Sailfin tang died suddenly!!! Help!!

I have a 120gal tank with live rock, a dogface puffer, a honey comb puffer, a piccaso Trigger, a long spine Urchin, and a snowflake eel and I had a sailfin Tang. All the fish were similar in size, eating well and never fighting. last week all of a sudden the tang just stopped being able to swim he was on his side and floated to the bottom I removed him from the tank and put him on his own so he wouldnt infect any of the other fish if he was sick and shortly after he died. I checked all my levels and salinity and they were all perfect!

Could he maybe have run into my urchin or something?? why did he die??

 

First off make sure you have a reliable test kit. Do you have any live rock? Eels and triggers are very messy fish and can quickly foul the water. Also it's a good chance that your predatory fish out competed the tang for food since tangs can be very timid at feeding time whereas puffers,eels, and triggers normally snap it up as soon as it hits the water. If he just stopped swimming and died then I'm willing to bet that this is what happened.

Were you feeding the tang any supplemental algae? The good stuff, dried, that you have to buy, not the nuisance algae, hair,etc.. What type of food was he getting? They require special consideration due to their omnivorous diet.

 

We have about 60lbs live rock+ we were feeding often flakes, Mysis shrimp (which it oddly enough seemed to eat) and also phytoplankton. But you could be right, it seemed to eat fine but we were unaware that they need dried algae when we bought him they said to feed him flakes (but we dont go to that store any longer, they gave us several pieces of misinformation).

Thanks for the reply

 

Sorry for your loss.

 

no prob. Unfortunately I relied on a bad LFS years ago and went through this same thing twice. The tangs starved to death because they weren't getting the nutrition they needed. If he's still with you get some marine algae as soon as you can and give it to him. If you don't have a LFS or they open late then try Petsmart or ( I can't believe I'm saying this) Petco. They should have dried seaweed bagged up in the fish section.

Always research a fish from multiple sources before you get it. While some people get lucky the sad fact of the matter is that 98% of LFS's are unreliable. They are only out to make a sale and they don't care how many animals they kill to do it.

Good luck, and always feel free to ask questions here. They'll always be answered.

P.S. You need at least 60 pounds more of live rock in that tank.And remember that the eel is going to grow so don't overstock you tank (eels are messy) and don't get anything that he'll eat. Always check compatibility before you get something.

 

It may in fact have something to do with starvation and/or diet, however, with the type of fish that you have, you have to believe that the phosphate and nitrate levels have to be elevated due to the substantial amound of detritus and waste produced by these larger deficators.
I would be willing to bet that those variables combined with possible dissolved oxygen in the water could have posed a problem, especially since Tangs are the least hardy out of all the fish you have in your tank. Disease brought on as a result of stress of the Tang could also impact the situation.
At any rate, I am saddened about your loss! We as conscientious aquarists and hobbyists do not like to hear about animals dying or detrimental results, no matter how slight.
Don't let it get you down, learn and correct the event that just happened to lessen this in the future.

 

Karma for your loss.....

 

Sorry for loss.

Usually a very durable fish.

Supplemental algae a must...nori etc...

Will eat about anything, but needs the green stuff to survive.

 

I hope you have better luck in future

 

i HAD THE SAME THING HAPPEN TO MY SAILFIN HE WAS DOING GREAT THEN ONE DAY ALL OF A SUDDEN HE STARTED SWIMMING CRAZY AND IN A MATTER OF ABOUT 20 MIN HE WAS DEAD I WAS PISSED BECAUSE IT JUST HAPPEND OUT OF NO WERE I THOUGHT ONE OF MY CORALS MIGHT HAVE STUNG HIM.