Tang death: Very sad, very confused

[lopeyc]

A few hours after feeding my very healthy (or so I thought) 2 or 3-year-old yellow tang, I found him clutched in an anemone, dead, with an emerald crab cutting a hole in him. I was really quite shocked.
He was gloriously yellow, no lateral line problems, always calm and stately, a good eater...what happened!
I'm just worried that maybe I'm not feeding my fish enough. I feed them once a day with the pellets for herbivores (spirulina, etc.) ... perhaps I'm too concerned with overfeeding and not giving them enough?
I supposed the anemone could have gotten him, but they'd been sharing the tank (a 55) for six months with no problem.
The extra bummer is I'm setting up a 90g and was going to move him and another growing fish in there so they could have more room. Arghh.
Sometimes this hobby bums me out. Anyway, I'm on here because its not like I can talk about my fish dying with my friends and family because they already think I've lost my mind with these damn tanks!

 

[harlequinnut]

It's quite possible that the anemone got to him after 6 months. I just can't think of a reason why a healthy eating YT would die in a few hours time after feeding. I had to give away my carpet cause it was killing all my fish.

 

[lopeyc]

Just suprised since I've had four anemones in two tanks for a year and lost nothing more than a few snails to them.
I figured he died somewhere else and the maroon clown did his usual thing of trying to drag food to big for his mouth to his anemone.
Now I've gotta figure out whether to tell my 4-year-old son our tang died or if I should try and sneak in a new one about the same size. Just went through this with a hamster, sigh.

 

[harlequinnut]

Just tell him the YT went to fish heaven. :thinking:

 

[skirrby]

or think of it like i did when i recently lost my kole tang, i just looked at it like it was my first addition to my 400,000 gallon reef tank ill have up in heaven

 

[lionfish28]

it might of had ich?????

 

[lopeyc]

-- The anemone is 4 or 5 times bigger than the tang when spread out, although I've never seen him come close to sticking a fish with a tentacle or anything. His tentacles are the shortish (2") kind rather than long and flowing like my condy.
-- he was getting fresh macroalgae from my refugium every week or two. Gobbled up the red kind, browsed on the green.
-- I really don't think he had ich or anything else visible because he was always out in the open, bright yellow and smooth as a baby's butt.
-- Everybody else in the tank seems happy, including all my corals including brains, two anemones, inverts, etc.
A friend who does tanks but is not that much more experienced than I mentioned that its been hot lately. My apt. is like a bunker and very cool; however, with the lights it does get to be up to 83 from a norm of 82. He said that that is too hot to begin with, but I thought 82 was fine. I turned down one of the heaters to see if I could bring it down a degree or two.

 

[lopeyc]

answers to other questions:
-- I haven't taken readings since this happened last night.
-- I hadn't worked in the tank. I had done a five gallon (out of 55) water change the day before.
He's in the freezer now and goddamn if I wouldn't pay to have an autopsy if somebody could tell me what went wrong!

 

[beth]

Originally posted by lopeyc
I'm just worried that maybe I'm not feeding my fish enough. I feed them once a day with the pellets for herbivores (spirulina, etc.) ... perhaps I'm too concerned with overfeeding and not giving them enough?

Is this all you are feeding your fish/reef tank? Or did I miss something?
How many fish do you have?

 

[lopeyc]

That was the basic meal. I put in the ocassional (every week or two) sprig of macro algae, some frozen shrimp or fish, some phytoplankton and zooplankton for other denizens...
I used to be real strict because I was so concerned about nitrates, but now that I have a refugium with macros I have more leeway.
Fish: 55g with coral beauty, bicolor blennie, maroon clown and the late yellow tang.

 

[lopeyc]

About once a month I spritz some defrosted shrimp or fish bits onto my anemones.

 

[h2oengr]

As I'm not yet the reef expert, I'll comment on your situation with the kiddo . . .
I'd take a picture of the tang or maybe cut one out of yellow construction paper and bury it in the backyard. Take this as an opportunity to talk about everything returning to the earth and share some religious aspects with him IF THAT'S YOUR THING.
Good Luck - sorry about your loss!:nope:

 

[lopeyc]

My son's pretty good with talking about life and death stuff and I think it is important to be honest. Unfortunately, though, we've had a string of bad luck with animals, starting two years ago when our cat died abruptly (slain by a dog, although thank goodness my son wasn't with me when I found her body), then my mom's beloved dog died last month, two new hamsters passed one after another at my son's mom's over a recent weekend ... and now the fish that got us into this hobby, our tame yellow tang.
Actually, he probably would be fine. I guess its me who is exhausted with all this pet death!

I still have the tang in the freezer, so maybe we can bury it together. He likes to visit the cat's grave every so often but I don't want a whole pet cemetary! The other day he suggested we bury a mosquito hawk that died in the bathroom!