Yellow Tang is broken

citymouse · Jul 5, 2019

Ok, so I've posted a few times about this same fish, but this is just ridiculous, nothing I do improves this fish.

Long story hopefully short...
Bought the fish around Halloween< Oct. 2018 A yellow tang and a yellow eyed Kole tang, they were med and small sized.. Put them in a 20g QT.
2 week later FW dips confirms flukes on the yellow, treated twice (several weeks apart) FW confirms both fish are clear. Kole never showed symptoms of anything never had flukes fall of in the FW dip.

Jan/Feb/March Ready to move the fish to their real home, my 215, but the Yellow is now breathing rapidly.
Decide to copper treat the tank (which sucks btw, what a pain)
Finished copper treatment. Upgraded to a 40g breeder since it seems this will be their home for the foreseeable future.
April/May-Yellow tank looks thinner than a fish should ever look, practically overnight, so I start feeding more, he fattens up a bit...thinking I must have been underfeeding I kept up with the extra meals. Yellow goes right back to skinny again. FW dip, clear results.
So I medicate some food with general cure and focus and just for the extra help, I also treat the tank with general cure. I fed the food for several weeks. Yellow tang does not look better.
He's super thin, his fins look raggy...
June- I've been feeding way more often ever since he got skinny, I put seaweed in every day, feed NLS and occasionally frozen. They eat everything.
The yellow tank looks like crap. The Kole tang is growing and he's beautiful as he develops.
There are no stringy poops, never have been. The kole has been perfect, no issues at all, only the yellow looks bad. No flashing, no symptoms of anything at all. They swim around, they eat, they act normal.
Yellow tang just looks like it's starving but I can't imagine that's possible.

What in the world could I possible do at this point? What is wrong with this fish? I really do not think it has any parasites, how could it? I've treated 4 times and there are no signs, other than the skinny boy...but if that was the case, wouldn't the Kole also have issues? Because I would have moved him into my big tank months ago if he was loner.

HotRocks · Jul 5, 2019

With all the treatments you have done I would move them to the DT. QT long term can inhibit a fish. Feed high quality frozen foods and add vitamin supplements. Things like selcon, zoecon, vitachem etc. Also are you offering high quality nori daily? Leaving enough on the clip for him to graze 3/4 of the day? (3/4 of your photo period).

Tangs have extremely high metabolism and need food. They also will graze on algae within the DT. I have a sailfin that I have had for over 2 years and he refuses to eat anything but nori. He won't eat frozen and because of that he just isn't healthy. He has HLLE that won't go away etc. Some fish will turn a corner when you add them to the DT. Best of luck with the fish!

citymouse · Jul 6, 2019

HotRocks said:
With all the treatments you have done I would move them to the DT. QT long term can inhibit a fish. Feed high quality frozen foods and add vitamin supplements. Things like selcon, zoecon, vitachem etc. Also are you offering high quality nori daily? Leaving enough on the clip for him to graze 3/4 of the day? (3/4 of your photo period).

Tangs have extremely high metabolism and need food. They also will graze on algae within the DT. I have a sailfin that I have had for over 2 years and he refuses to eat anything but nori. He won't eat frozen and because of that he just isn't healthy. He has HLLE that won't go away etc. Some fish will turn a corner when you add them to the DT. Best of luck with the fish!

I've been afraid to move them because of how he looks. That's the reason I upgraded to the 40 breeder, I figured more space would help. pots and fake plants to hide. I feed sea veggies, purple seaweed every day, it's in there all day and disappears by morning. NLS and the frozen, which I'm about to give them right now, they love it! They eat way more than I would ever feed 2 fish! There is some algae in tank now too, they graze.

citymouse · Jul 6, 2019

Also, they're not very big, the Kole was maybe about 1" when I got him, he's just starting to grow and just outgrew the 1" pvc pipes in there. The Yellow is ibgger than him, but still maybe around 4"

HotRocks · Jul 6, 2019

citymouse said:
I've been afraid to move them because of how he looks. That's the reason I upgraded to the 40 breeder, I figured more space would help. pots and fake plants to hide. I feed sea veggies, purple seaweed every day, it's in there all day and disappears by morning. NLS and the frozen, which I'm about to give them right now, they love it! They eat way more than I would ever feed 2 fish! There is some algae in tank now too, they graze.

If the nori is still there when the lights go down it's probably breaking up and going somewhere since it's gone by morning. Do you run a HOB? Could be in the filter.

citymouse · Jul 6, 2019

HotRocks said:
If the nori is still there when the lights go down it's probably breaking up and going somewhere since it's gone by morning. Do you run a HOB? Could be in the filter.

I have 2 HOB filters, I clean them regularly, but they're not that bad. I can be awake and I'll look up and the seaweed is gone. It seems like once they start eating it, they devour it quickly, but at times it stays there all day before they touch it.

citymouse · Jul 31, 2019

I moved them into my DT, they immediately decided the clownfish territory was the best place to be...Clowns put up with this for a little while, just swimming outside of their rock area...by morning they were fighting, the Yellow tang was less interested but the little Kole wouldn't quit, he was getting beat up too! I ended up having to put a barrier in! Thankfully I had what I needed already! The tanks is over 200g, 2 clownfish who have their set territory for a year, a Goby who goes anywhere and some hermits, 1 snail and somewhere buried deep in the sand is a conch..I never see it... The Tangs can have the entire other half of the tank, there's an ice rock sculpture for them...why do they insist on the clownfish spot??

The Kole spends most of the day near the barrier...he's a trouble maker. The goby had tunneled under it, so he can still travel.

I bought a Bicolor angel and a scooter blenny, my new QT inhabitants. Hopefully they will NOT spend as much time there as the Tang and they get along with everyone once moved! Very cool looking fish.