purchased a sick naso need some advice

I purchased a sick naso from the lfs today. I didn't realize how sick he was until I put him in my dt. Dumb mistaken know. His eyes arebcloudy and his color is off. Anyway as soon as I put him in the dt my 3 cleaner shrimp all jumped on him and started going to work. He is eating fine with a voracious appetite which is a great sign. I have a qt tank set up andi just added copper safe I will add him soon when the water settles I would really love some more advice on what else to do he is going to need some serious TLC but im very confident he will make it, any advice helps, thanks Brian.

 

Soaking the food in garlic is probably a good idea.

 

I used the last of my vitamin c feeding him tonight I will pick up more and some garlic tomorrow after work.

 

If he's that ill I'd be leary about medicating him. He's eating well and the shrimp are tending to him. Hold off an see what happens.

 

Not sure if you are aware of this but a Naso tang can reach a length of 1'6".Minimum tank size is 180 gallons.

 

I would not bother moving him. Tangs are really hard to quarantine after they are already ill IME. I would just garlic soak your seaweed, and feed him a lot of veg. Literally everyday just through some seaweed in there for him. This brought back 2 tangs I snagged that both the LFS and friends thought were gone.

 

Wow so you knew the tang was sick when you bought it and then proceed to put it in your DT. *Shaking my head

 

yeah I should have put him in qt first. I've never had a bad experience thus far but I've been through ick before its not fun. I decided to put him in the qt tank last night and he's doing fine. I fed him some garlic soaked mysis earlier and he ate well he has a strong appetite which is great! I will continue to monitor him for signs of stress. Thanks so much for all the advice, I would have left him in the dt but I don't want my other fish to get ick.

 

since it was noticable sick did you get a discount or something

 

well next time, you can learn from your mistakes. It is very stressful on the fish to be moved so frequently in such a short period of time. I personally despise copper and treating fish with it.

Couple questions, you said you were waiting for your water in your qt to settle down? How long has the QT tank been up? What are the parameters in there? Specifically SG. What type of filtration is in the tank? What is the copper level in your tank? You must test the levels in there because you can go toxic very quickly!

I would have left the fish where it was in the DT. He was eating well, swimming well and now he has been stressed even more moving to a tank. You will probably see an increase in ick on him.

Tangs are ick magnets and can develop ich in a drop of a hat. Naso tangs will change their color and get really nasty looking due to stress and not necessarly have any disease at all. This coloration variance can last for a while (several days) until they settle in. Did you ever see any actual ich on him?.

Now that he is in the QT tank, make sure you keep your water pristine DO NOT DO HYPO with copper, test your copper levels daily and make sure you have lots and lots of green and red algea sheets for him to eat! Good luck