Who done it? Ventralis anthias maimed.

acesq

acesq

Premium Member
Today I noticed that my prized male Ventralis was not out and about with the other fish. The two females were acting normal, but he was missing. I found him stuck in a very small cave with what appeared to be damage to his tail. I gently touched him to see if he was alive and he burst out -- I could see that his entire tail down to the caudal peduncle had been ripped off! He quickly moved into another crevice deeper in the reef structure where I cant see him. I'm not sure he will survive this. He is very fat but if he is too afraid to come out, I'm sure he is going to eventually die of starvation. Unless what bit off his tail kills him first! I need some help identifying the culprit since I have never seen any fish chase him more than a normal quick rush.

The only two real suspects in my mind are 2 small emerald crabs and a 5" B. opercularis. The other fish include a 4" A. femininus, three tangs, four small (3-5") angels, a few fairy wrasses and a pair of clowns. Am I right to suspect the crabs and the hogfish? I can imagine a crab sneaking up on him while he was sleeping tucked in the rock and I can also imagine the hungry hogfish getting a lucky hit. The hogfish is the boss of the tank but I have never seen him be that aggressive to any fish.

I need to remove whatever did it.
 
My B. neopercularis is a demon and has killed fish I would have never thought it would notice.
 
Yeah, I'd be leaning towards the hogfish, or even one of the Tangs. You sure its damage as opposed to fin rot? Sucks though. Never kept ventralis - it's one of my holy-grail fish.
 
Definitely damage, not fin rot. Fish was perfect just yesterday -- he's the first thing I look for when I walk up to my tank. Totally bummed about it.

I highly doubt its a tang. I have a Gem, a chocolate and a tomini. They don't even fight among themselves much.

If it comes to a choice between my Ventralis and a beautiful but killer Bodianus, I know who's going!
 
Years ago Scott Fellman was breaking down one of his tanks and brought me his favorite peppermint hogfish. We popped the fish in my tank. No sooner did we pour it into the tank that it swam directly over to a yellow assesor and bit the fish in 1/2. It swam another 8" grabbed a second yellow assesor and smashed the fish into a rock tearing it in 2.

I was lucky and managed to catch him within 36 hours and rehome him.

Scott had it in his tank for years without any issue. My tank in less than 15 seconds it was a mass murderer.

Dave B
 
That's quite a story Dave! Mine is definitely not that kind of killer, but I will be watching him closely. If he is the culprit, he will be re-homed.
 
I had issues with my Opercularis as well. He was the last fish added, but he became extremely aggressive towards some of the other fish. I had to take him out.
 
Darn. That's too bad. Good luck

@dave, that's funny and horrific at same time. Sucks that it happened though
 
My personal experience would be the feminus as the villian here. only difference was tuka anthias not ventrallis
 
If it looks like rounded chunks out of the tail I would suspect one of the angels. Hard to tell, like other mentioned hogfish, wrasse, possibly a tang?
 
My personal experience would be the feminus as the villian here. only difference was tuka anthias not ventrallis
Click to expand...

I'm confident its not the femininus. She is the last fish added just a few weeks ago and pretty timid. Even the Choati wrasse which is half her size pushes her around.

If it looks like rounded chunks out of the tail I would suspect one of the angels. Hard to tell, like other mentioned hogfish, wrasse, possibly a tang?
Click to expand...

No, the entire tail, all of it, was ripped off, right down the to caudal peduncle. It takes a strong set of jaws or claws to have done this. After reading others comments, I'm thinking hogfish. Time to set a trap.

By the way, the ventralis has found a hole where I can check on him. He is still very alert.
 
Sadly, he didn't make it.

a>


The two females are behaving normally and have no fin damage. A one off? Or take out the B. Opercularis and the emerald crabs to be safe?
 
Definitely remove the emeralds.

I have a thought, though. That's an intake it's stuck to, correct? Is there any sort of machinery on the other side, close to the intake?
Could the wrasse have been sleeping near an intake and had its tail pulled in and chopped off? Because that's a pretty major wound. If a fish did that, I'd think it would go back for seconds.
 
It floated to the intake after it died. And the intake does not have a strong auction. It leads to a manifold that supplied my closed loop pumps. You may be right about a fish going back for seconds. Unless it was a pure act of aggression. I will take out the emeralds. I've been trying to trap the hogfish all day, but he is a quick bugger.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
help with new dracula goby
Replies
5
Views
396
leebca
L
OrionN
Naso elegans, the Blonde Naso
Replies
1
Views
221
OrionN
OrionN
S
Nightmare worm ID
Replies
14
Views
2K
Uncle99
Uncle99
C
Tang aggression
Replies
3
Views
1K
OrionN
OrionN
Drummer98
Rock flower eating my box fish?
Replies
1
Views
628
griss
griss
Back
Top