Purple Tang Help

[barrierreefcf]

Hi Lee,

We had this 2" Purple Tang in the store for a week...in copper but not quarentined. He ate well, looked/acted perfect. A customer bought it along with a 2" Yellow Tang for their 240g reef. They did not quarentine and added it to their well established aquarium. Shame shame but I guess their quarentine has become a frag tank. The fish has been doing just fine for another 9 days and then overnight it went from normal purple to what you see in the picture. It still eats, seems robust, doesn't seem to be getting picked on, breathes at a normal rate, has no visible external parasites, and the other fish/coral are ok. The lights have been on for hours before the photo was taken. I'm still waiting for water test results to be sent to me, but I wondered if you've ever seen a fish change color like this so quickly? This is a new one for us so I thought I'd run it by you. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[thumperss]

my first yellow tang did that and what i did was fed him Caulerpa mexicana soked in garlic everyday it took almost a week tell he started looking better.and after about 1 month he looked alot better.
Brandon

this is the garlic i used
http://www.ecosystemaquarium.com/html/garlic.html

this also might help
http://www.ecosystemaquarium.com/html/reef.html

 

[leebca]

Tangs often have their own level of when they freak out. They are known to freak out much more than other fishes.

There is probably something in the new tank that is upsetting the fish. This 'upsetment' can be real or imagined by the fish. I'd give it a few days and see if the fish doesn't right itself. I'm sure part of it is that the fish doesn't recognize its surroundings and has come to the conclusion 'it's not in Kansas' anymore.

If it doesn't change, then make sure it is getting the proper foods and nutrition. It will take some long observation to see how it moves around the display tank to see what, if anything, seems to annoy it or make it feel uncomfortable.

 

[barrierreefcf]

Thanks...thats the direction we were headed. We've seen the lightening under those situations...just not this extreme. I wanted to make sure we weren't missing something.

 

[barrierreefcf]

Customer reports that the Tang is back to normal today....fish are weird

 

[Herefishyfishy]

When they start to float upside down is when to worry...

 

[jesshimom]

Mike always has the best input. Gotta love him.

 

[Snowboarda42]

I read somewhere that a change like that can be "fish reaction to poor environment" (i.e. water quality, aggressive tank mates, etc.)

Not that this helps now, but whatever.

 

[Reeferdude]

That's a very rare fish. Known as the Chameleon Tang...Glad it's OK now.