New Fish dying

[circusgal82]

Hello. I am new at this and have a dying fish....we just got a new blue Tang and did what are seller told us to- 5 min intervels for 20 min. changing out the water...so we put the fish in the water when that was done, and it sank to the bottom and is hardly moving and is turning grey, it has been about 30 min. now and no change, I think the fish is dying in front of us and I dont know what to do...the fish store is closed now also...any help would really be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Mr Miagi]

Personally, i dont think 20 mins would be long enough. So he is probably in shock. There is not much you can do for him now except turn the lights off and leave him be.

Goodluck, i hope he survives

 

[Eelzor]

What I did with mine was keep them in the bag equalising the temperature for about 20 mins. Then used the drip method for 1 drip per second until the bag was 50% store water and 50% my water. Then I slowly let the fish swim out - not tip it out. These were with clownfish - I think Blue tangs maybe longer, unsure on that.

Good Luck with your fish.

 

[canyoubelieveit]

I think mr_miagi is right. Just let the fish be. Any more changes and you could provide greater stress to the fish. It sounds like you had the right idea, but you were anxious to get the fish in the tank! I've suffered from this a few times with some fresh water fish (I lost 2 angelfish once ) I hope that your fish makes it and lives a happy and healthy life.

Was the fish healthy in the store? I mean... how active was the fish? Blue tangs are VERY active, if his wasn't the case in the store tank, maybe there was already a problem.

Also, what size is your tank and what else do you have in it? This bears no affect on the tangs acclimation, but it peaks my interest!

I wish you and your fish the best

 

[Navarre]

Regal tangs do this as a defense mechanism. If you startle a young regal (or many other tangs for this matter) they will lie on their side and play dead.

Whilst this might sound like good news i will now dispense with the info that the local shop probably never told you

ALL tangs need a minimum of 100 gallons of swimming space so if you have less than this you will run into trouble.
Tangs are very territorial and can be very aggressive to other tangs or fish with similar markings.
Tangs are very easily stresed and catch whitespot in the blink of an eye which of course can be passed onto other fish in the tank.

I have just had a massive tang wipeout over the weekend and my tank holds 220 uk gallons. i consider myself an experienced reefkeeper yet i lost 2 goldrim tangs, chevron tang and a powder blue tang. (among other fish that caught the whitespot). Make sure you have whitespot preventative treatments on hand in case of emergencies... medications, UVs and/or ozone units. I will not keep any more tangs now until i am better prepared. (still have my remaining emperor tang)