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My Sailfin Tang killed by cat hair??

2K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  MyReef 
#1 ·
Greetings,
Well i have had my tank up for about 2.5 months now, and I have been researching and doing my best to be slow and calculated with every move/addition I make. My specs are 30 gallon, 2 pc 55watts by JBJ, about 20 lbs live rock, 20 lbs live sand, several polyps(4), 2 mushrooms, a few small crabs, 5-6 snails. So I have a low bioload, I got cured liverock, and do 10% water changes once a week with RO water, and my tests have given 0 readings from day one.

Now on to my loss. I was browsing the LFS's and came across a small Sailfin Tang, and I mean the smallest I had every seen in a LFS. Maybe 1.25 inches from head to tail. Now I know that my tank is too small for tangs, yadda yadda. But under the circumstances of having no other fish, and an aquascape that gave lots of swimming room for this little guy, I figured I could enjoy him for maybe a year before having to give him up due to growth.

He had good visible health, took food, had been in a copper treated tank for 3 weeks, so I took him home. Everything was fine, he was eating nori, investigating his new home, being a healthy fish etc. Well after about a week, I came home from work to find a long piece of red cat hair protruding from his mouth. He was trying to get it out, shaking his head and backing up etc, with no luck. I knew this couldnt be good, so I netted him and broke the hair off at his mouth, not wanting to pull on it or anything. So after this he remained in his little cave and wasnt very active. I kept my eye on him, and once he started to pass the hair, I realized he had gotten a pretty long piece. Once passed, he started acting like he had swim bladder problems, laying on the rocks, not eating, and would only go upright if I approached the tank and alerted him. He died about 2 days later, never able to really "swim" around and eventually laying on the bottom. The only bad reading I had during this whole process was that I had some evaporation in the tank, and before I topped the tank off I got a salinity reading of 1.026.

So has anyone had something like this happen, could I have done something to help this guy? I have now changed my stocking plan to not include tangs. Just because I had originally written them off, and now that I broke down and got one then killed him, its an omen.

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Dustin T
Atlanta GA
 
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#2 ·
Hi Dustin;

Sorry to hear of the little guy's demise. It's probable that the hair bound up and cause a blockage in his intestines. Not really sure if there was much you could have done, especially on a small fish. You could have tried to gently pull it out when you first noticed it but....who knows? It may have done more harm than good.

Juvenile fish are hard to keep alive, some of them don't eat the same foods as adults, some of them die of natural causes and some just are not able to handle the shipping stress with their small bodies.

If you're looking for an herbivore for your small tank you might try a bi-color blenny but I think that even a very small tang is going to outgrow your tank fairly fast.

Once again, sorry for your loss


~Alice
 
#3 ·
My tank regularly has cat and dog hair floating in it. With 5 cats and 2 dogs it seems that everything I stick in the tank has hair on it.

Other than an ocassional meow coming from the tank, I've not noticed any ill effects from 2 years of this.

[ 07-26-2001: Message edited by: bill-e ]
 
#4 ·
I gotta concur with both Alice and Bill on the assesments rendered. There is a chance of internal problems from the hair but Tangs are by nature omnivorous and Z veliferum and desjardanii are notorious grazers capable of digesting or passing most anything> I recall a thread a month or so back with a pic of a tang that passed a rubber band.
Two possibilities leap to mind immediatly, either intestinal damage as Alice suggested or since it was so dimunitive aaand kept in copper treated tank I am inclined to think it may have been long term Cu exposure in a develping fish. Considering both the sail fin species as well as most acanthurids in general attain a foot or more, at 1.5 inches the are mere toddlers at best and prolly susceptable to a lot moer than a half grown specimen. When i decided to get a sailfin I wanted one about 3" to go in my 75 system, the one I got is more 4" plus(std length, not counting the caudaul fin) and I will have maybe a year before a bigger tank or adoption is a high priority. Too bad their isn't a mini version
these guys are great mowers.
 
#5 ·
I agree with the above posts also. The first thing taht sruck me was the length of time he was in the copper system. If copper is not maintained at proper levels, IMO, it would do more harm to a juvenile fish than an adult. I too saw the thread of the tang passing the rubber band. The only other thing I could think of was maybe the cat hair had flea powder or something else on it....if of course you do that sort of thing. Sorry about your loss.
 
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