salfin Tang disappearance

[Mark 75g]

Well just got a salfin last week and he was out eating everyday until today. He has not come out at all.

Could my Yellow tang have killed him?

Is there anything that could be in the tank that could kill fish that you never see. I have had many fish die for unknown causes.

 

[vlangel]

Mantis shrimp can kill fish and they are pretty elusive. Do you ever hear an odd clicking sound in your tank?

 

[Mark 75g]

no. never seen one

 

[cloakerpoked]

Tangs, especially of similar shape, can be very dangerous to one another, although your tank is large enough that this shouldn't have been a huge problem. Of course, when fish die, you very seldom will find a huge rotting corpse laying around, because their instinct is to go find a hole and die in it, just like other land-based mammals. In any case, I've had brittle starfish pick a skeleton clean in about 6 hours, and I'm talking my tangs that I've had die (we're going way back to 2007 for this experience), so that could account for the disappearance as well.

Fish eating for one week isn't much of a sign of anything. I'd rather see them eat than not, but injuries caused by cyanide and other dangerous (to the specimen) collection techniques often will not manifest themselves immediately and may have no bearing on the eating habits of the individual. Copperband Butterflies are notoriously difficult to keep alive even when eating prepared foods due to this.

Ultimately, some individuals just waste away slowly, even if eating. There is simply no way that we can come close to offering the variety of foods that these animals are offered in the wild, and some of them just do not adjust. Cyanide exacerbates this process, but is by no means required for it to occur. Failure to thrive and ultimate wasting away of an individual can take days, weeks, or months in our aquariums depending on where else they have been before making it to our tanks.

 

[AeonPhoenix]

I've had brittle starfish pick a skeleton clean in about 6 hours

Yup. Mine devours the sick and weak without any ado and leaves very little evidence of the atrocity.

Whenever I can't find a fish, I get a flashlight and look behind the tank. I've found a few jumpers that way..

 

[LeviChar1]

great comments above and they are all true. also, beware that your return, or powerheads don't "point" into a rock/glass "corner" My yellow got jammed in one and hurt himself badly. He had tried to take a nap and chose a place he couldn't back out of....

 

[Mark 75g]

FOund him dead in the back of the tank yesterday. I just am not having any luck with new fish. I dont know if it is another fish that is bullying or what.

I have tried fish from all the local fish stores and the only fish that seem to live are the ones from Wet Pets.

 

[cloakerpoked]

If you're noticing a pattern, then it probably isn't due to luck....of course diagnosing what could be the problem is a totally separate problem.