Who killed my Coral Beauty??

[gibby84]

I found my coral beauty dead today. One of his tank mates decided he shouldn't be there anymore. I am wondering which fish did it. The coral beauty has been in there for 5 or 6 months no problems at all. I recently added a kole tang and a black cap basslet. I am sure it was one of them that did it, and I am leaning heavily toward the black cap since he and the coral seemed to want the same spot in the tank. Should I worry about my other fish? Do you think I could put another dwarf angel in there? Are kole tangs aggressive? I don't see mine very much, he has been in there less than a week and hides out most the time, the basslet is the same way. I am pretty upset over the coral beauty, that was my favorite fish and I didn't expect any conflict with the basslet or the kole. Any suggestions on how I could add another dwarf without having it get beat up????
Scott

 

[thegrog]

I dont think either of them are the culprit.
Kole tangs are generally peaceful to all but some other tangs. Mine gets along fine with my coral beauty.
Basslets are generally only aggressive towards other basslets and not other species of fish. I don't think he is the culprit either.
How do you know it was killed by another fish? Disease perhaps? Possible mantis shrimp lurking in your rockwork? What inverts do you have in your tank (if any)?

 

[gibby84]

I am almost sure it had to be one of the new fish, the angel had been fine in there for months. The inverts I have are basic, a carpet anemone, another anemone with longer tentacles with yellow tips, a couple emerald crabs, a sally lightfoot crab, 75 or so hermits, and 75 or so snails. I highly doubt any of the inverts killed him, and I don't believe it was disease as this was a happy and healthy fish until today, or more likely last night. I really think it was the basslet, they were competing for the same spot in the tank.
Scott

 

[scubadoo]

It could have been stung by your carpet anemone...whcih can lead to death They sting and can eat fish.
Just another possibility