Is my yellow tang sick?

[Diener311]

I just bought a yellow tang about a week ago. It looked like the healthiest at the entire store...no signs of lateral line or anything like that. Anyways, it has not been eating. I have a large amount of macroalgae in the tank...but he rarely eats any of it. I have also fed frozen brine shrimp to no avail. Now he has black specks all over his body. Is there anything I can do that might save this fish's life????

[Homer]

When I first got my yellow tang, I quarantined him and he developed black spots too. I did a fresh water dip and they fell off and never returned. That was two months ago.

If you do a fresh water dip, do a search and get the scoop on the details. I am still new and may not get it quite right.

My tang eats mysis shrimp, nori, brine, and just about anything else I put in the tank.

HOmer

[Drew]

Something is certainly up. Give us the low down on your tank, more specifically, how long has it been running, other animals in the tank water chem etc. Yellows are not strictly plant-eaters, and in fact 10-20% of their diet is meaty (in aquariums this is probably higher) try feeding something like live brine just to get the fish to eat. Then, if everything else is in line, it should begin to pick at algae and what not. Let us know how it goes, but it sounds like there is some underlying problem here. How did acclimation go?

Drew

[Jabel]

Tangs like all fish when moved to a new environment undergo stress and even the healthiest fish can give you problems. Like Drew said, post your tank specs. If the problem isn't their I'd try feeding him a little live brine. Sometimes that has worked for me. Make sure you give the brine shrimp a thurough fresh water rinse to kill any parisites.

Jeff

[Diener311]

well thankfully the tang is eating...algae and anti-bacterial flake food. is there anything other than a freshwater dip that would cure the black ich?

[Drew]

I would wait on the fw dip, they are very stressful to fish and IMO should be a last resort. THings like this are not uncommon to new tangs. I would just wait and let him sttle in, hopefully it will go away. Do you have any type of frozen food (formula 1 or 2 etc) my tang loves that stuff.

Drew

[Doug1]

Get some Selcon to fortify Nori ar the algae sheet foods available at LFS
Selcon is rich in HUFA (hi unfatty acid ?) and provides a lot of stuff thats missing in processed foods. Its great stuff and IMO mandatory for keeping tangs and large angels. Insuring a stress free environment and healthy diet goes along way to keeping these fish healthy