yellow tang acting strange

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saltydunc

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Apr 11, 2007
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my yellow tang's has started some strange behavior.....it has started dashing around in small bursts back and forwards with its fins all erect....its still eating as normal and everything else seems fine with him....he also swims backwards and does a sort of shaking thing back and forwards at the end of the tank....theres no white spot on him and hes not rubbing himself on the rocks or anything like that.....when i put food in hes still right up there eating away at spiritula or mysis shrimp.....im just worried theres something wrong with him cause hes been doing it for 2 days now.
 

saltydunc

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all the rest of the fish are acting normally...3 blue chromis....2 pecular clowns...3 shrimps and 6 blue legged hermits also my soft corals are all thriving
 

factorybacking

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Sep 3, 2006
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Hmm.

What are your water stats?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
PH:
Temp:
Calcium:
Copper:
Phos: ...?

Also have you recently added anything new to the tank?
 

saltydunc

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nitrites are zero....my nitrate test kit is finished....will purchase one at the weekend....dont know the the calcium....never added any tho so shouldnt see any problems with that....the tank runs at 82f....haven't added anything to the tank since the tang which was about a month ago....i change the water every week 10%....nothing else in the tank has changed its behavior just the tang.....its still eating heartily when the food goes in then it returns to this sort of dashing around.....i was wondering if it was some sort of display thing??
 

Catpicklesdog

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Feb 25, 2007
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Mine was doing exactly the same thing and I assumed it was due to it being in a 53 gal tank. Since my dad said he'd buy me a bigger tank she's stopped doing it! I'm putting it down to her showing her authority over the other fish. As like yours, all my other fish are OK, params are fine and she's eating well.

HTH
 

saltydunc

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thanks catpicklesdog.....im just worrying cause its never done this sort of thing before...im watching it now and its sort of going back and forwards at the end of the tank.....it dashes to the end then sort of swims backwards and does a sort of display thing with its fins erect and its nose pointing upwards....its not attacking any of the other fish or anything like that.....just checked the ph and alk and its fine ph 8.2 the alk maybe is a bit low so added some buffer....dont want anything to happen to this fish cause hes the reason i converted to salt after years of keeping discus.
 

Catpicklesdog

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Feb 25, 2007
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I must admit I never saw mine go backwards but she'd certainly swim at high speed with her fins erect (it was quite amazing watching her come to a sudden stop without crashing). Does yours have plenty of algae to graze on? They're tough fish (mines been in Qt twice and survived) I can't guarantee everything is OK with yours I'm just saying mine has shown similar behaviour and is fine.

HTH
 

saltydunc

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i have algae on the rocks and on the back glass which he picks at....i also feed them on spiritula flakes...just gave them some there actually and he took them with relish as usual then went back to this darting about....just watching him now and hes rushing up to the glass stopping dead then waggling around with his fins up....bloody strange fish :)
 

Reefscape

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Nov 8, 2006
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maybe also try adding nori on a clip in the tank for a little extra grazing if need be.....mine "was" pretty bizarre acting sometimes...it was as though she/him/it was doing a display for everyone to look at....

Niko
 
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