Beloved Yellow Tang In Trouble

My Yellow Tang in my 90 is suddenly exhibiting some odd symptoms. I havn't added anything new lately and there are no other fish experiencing them. The fish is suddenly pacing very fast on the front wall, going about half way across then back to the corner then immediately back again. He his breathing at well over 100 breaths per minute. No other fish are exhibiting symptoms of disease and no fish or corals are showing signs of poor water quality. Also, upon testing, the parameters are SG 1.025, PH low 8's, 8.1-8.2. Nitrite and Ammonia at 0ppm, and Nitrate at a little above 10ppm. He's still eating, but he seems much more skittish than normal. Like, when people come near the tank today he starts swimming at full speed through the rock instead of calmly coming out front to say hi. Any ideas?

 

Did you let him stay up and watch a scary movie last night?

 

Not last night. My only thought is that sometimes fish struggle for reasons the owner can't ever figure out. This makes no sense.

 

seriously though, fish can stress for a lot of reasons. maybe not getting enough of the right vitamins in his food? maybe change in tank temperature? maybe some other fish in the tank is bothering it. If it only swims on one side, who's "guarding territory" on the other side of the tank?

 

How long have you had fish. Maybe his time is near and he is just old.

 

I doubt he's old, as he's a pretty small yellow tang. He was one of the first fish to go into the tank (after it was cycled and somewhat established) and he's always been the king of the tank. He's been with me for about 3 months. There's a yellow eyed kole tang in there but that guy went in a couple months after the yellow tang and if anything the yellow tang has picked on him.

 

Sounds like he is exhibiting normal Tang behavior to me. They do allot of running around in a specific areas of a tank.

Yellow's at least the yellow's I have had over the years are for the most part more skittish than others except for maybe Hippos. Maybe he just decided it was time to start acting normal. If he is still eating I would not worry about him to much but keep a close watch on him....

 

my powder brown runs like a crack feind. But the heavy breathing is a little troublesome. If other fish exibit this then I would be conserned for a low oxygen level. but other then that I wouldn't have a clue.

 

His breathing seems to have slowed a little bit. Tangs are often skittish, but the change in behavior is what bothered me. He is truly the king of the tank.

 

I don't think you need to worry, my Tang (and 5 Band butterfly and Fox Face) used to do that. They would do it in spurts, long spurts (days) stop and then start up again. The all did seem to start that behavior when they were older.