What's with me and tangs???

[VAreef]

Ok well I have had another death and it was of course my beautiful half black mimic tang. Everything was good and then one morning he wasn't there. No symptoms of problems nothing just poof gone. When I added him in everything was fine then a few weeks later when I added in a tomato clown they kind of had it out a few times but both settled down. Now weeks later after everything is calm my tang is gone??? My first tang died of ick mainly because I was impatient and added him too soon but this guy was healthy eating and showed no signs of distress at all. I would think a predator got him but I haven't had a fish disappear since I took out the sally lightfoot months ago. I did find what appears to be a burrow under a rock but have never seen anything in it. I haven't added anything to the tank except for a few small zoo frags that I'm 100% sure didn't carry anything in with them. Only other thing added was a few peppermint shrimp and some very very small scarlet leg hermits. Could one of those tiny hermits be a killer??? They don't look big enough to even take on a pod and win. It really sucks because I love tangs and really want a tang but now I'm almost resigned to thinking tangs just aren't for me.

 

[yote]

MAN,Hate to hear about your tang.
I guess fish are just like every thing else,They can pass on to that big ocean in the sky for no apparent reason.

 

[RigoSharon]

sorry to hear that..theres a lot of luck involved in keeping tangs..as yote said..somtimes this thing happens without us knowing the reason..good luck

 

[bobby]

If you see a burrow and the fish disapeared with out a trace my guess would be a mantis shrimp. Becarefull if you find it and try to remove it because they can give you nice painfull cut. Get a red led light or flash light with a red film over it and watch at night for anything to move or come out. INverts cant see the red light so they wont know your there and will come out to feed and you can get a look at it then.

 

[jhnrb]

Red lense flashlighg or light set up on the burrow and watch it after lights out to see who lives there. might be your culprit. only other suggestion if you do not have any anemones in the system is to look around real good to see if the tang jumped out or got trapped in an overflow, etc. good luck keep us posted.

 

[VAreef]

Thanks guys. I had forgotten to check around the tank but after looking still came up with nothing. I don't have a red lense but can see pretty well in the tank with the moon lighting on so I'm planning on a stake out tonight. I had originally discounted a mantis since I have lost anything in months and nothing new has been added but come to think about it I haven't seen my peppermint shrimp in the last few days either. Their typically hard to find so I didn't really think about it until the tang went missing. After scouring the tank again I wasn't able to find either of them as well. I'm not really buying that a small juvenial tang in good health just up and had a heart attack. I'm just puzzled as to why it seems to come in spurts months apart. I hope I didn't sentence an innocent sally lightfoot to life in the sump.

 

[yote]

Hope you figure it out.But it could and number of things.I would think that if you had a mantis,that you'd be hearing clicking sounds coming from your tank.

 

[VAreef]

Thanks Yote. I know it may leave me with nothing but I've got a 12 pack, a laser pointer, a red candy wrapper colored cover on my flashlight, and I don't have to work tomorrow. I really want to know what lives in that hole. Plus I was planning on researching a new fish to add but now I want to figure out what was wrong first. On the plus side I have corals growing like crazy. Who would have thought corals would be easy for me but fish would be tough? I really thought it would have been the other way around.

 

[bobby]

Sounds like your off to a goon night for stalking with the 12 pack and all. Good luck and let us know what you find.

 

[Doc]

Sounds like quite a problem. I have lost a few fish for no reason in the past. You never know about internal parasites. They can kill a fish fast. I had a hard time keeping tangs as well until my tank was "seasoned", about a year. I have two big ones now and they are both doing wonderful. I doubt it is a mantis shrimp, they do "click" a lot and would need to feed more regularly than once every couple of months. The only way to find the fish, if it did not committ suicide, is to break down your tank. If it has been more than three days, probably not even there anymore. The cleaning crew does a quick job of getting rid of bodies, especially those serpent stars. Sorry about your loss. Good Luck with your stake-out.

-Dr Marco :sfish: