Yellow Tang Dying! Help!

[dcgirl414]

Two nights ago our yellow tang was perfectly fine and, during feeding, he suddenly started swimming very weirdly and flopped to the bottom of the tank. He would try and swim but then would sink back to the bottom and lay on his side.

We isolated him in a fish trap box, and assumed he would die that night. To our surprise he is still alive and fighting, he is breathing and moving his fins but has just been lying on his side for a day and a half. He will move every now and then, and if you startle him he will swim a little bit, but falls back down on his side.

We have put food in his box, but he does not seem interested. Is there anything we can do??? Its so hard to watch him just lay there.

Anyone have any idea whats going on???? please help!

 

[Rjukan]

Welcome to reef2reef. Sorry your first post is about a sick fish but hopefully someone can help you out. In order for them to do that, you're going to need to post some info:
When did you get the fish, how old is your tank, were there any new additions recently, how are your other fish doing? Tank parameters, ie ammonia nitrite nitrate is also helpful. Answer those and post a pic of the fish and that will be a good start for someone to help. Good luck!

 

[dcgirl414]

Here is some more tank info -

Tank is a 75 gallon reef tank.
Other fish in the tank are 2 chromes, 1 firefish, 1 dottyback, 1 sailfin tang, 2 clowns and 1 tomini tang
All fish came in together about 2-3 months ago. The tomini tang is the only new addition and came in about two weeks ago.
All other fish are fine :/

 

[Rjukan]

How old is the tank?

 

[dcgirl414]

The tank is about 4 months old, not sure on the parameters, I am not at home with tank, but we just did testing on it last week and made sure everything was where its supposed to be. Sorry for the vagueness, my husband is the one who does that so I am not sure on the proper jargon.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Ok, first off was the Tomini put through QT? Secondly are there any spots, marks, mucous on the fish? Are you able to do a FW dip? That would be my first procedure to rule out flukes, and provide temporary relief if he’s suffering from velvet. Can you post pics of the fish?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Could one of the mods move this to disease and diagnosis forums? I think she’ll get more eyes on it there.
@HotRocks @4FordFamily

 

[4FordFamily]

I’ve seen this before during feeding time where they seem to have a stroke or seizures and then die or behave lethargic and “not all there” afterward. Things from bad collection methods to simply high stress have been blamed. I’m not sure anyone knows for sure. I’ve seen this in 4-5 tangs over the years, of them 4 died within 24 hours (most instantly) another did this three times before eventually dying on the third episode.

Sorry I know that’s not what you want to hear. Since I’m not convinced this is necessarily a disease, I’m going to leave it here for a more
broad view.

 

[dcgirl414]

Could one of the mods move this to disease and diagnosis forums? I think she’ll get more eyes on it there.
@HotRocks @4FordFamily

We did not QT the Tomini, but he looked healthy and still looks healthy.
Yellow Tang does not have any spots, marks, mucus, looks perfectly fine -just pretty skinny.
I can post a pic later tonight - thank you for your input!


Thanks for your response @4FordFamily - that does kinda sound like whats going, just cant believe he is still alive at this point.