4th Tang in a row vanishes wth!!!!!!?

phastroh

Do Not Listen To Me!!!
In the last few months I have had four Tangs vanish the last being tonight.

The only threat if I could think of any in this tank is 2 clowns, yellow tang, hippo tang, lieutenant tang, 3 anthias, and a 6-7" fox face. The rest are puny or not aggressive ever. I also have a coral beauty and a flame angel which the flame can be a douce but the latest blonde naso was about 5" which made it the second biggest fish in the tank.

I had a naso and a blond naso about 3 inches die without a trace and then a small adult unicorn tang and now this larger blonde naso.

I have never seen any fish except the Fox Face ever bother this fish when he came to the tank. I never saw anything abnormal recently for the last month or so.

I originally thought this Fox Face was to blame from the first naso. That naso was in here a long time. I kept thinking maybe it just stabbed the naso by mistake but now all of the tangs have one thing is common and that is they are the last fish put in when they came to the tank. Only the first naso went in with the rest when I moved tanks.

I mean at this point I am not putting any tangs in the tank. The non tang fish that have gone in are all fine.

That makes me think it is another tang but then again it seems the fox face doesn't like new tangs. The lieutenant is so gently, never runs from the net and will almost let me pet him. He is just a nice fish that I have never seen bother anything in almost 2 years.

The yellow tang did contribute to the stress on my powder blue tang that died. He would barely let it eat.

The hippo is the tanks first tang. It usually or actually seems to chase the coral beauty sometimes.

At this point I am pissed and sad because the blonde naso was large and really pretty. I got one with perfect smooth scales. Again, I never ever saw another tang bother it.

I know it doesn't rule it out but that is what I didn't see.
 
Join the crowd. Tangs are strange little creatures. I had a yellow tang the size of a dinner plate. Literally, he was massive. Bought him that way. Fed him seaweed, live shrimp, hell, he lived better than I do. Then one day, he just died. Blue powder tang did the same thing.

I think our fishes sustain a bunch of trauma when they are caught which makes their lives much much shorter than they should be

Ever notice when you buy a "tank bred" fish, they seem to live forever? I have a pair of clowns that are 4 years old and doing wonderfully. Wild caught fish MAY live 2 years tops.

I think it is just the Tangs....I dont think it is anything you are doing. Especially when all others are doing fine.

Just my 2 cents.....I will step down from my soapbox now....
 
Yeah I hear you guys.

I just found it curious that these were all new tang editions. Wish I had my tank in tape sometimes.
 
Join the crowd. Tangs are strange little creatures. I had a yellow tang the size of a dinner plate. Literally, he was massive. Bought him that way. Fed him seaweed, live shrimp, hell, he lived better than I do. Then one day, he just died. Blue powder tang did the same thing.

I think our fishes sustain a bunch of trauma when they are caught which makes their lives much much shorter than they should be

Ever notice when you buy a "tank bred" fish, they seem to live forever? I have a pair of clowns that are 4 years old and doing wonderfully. Wild caught fish MAY live 2 years tops.

I think it is just the Tangs....I dont think it is anything you are doing. Especially when all others are doing fine.

Just my 2 cents.....I will step down from my soapbox now....

I disagree. I just took down my tank about a month ago, but I had about 8 fish that were 10+ years old by that point. Including two tangs, a yellow and a sailfin. None of those fish were tank bred except two clowns. In fact, I had the yellow tang, a yellow tail damsel, one of the clowns and a pajama cardinal for 12 years by then. I think their life span depends more on how they are taken care of than where they are born.
 
Yes and never found a body. I do have a black brittle but why would it pick only new tangs. Plus it is typically in the same spot all the time and they never slept near it.

I can only imagine what happened the this large naso. I would think I could find a body or something but I can't.
 
That sucks, phast :( Sorry to hear. Maybe he'll still turn up? I've never lost fish that large, but my firefish was MIA for 3 weeks. But he popped back out eventually. And your tank is large...lots of hidey holes. One can hope!
 
Usually if you have a predatory, the bodies disappear without a trace, but it is hard to imagine losing such a large fish and not seeing a few parts.
 
I can't imagine which fish I have is a predator unless you think that black Brittle Star did it.

I can only point out it has only been Tangs that have been vanishing. Nothing else that has gone in has vanished.

I do not even have but a few crabs in there since I have been pulling them all out for the sump and I can get a good view from behind the tank and from the sides. I am now scared to move any rocks and have a dead fish jump out haha.

I typically wait till night as soon as the moon lights come on to poke around with my LED Flash light because I find that is the best way to be able to see into the dark cracks and caves. I looked and found nothing.

He also may have been gone for a couple of days and not just one night. Even so I never saw any pieces and he was a decent size.

Why the Tangs I ask!? I am totally not looking to buy another fish at this point. I want to get that Black Brittle out no matter what. I was thinking and the most aggressive fish in the tank is the small Flame Angel. All the others just keep to themselves. I have never walked into the room and saw any fighting and I can enter from a good 15 feet away from the kitchen.
 
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My overflows are covered. I actually made cut out out of the sides of plastic garbage cans to keep anything from growing in there.

I have a canopy as well and there is nothing on the floor.

There is still the skeleton from the Horseshoe Crab that swam into my Anemone and was digested. For all I know it ate the fish. It is a 100+ arm hog I need to take out if I could get it out that is.
 
So a condy and a long tenticled nem? They are both pretty darn big, they could have eaten the fish. One does seem to be placed in the just the right place to catch the fish as they make a lap around the island.
 
The pic is old. One of them vanished a long time ago. The last page has a video but before that video I blocked it from its normal spot on the left because it was hogging a whole MH bulb and stinging corals. It since was underneath in a long tunnel so maybe the Tang swam into it. It popped up and I have blocked it's new spot trying to walk it further down hoping it attaches to a smaller removable rock.
 
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