Urgent Blue Hippo Tang not eating!

I need help...I just introduced a Blue Hippo Tang to my tank 3 days ago. I don't have a quarantine tank set up right now but I am starting to realize the importance of one so I will be getting one setup in the very near future.

Anyway, he is about the size of a quarter and is smaller than every other fish in the tank and was immediately bullied by my Allen's Damsel and has now stopped eating, I have isolated him in the hopes that I can watch him closely and maybe entice him to eat but I am looking for any advice on what I can do to save him.

 

What else is in your tank in terms of livestock? If your damsel is being territorial toward the small tang, it will just bully him again when you re-introduce him. I would personally have removed the damsel and re-introduced it again later once the tang had established itself.

In any case, it is normal for a new fish not to eat, but if it is stressed out it may die of starvation. Make sure your water parameters stay ideal, keep the lights low, and try feeding live foods (ie. live brine or mysis if you can get it at your LFS) - if you can't get live foods, try fresh frozen ones, such as bloodworms or mysis shrimp. Even frozen brine shrimp is better than nothing.

And, as always with a tang, leave a sheet of nori attached to a clip in your tang. The tang may decide to graze on it.

Good luck!

 

Try feeding it romaine lettuce or nori mine loves it. Good luck with her

 

Thanks for the advice, I will try the romaine lettuce tonight, along with some frozen mysis shrimp. I have also read something about soaking the food in Garlic Extract. Has anyone ever tried that?

None of my other fish have bothered the Hippo Tang at all but they are: 2 Ocellaris Clowns, Twin Spot Goby, Foxface Rabbitfish, and a Yellow Tang (Introduced same time as the Blue Hippo)

Nitrates are at 20, which is a little higher then I would like but I don't think it's at a dangerous level.

Nitrites - 0
PH - 8.2
Specific Gravity - 1.024

 

Yes Soak the food with Garlic, brightwell I believe is a good brand. I even soak my nori on it before putting it in.

 

I soak my frozen brine and mysis shrimp with Kents Garlic Extreme and my Blue tang eats like a pig! Also, +1 on Nori or Lettuce on a clip. Hope your Tangs starts eating!

 

Hello Brendan,

First and foremost, what size of tank did you introduce the Hippo tang into? If it is on the smaller size there is a good chance that aggression issues by other livestock is playing a key role in this dilema.

Secondly, most Hippo tangs that are collected at such a small stage in development often times do not fare well in the aquaria trade. There are multiple LFS's located in my area that refuse to order these small sized hippo's due to their dismal survival rate.

Finally, try offering a variety of garlic soaked foods to entice the tang to eat. Try flake, pellets, mysis, brine, veggie delight, cyclops, rotifers, PE mysis, homemade recipes (available at some LFS's), nori, and lettuce. If none of these options work, you may want to try to remove the tang to a QT (set one up ASAP) and treat it with meds and offer it foods with no competition.

Keep us updated on the tang and how it does! Good Luck!

 

Unfortunately my Hippo died this morning. My tank is 90 gallons and I think the aggressiveness of my Damsel definitely played a part in this. On a side note, the colors of my damsel and hippo were very similar, could this have played a part in why the damsel bullied the hippo? I ask because I have never seen my damsel act aggressively to any of my other fish.

I did isolate him within the tank to avoid any competition for food tho after the 1st day of him not eating and fed him a variety of mysis shrimp, flakes, spirolina and even romaine lettuce, but nothing worked, I even tried soaking the mysis in garlic.

I had no idea about the low survival rates of the smaller Hippos and I wish I had known that before flushing my $ down the drain. Either way I have definitely learned a valuable lesson with this fish and I will have the QT setup for the next time I try.