing any movement. I started to pick up my some of my rock work to get him out and while I was doing this I saw him move a little bit. I was super relieved. He went downwards, wedged himself under another rock & back to sleep he went ;Hilarious I’m not sure if all blue tangs are like this but mine seems to be a suuuper heavy sleeper. I often catch him sleeping during the day too. I’m still shocked he didn’t move at all from my force & poking. Super glad he’s still alive though & thought I’d share this story on here

Ok I’m freaking out cos mine was doing this and my clownfish were fine it was asleep with its head resting in the filter holder near the surface and I think it’s dead so I turned the light in the room on and after a minute or so my clownfish woke up and my blue tang had its fin up and looked pale and still didn’t move I couldn’t tell if it was breathing so I put my hand in the water and she is usually quite scared and hides under rocks but she didn’t move so thinking she was dead I picked her (not hard) and her fin moved a tiny bit but I wasn’t sure if it was just the water moving it so I pushed her (carfully but quite hard) and she sunk to the bottom of the tank and now she is under the rock and I think she swam there but I was wondering is this normal and is yours ok

 

[beginer reef owner]

I was freaking out cos my blue tang wouldn’t wake up and had her fin up the other fish were fine but I was wondering if your fish was ok afterwards and this is normal

 

[njreejer]

I was freaking out cos my blue tang wouldn’t wake up and had her fin up the other fish were fine but I was wondering if your fish was ok afterwards and this is normal

just saw this but yeah they were totally fine haha it was just bc it was asleep

 

[jaganshi066]

Didn’t wanna post a full tank shot since the scape is pretty messed up after moving rocks but luckily for me they all like grouping up

Beautiful fish, and their colors are all so vibrant.