okay, so a month ago I told everyone that my quarantined fish seemed to have recovered and everything was getting back on track... then 4 of them died over the next few days and I had to start over with treatment.

I'm not going to make any such foolish claims this time except to say that Dory the Regal tank is sporting jet black where black is supposed to be and bright yellow where yellow is supposed to be and she is eating well and exploring the tank althoug still very shy. If anyone moves in the room to get a better look at the tank even from some distance away she hides. I have to put the food in and then back away to about 3 meters and sit down before she will eat. She's always been shy but I put this down to the various illnesses.

More of a concern to me is her nose. If you look at the photo below that I uploaded last month you'll see its very pale in colour to how most of them look and her body is not as chunky as oter regal tangs I've seen when viewed front on. I want her 110% before she goes back to the display tank, whats the verdict?

additional: sorry for the double post
The Humbug Damsels are mostly bright black and white well defined stripes now with a little blue on the tips of their fins but one still looks a dirty grey over the front quarter of his body. Do you think he's still sick?

Wow she looks so much better than the last time I saw any pics of her mate, good recovery there...

Regal tang are shy and sensitive, even when I had mine it alway shy away behind the rock until you move away. Same as feeding unless it really hungry it well make a quick dash and grab as much food before it hide back. If you are near the tank, keep still and let it come out and when it know u are there and u are still it will build it confidence. But no matter how long u have it, it will still dart back behind the rock. As for chunky that is depend on how much you food it. If it still rounded don't worry about it, it is fine and if it fed twice a day and eat well that is perfect. As for colouring, it depend on it diets, varied it meal, marine flakes,algae flake and meaty food which i know I've said it many time chicken. They say tang are vegitarian eater but I don't believe it, They get a bit of everything and they're greedy eater same as the yellow tang.
Looking at the photo the regal is healthy and as for the nose patches, that can come from scratching along the rock when it dive in, not an illness. The same said for the humbugs, I've had them before it got return to the lfs, and sometime their colour was bright and sharp other time dull greyest like u say, and I put it down to their diets. Change it regularly, not the same for weeks and u notice their colouring come back to it best. Cyclopeeze is another food that is for coral and fish and it bring colour into them. HTH.

the regal tang which I love and done well for 5 years, my mate went and swapped it to our lfs for a baby regal tang because it went berserk when he bought a bluethroat trigger fish and kept attacking it. So he decided to keep the trigger fish and exchange the regal for a baby one but the baby regal dies a few days later because it was being bully by the yellow tang. But it his tank and I'm only teaching him what right and wrong.

So how is the main tank coming along now will you put the remaining fish in soon.

Tony

Thanks Tony, helpful as always.

I've only just started to feed frozen again to them for a couple of months they've been on flake and pellet and the lfs hasn't had any real food in (just that poncey stuff in the black tubs )
I didn't think of chicken, cooked and diced I presume?

The main tank has an algae problem and the sump is just comming together again this week. If you think the fish are ready then maybe another 10 days before I am, and then I'll probably do a couple every few days rather than all at once. Might do Dory first to give her time to settle in.

Chicken cook and diced definately when you're having roast dinner hmmmm. As for frozen, why don't you add Liposome spray which give extra vitamins. You spray it straight onto frozen food, wait for it to melt then add it in the tank. It new and not much review up to date yet but it has'nt harm my fish and they are really colourful and bright that all I can say. Even live brineshrimp, when they're in the tea strainer i gave it a few squirt of liposome. Must be tasty to the fish. lol.

Looking forward to see some pics when they're back in the tank and sump up and running.

Tony

Wow Eagle...things did seem to go a bit unlucky for your system...must have missed your posts...will go hunt them down in a mo.
So from what I can gather -
You removed your fishes to allow your main tank to go fallow in order to rid it of Ich ???
Lost several fish - Ich gone - Dory with dodgy looking nose.

In my opinion - the nose is most likely due to her weakened state after recovering from her illness and I would assume that giving her extra nutrientional enriched food will get her back to health.
I am in no way an expert on marine fish as I only use them as part of my CUC for my corals...but I have had kept regals from the begining with excellent results. Most of the regals I looked after did have Ich when I received them - all recovered after several weeks with enriched foods (vits, amino acids, garlic ect...).then returned to their owners.
Hmmm maybe Longhairedgit can tell what happened to her nose?

The foods/additives I use are not so easily found in most LFS but work very well.....I think you should pop over to surrey and pick some up lol.
I would hold back from using chicken - kinda reminds me of when ppl use to advise me to use beef hearts when I was breeding discus - land animal based foods can lead to health problems in fish and shorten their lifespan.

Thats right,

Marine fishes organs and digestive tract is not designed to deal with terrestrial food ....

Thats why Wombat is always advising against the use of garlic , saltwater fish just aren't designed to process anything that cames from on land ... damages their livers and kidneys apparently ...

Anything from the sea should be ok though ....

Shes a lovely looking fish mate !

I bet your're really proud of her recovery ..

H

Thanks for the heads up on that Leggy. I may well take you up on that offer, but there are a couple of decent stores closer I've yet to visit. What foods/additives would you recommend?

The short story was I thought I had Ich, and maybe I did but I also had brooklynella so the whole lot came out to quarantine and the tank was stripped and rebuilt to remain fallow while I sort things out. In quarantine recovery initially went well with only 3 casualties (2 tiny neon goby and a clown that was the first before quarantine). Then a dodgey batch of salt and/or re-occourance in brooklynella led to a furth loss of the other clown, the scooter and a damsel. I re-treated the quarantine tank and added a 15W UV filter. Since then things seem to have been better.... but I dont want to speak too soon.

Proud? Not really. Any pride I feel for her recovery is overshadowed by remorse for all those I lost and apprehension for what the future holds.

Ok , sorry ..