Just introducing mysel

Hello forum, my name is Chad and I've had my 75G saltwater aquarium for about 8 months now. I've had good luck for the most part with it, but what prompted me to join was that I found my yellow tang on its side this morning, still breathing but obviously I'm kind of worried that it will die today. I don't have a separate hospital tank, but I do have an old guppy breeder/floater that I put him in for the time being. I've checked the water and all readings are fine, but I did notice that since I brought him home (only about a week now) that he wasn't really eating. So since putting him in the breeder tank, I put some seaweed and an algae tablet in there, hoping he will eat. So far, no go, but I'll keep monitoring since I don't really know what else to do.

As for the rest of the tank inhabitants, I have a sailfin tang (I know, maybe two tangs are too much for this tank, from reading info on here), a black clownfish, a neon blue damsel, a fast growing sergeant major damsel, and a few others I can't remember the names right now.

 

Im sorry to hear about your yellow tang, its always hard to lose a fish you recently purchases even when you do everything you can to save the guy.

It does look like you can use some help though based on your stocking list. You have a lot of aggressive fish in that tank with the 2 damsels sure to raise hell and harass any newcomers you attempt to add. The black clown is also somewhat aggressive but if its a smaller species like an occie or a percula than it should be fine with almost any fish you add. You also seem to have quire a few fish for having a fairly new system.

The problem is the tangs, I strongly disagree people who say you MUST have a huge tank to keep any tang or it will get ich, get aggressive, not be happy, etc etc. I have a blue hippo in my 46gallon which many shun me for but I got it knowing that once it reaches a certain size I will have to upgrade or trade in. However, you went with a sailfin tang. They get HUGE and do require a large tank where even someone who really pushes the limits sometimes such as myself have stayed far away from them. A yellow tang is from the same family, zebrasoma. Combining these kinds of tangs that are very similar is difficult in large tanks at times and impossible in smaller tanks. If you must have a tang get rid of the sailfin and keep a yellow which stays much smaller but understand there will come a point in time that he may outgrow the tank. Stay away from any tangs from the Acanthurus or naso species as they need to swim a lot and need a larger tank.

My best guess would be that the yellow tang has been harassed to the point that he is too stressed out to eat and is basically being bullied to death by either the damsels or the sailfin.

 

Welcome to 3reef.