Tang filed harrassment charges

[CliftonArbogast]

Need to know possible culprits for this harrasment, this happened in one 24 hr period. i have recently added banded shrimp, also have blood shrimp and peppermint shrimp but they have been in tank as well as tang for 1 yr+. Also have domino damsel and another damsel thats black and white striped. No new fish were added in over three months. And no fin damage was seen before. I moved the tang to another tank and hope he gets better will monitor and QT if needed. Please give me your experience/opinions. FYI both tanks are 120 gal, 6ft long tanks. corals and peace full fish and i thought shrimp and crabs, mostly hermit crabs but some emerald crabs ( maybe 4) 2 were also added around same time as banded shrimp

 

[SDguy]

Definitely not the shrimp. Could be a damsel, could be the PBT in the background. I've seen both remove fins from fish just like that, unfortunately

 

[CliftonArbogast]

PBT was not in the same tank until i moved, its lights out and after reading up on PBT i will move to QT tommorow at dawn. would a emerald cab do that much damage without fish swimming off?

 

[SDguy]

Not IMO.

 

[RealReef7]

caught on a power head?

 

[CliftonArbogast]

I have 2 koralia 1400 gph one on each end. Tail is shredded top and bottom sail also. I wouldnt think it would go back for more.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

One of the damsels would seem to be the most likely perpetrator, or maybe they ganged up.

I wouldn't expect the crabs or shrimp to do that to a healthy tang.

Hope it recovers ok.

 

[snorvich]

caught on a power head?

Healthy fish do not get caught on powerheads.

 

[snorvich]

Coral banded shrimp can take fish, but probably not a tang. Damsels can be pretty mean. A PBT might like a newcomer.

 

[Recty]

Wow, that is some really major damage to the fins.

Where did you get your live rock from? Is it really old or relatively new from the ocean? You might have a hitchhiking crab in your rockwork, I could totally see something like that causing that kind of damage before the fish could get away. That's probably not the problem, but it's worth investigating if you've gotten rock anytime recently. I had rock in my 75g for over a year and then one night was missing a fish. I couldnt figure out why, a couple days later I was missing a fish again, no bodies discovered so at night I started peeking around the tank and there was a 2" wide crab cruising around which I caught and removed and had no more fish deaths.

Most likely it's from another fish though. I could see the tang hiding in a rock from an aggressor like a damsel or two, and just getting whatever is sticking out shredded.

 

[sanchoy]

We can narrow the suspects down even further if you list all your fish. Shrimps and power heads are unlikely...

-List all your other tangs. Usually its another tang bullying him.. or sword playing.

 

[CliftonArbogast]

I have a yellow tang that he was in with bit never got bothered by it. I have been watching my domino and he is about the same size as the tang and was more aggressive than normal with other fish. I thought the 2 damsels were going to be a problem. I got them from the guy that sold me his tank, only two fish left and although i really didnt want them i didnt know what else i would do with them. I build a fish trap taday and its in the tank as they are getting used to it, im looking to catch both damsels and ill take them to the LFS, if i get anything fine, if not then they will still be happy, I cant believe the domino is that big already he has tripled in size since i got him a year ago. As for new live rock, thats a no, only second had stuff from other tanks.



Fish list is the domino a three strip damsel ( i beleive) the yellow tang the sailfin of course, engineer goby, mandrin, another white/purple spotted goby, maroon clownfish, lawnmower bleny and a royal gramma.

BTW Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[CliftonArbogast]

Well DIY fish trap worked on Sunday, the Domino is gone to a LFS. Now i have to catch the Sailfin and put it back in the original tank, whos idea was it to put it in there anyway, fish are so easy to catch!