I Need advice new HIPO tang!

sauce-n-tank · 06-12-2008, 09:03 AM

Hey i just got a new hipo tang but alot smaller then the ones i had before. my water is good just got it tested. When i bought him he had no ick but when i got home he showed singns of it. and when i put him in the tank he would not stop breathing hard even till this morning. any experience with a small size tang????

wildreef · 06-12-2008, 09:14 AM

Well i have a very small hippo my self , ive ahad a few over the years and with no problems.

is this a fish only tank ?

Any way if your water is checking fine , how long are you aclimating the fish ?

sauce-n-tank · 06-12-2008, 09:20 AM

thanks for responding..well i do have iverts and corals if thats what you mean but he seemed soo bad (not with ick) that he did not bother to swim around to scope out the scene he just tryied to hide as soon as possible but mabe i did not acclimate him right. what do you do exactly to acclimate them??

wildreef · 06-12-2008, 09:41 AM

Well im at the office right now or i would show you in some pics.

I like buying the little fish when ever possible ( more fun to wath them grow ) . and alot less stressfull and less chance of putting to much bio-load on the tank.

I useualy keep them in the bags that they come in.
1st, I put the bag/fish in the main tank to get the temp the same as the water in the bag it's self .
(useualy 30 mins like this)

2nd, I pour the fish and some of the water it came into a plastic can
( you know the ones the LFS stores use )
then i re-hang it back on the side of the main tank , then i proceed to add main tank water to the plastic can that the fish is in
( with a turkey baster ) and only adding an amount like of test tube amount .)
( I do this over the course of another 30 OR how ever long it takes to acclimate the fish the SG that i have verses what the fish was in before )

3rdly , I take the plastic can and pour this water in waste bucket.
( cover the plastic can with your hand or a piece of plastic, your preffrence. )

You see what im getting at ? I'm adding my tank water over time, and pouring it into a bucket to goto waste .
because the fish may have been kept in and treated with copper and donoot wish to add "some one elses" tank water to mine.

I will "turn" this water over from the pastic can atleast 3 times..

AND walllll'laaaaa. the "fishie". has been acllimated to my tank water both SG and temp , exact.

Oh "hippo" tangs are very shy by nature , i use the term "skiddish"..lol
but fun to watch once they feel safe in their surroundings.

Bogie · 06-12-2008, 09:56 AM

^ additionally, it's better practice to acclimate a new fish to a stocked tank at night (with the main tank lights off). This will help the new fish get used to the new tank while the other fish in your tank are off to bed.

gazog · 06-12-2008, 10:17 AM

A hippo tang breathing hard and hiding right after putting him in a tank! normal. is he laying on his side under a rock or something, normal. Just give him some time and he will relax and start peeking out and looking around. But if he See's you move he may run and hide so be ready, now you see him, now you don't!

As far as acclimating, here is the setup I use. I have a gallon bucket with lid, an Ice cream bucket or something like it. Some airline, plastic air Valve, and an air stone or something to weigh down the line in the tank.

Put a hole through the lid to put the airline through and hook the valve on the inside of the lid (they leak so if you put it on the outside you may get water on floor or table.

put the airline in the tank, start a siphon and set the valve to dripping 1 drop every 3 to 5 seconds. Then place the lid on the bucket and put on the floor, stand or table.

The time and speed you let this drip varies with what you are acclimating. I just had to acclimate 2 rock urchins and the salinity or the tank where I got them from was about 1.30 and min 1.25 so I let them drip for 4 hours so to bring down the salinity slowly.

When done net out the creature and put in tank, dumping water in bucket down the drain.

sauce-n-tank · 06-12-2008, 10:28 AM

o.mgosh i was reallly off on the acclimation part i just opened the bag to release air then put him in with the bag to get him ajusted to the temp. then i noticed him looking downwards at the rocks and swimming aggressively so i figured to let him in and then after 5 min dim the light so he wont be shocked.

sauce-n-tank · 06-12-2008, 10:29 AM

yes he is under a rock i guess in his new cave.. but he is such in shock hopfully when i get home he is not a gonner!!!

HORTON16 · 06-12-2008, 10:36 AM

New fish can get stressed out when you first buy them. My possum wrasse wasnt seen for over a week when I first got it, My royal gramma always hid under rocks and never came out. The possum wrasse is still scared in the tank but getting better

sauce-n-tank · 06-12-2008, 10:46 AM

Thanks everyone for responding. Just none of my previous tangs reacted that way but they where much bigger and hardier so i have gone to conclude that i need to work on my acclimation skills cause i know it will bite me one way or the other in the long run. So i will use all these ideas and put them into perspective. oh and i will be posting up pics hopfully tommrrow of my tank. thanks.