2 Tangs died mysteriously

G

gtoon159

I moved my tank about 2 weeks ago into our new house and two days ago we found both Tangs Dead. There was a powder blue and a yellow tang. They were both eating well after the move and showed no signs of ich or a any disease. I noticed a small amount of tingle when I stuck my hand in the tank to feed the anemone. I immediately unplugged the heaters (two Ebo Jeager 200 watt) same day I noticed the Mag 7 that ran the closed loop leaking. I still have the closed loop down and there is no more tingle in the tank.

Did these fish get electrocuted?

There are several inverts as well as a pair of clowns a Royal Gramma and a six line wrasse that seem to all be fine.

I am planning on changing the heaters and fixing the Mag 7 leak.

Any advise?


Thanks Guys.
 
Unfortunatly, it sounds like you were getting a trace amount of current in the tank and I suspect that is what killed the Tangs. Fortunatly, you were lucky as water is an excellent conductor of electricity and you could have been seriously incapacitated. Sounds as if you have found the problem, but it is possible that any of the submergable electrical equipment in your system could be suspect.

The safe and smart thing would be to replace all the powerheads, pumps and heaters as well as any equipment that comes into contact with the water; but hey us reefers are not always that smart. :lol:

Todd
 
I've had a Rio melt down in the sump. Fortunately I only had 4 fish at the time. They were all belly-up and floating on the bottom. I was about to get them out with the net and my daughter asked me to wait. So, I left them alone overnight. The next morning all 4 of them were swimming like nothing had happened. I guess they were electro-shocked or stunned and they recovered during the night...very surprised!
 
Tangs are very susceptible to stray electrical current, and often a tang will break out in HLLE. The power leak in your tank may have been too much for them to withstand.

Btw, just toss this in your "this may come in handy one day" file: If you ever feel tingling in the tank, dry off your hands first and then make sure your plugs are pushed all the way into their respective sockets. I once had this problem every time I brushed against the reflector of my 29g's lights, and went to all the trouble to check each item in the tank to find the source of the problem. It ended up being the plug to the six-way powerstrip. :roll: Pushed it in firmly, and the problem was solved.

Sorry about your fish. :cry:
 
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