yellow tang help!!!

[attempt]

tonight i added a prizm skimmer to my 29 gal tank. I went out to eat came home a few hours later, my yellow tang is white!!! (not completely just the middle area) he is also zipping around the tank... almost like he has seen a ghost! what is goin on? I know the colors fade at night when the lights are out, but the light has been on. I have noticed that he spazzes out sometimes recently . gets in the corner and shakes his body rapidly. now all this.. my nitrates are up just a bit.. about 20ppm and phosphates are a up a bit, but everything else is fine (nitrites = 0 ammonia = 0 ph = 8.1 alkalinity 400 salinity 1.023)
i have in the tank with him, 2 cinnamon clowns, a coral beauty and a bangii cardinal, along with about 8 hermit crabs (got rid or the arrow crab cause the b**tard attacked and killed my cleaner shrimp and bali star)
nothing has changed other than the addition of the skimmer... it is not emitting any bubbles in the tank so i knwo that is not it..
somebody help me out here!!! please!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

well, you have a lot of problems going on. you won't wanna hear what we have to say, but here comes the bad news.
a 29 is too small for the yellow tang. beyond that your tank is overcrowded.

20ppm nitrates is way too high for a reef tank. how old is that tank? your nitrates should be zero for a reef.

you might want to take the fish back to the store. i know it ain't what you want to hear, but that's probably the best remedy to your problem.
either that or buy a much bigger tank.

 

[attempt]

the tank is about 3 months old, i have had the yellow tang in there for about 2 months. and added the 2 clowns about a week ago. the tang was fine up until tonight when i added the skimmer ( he started his spazticness about 3 weeks ago.) I dont have any corals or inverts at all in the tank. so it is more of a fish only tank for now as i dont have proper lighting for a reef tank yet. why is he so faded all of a sudden?
(i know my nitrates should be 0 i am doing partial water changes about every 2 weeks to try to get it down)

 

[Reefguide]

I Had a Yellow Tang, a Blue Tang and 2 clowns in my 29g for 2 years. Took the Tangs out eventually b/c they were really getting big and munching on Xenias. But they were otherwise happy and healthy in 29g.

The tangs can get a bit pale when stressed out. Can anyone be freaking him out? Nitrates are high BTW. DO ya have a hospital tank or maybe can LFS hold him for a bit?

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, so we're dealing with more of a fish only tank. The nitrates aren't going to be that big a concern right now. I agree with you.

Note that you have added some territorial fish - clowns - to your little slice of the ocean, and uppped the competition for space.

You added the skimmer tonight. Good move, you definitely want to improve water quality; that's smart. But you've introduced another change to the environment. The tang is probably just stressing over more change. They're kind of skiddish that way. Especially when already stressed.

The color change is a sign of stress.

I wish you & your fish well. I don't want to come off like a heavy here, and browbeat you. I made the same mistakes in the past. I kept a ton of fish in a 29 once upon a time. I lost a lot. Got a lot of ich, and dumped in a lot of copper. I'd like to spare you the expense, and spare the loss of the animals.

 

[attempt]

no offense taken thats why im her.. to learn !!
the 2 clowns i added are very small they seem to keep their distance from the tang. i dont knwo how much of a threat they are right now. The tang seems to enjoy chasing the coral beauty throughout the formations i have created.. kinda like a game of tag. neither have any torn fins so they are not fighting i dont think.. seems to be more of a bordom reliever. the tank has been good so far. except for that stupid arrow crab. i took him back cause i caught him killing my cleaner shrimp, i came home the other night all ws well, about 1/2 hor later i was checking everything out and saw the shrimp in the crabs claw helplessly stuggleing while his legs and antenea being plucked out with the other claw.... he did the same to my bali star..and i think he got an earlier sebae clown.. i thought at first it was the tang messing with him, but i saw the crab try and "trap' the clown underneath him and cage him in with his legs. the next morning he was dead. ever since i got rid of the crab everything has been great.. kinda weird.. my LFS said the arrow crab shouldnt hurt anything in the tank... guess they were wrong

 

[Reefguide]

In reefing, I've learned nothing is certain !!

 

[MandarinFish]

please get the tang out of the 29 gallon tank.

It should have 4 feet + of swimming space. And it doesn't.

 

[theroryshow]

i work in a fish store and have often heard stories of people shocking their fish when adding new equipment. Basically stray voltage runs in the tank. Try using a grounding probe and see if this helps, believe it or not this is a rather common problem.

 

[Anonymous]

no offense taken thats why im her.. to learn !!
the 2 clowns i added are very small they seem to keep their distance from the tang. i dont knwo how much of a threat they are right now. The tang seems to enjoy chasing the coral beauty throughout the formations i have created.. kinda like a game of tag. neither have any torn fins so they are not fighting i dont think.. seems to be more of a bordom reliever. the tank has been good so far. except for that stupid arrow crab. i took him back cause i caught him killing my cleaner shrimp, i came home the other night all ws well, about 1/2 hor later i was checking everything out and saw the shrimp in the crabs claw helplessly stuggleing while his legs and antenea being plucked out with the other claw.... he did the same to my bali star..and i think he got an earlier sebae clown.. i thought at first it was the tang messing with him, but i saw the crab try and "trap' the clown underneath him and cage him in with his legs. the next morning he was dead. ever since i got rid of the crab everything has been great.. kinda weird.. my LFS said the arrow crab shouldnt hurt anything in the tank... guess they were wrong

arrow crabs will eat just about anything they can grab-send it back-it will not hesitate to try and catch your clowns at nite,as well :twisted:

i second the advice re: the tang-trade it back for a blenny, or something of similiar size-you and the fish are better off.

luck

 

[SPC]

Posted by attempt:

why is he so faded all of a sudden?

-The reason for this is that he is stressed.
1. The tang needs a larger tank.
2. Your bioload is too high for a 29 gallon tank.
As long as you continue with this type of stocking you will have problems. It dosen't make any difference how large of a skimmer you use, in this case the inhabitants of this tank are doomed.
Steve

 

[dizzy]

Attempt, that white band in the middle does sound like a your yellow is showing night colors in the daytime which ain't good. I don't believe you mentioned how large the yellow tang was. I for one think size makes some sort of difference as to how well the tang might be expected to do in a tank that small. I would suggest getting a larger tank ASAP. It defintely sounds like you subjecting it to stress or wrong conditions.

About 15 years ago I use to do maintenance for a lady who had a yellow tang that had lost all the yellow pigmentation. This tang had become a sort of dirty off-white color and had absolutely no yellow color left whatsoever. It was in a 55 with a humu humu trigger, a foxface, large porcupine puffer and a clown or damsel or two. The tang was relatively fat (no pinched belly) and appeared healthy in all regards except for the loss of color. I think it may have been a dietary deficiency but it lived for at least 5-years like that and I always thought it was the damnest thing.
Thanks for bringing back that memory and thank God the quality of the prepared food has improved in the last decade.

 

[attempt]

My tang is back to his old self again today!!
I think he may have just been stressed or something... maybe because of change in water current because of the skimmer?
neverless he is his bright yellow self again.. one then that i found out today is i need to get him some algae sheets for him to eat.. i have jsut been feeding flake and brine. I was told today that he will stand a good chance at getting head and line disease or something like that if i dont get some vegies in him
as far as his size hmmm about 2" - 2 1/2" nose to tail.

 

[MandarinFish]

Again, your tang may be a better shade of yellow, but it doesn't mean the poor thing belongs in a 29 gallon tank.

Remove it, please.

Please?

They are great swimmers in the wild, they go long distances.

They don't sit in one place like clowns do.

Tangs don't belong in 29 gallon tanks.

Not trying to be a schmuck. I just want you to hear us and understand, please.

I love big angels, but my fish-only system is only 55 gallons and I have no business keeping one in a tank that small. So I don't.

Someday when I have the right tank size, I will.

My reef system has been set up about 9 months. It should be at least 1 1/2 years old to be mature enough to handle a pair of Mandarin Dragonets... and the tank is 135 gallons, 6 feet long, and has over 100 pounds of live rock. Pods all over the glass, etc.

And I'm still being patient and *not* buying them yet. Because these are living animals dependent on us to provide them appropriate homes, since we've seen to it they were torn from theres.

Food for thought. Please absorb.