Yellow Tang Help!

[Leucotome]

I just went home for lunch and found that my yellow tang was lying on its side at the bottom of the tank. It was breathing.

Thursday evening, my HOB skimmer overflowed, so I took it out of the tank. I'm planning on checking everything before putting it back in (air line seems clear, everything else also seems ok for the moment). I haven't had a chance to take a thorough look at it yet though.

I did a ~10% water change (weekly, as usual) on Sunday. That day, the yellow tang seems to have eaten well.

I haven't had a chance to test water params, etc, as I had to get back to work.

Any ideas? I didn't see any signs of ick, but again, haven't had a good look yet.


The tank is roughly 1 year and 3 months old. The tang has been in there for about a year.

Should I do a water change when I get home and hope for the best - if it is still alive at that point? I will definitely be testing params when I get home.

[JetJumper]

Perhaps a lack of oxygen in the water?  The skimmer is great for injecting air in the water so if there is not enough it might be an issue...  just a thought.

[Greatwhite]

Perhaps a lack of oxygen in the water?  The skimmer is great for injecting air in the water so if there is not enough it might be an issue...  just a thought.

It could be lots of things lack-of-skimmer related, really... There could be a buildup of nitrates/ammonia/etc right now that normally would have been removed from the water by the skimmer.  I'd be getting that skimmer back on there asap, I think... And do the water change.. that can't hurt.

[Leucotome]

Yeah, I think I'm still getting enough surface water break, but who knows, that could be the problem.

I'll work on the skimmer as soon as I get home. Hope it's not too late

[Leucotome]

Too late...

[Dakotamay]

Sorry to hear of your loss.  Hopefully you can get your skimmer sorted out and back to working order.

[Hookup]

sorry to hear..


Did you end -up testing the system paramaters?

[Leucotome]

I haven't yet, but the skimmer is back up and running. Everything in the tank looks happy.

I'll be testing parameters soon.

[Greatwhite]

I've found Tangs to be more sensitive than other fish I've kept...  Everyone else in the tank might appear happy, but there may still be something "off"... better to check on that sooner than later.