mstevens

Hey guys,

I just bought a blue tang 2 days ago and I came home to find it dead today, and it looked like it had been eaten. I noticed that the tang sleeps by wedging itself between rocks, I'm suspecting that my 3 emerald crabs got ahold of it while sleeping. the tang was very small, less than one inch.

Any thoughts? Has anyone ever heard of a crab killing a sleeping fish?

Lucy

I'm sorry you lost your fish. I would guess almost anything with claws could get your fish.
It's also possible he passed before the crabs got to him.

Oil_Fan

Emerald crabs can be considered semi aggressive but odds are that they didn't do it. Is it possible, sure it is but it's not what I'd be looking for first. I used to have emerald crabs and saw one eating a chromis that I had. What is very likely is that the tang died and the crab saw an easy meal. And emeralds will hold onto a small dead fish until they finish the thing off.

What are you parameters? ammonia, nitrites, salinity... Also how was the tang acclimated to your tank?

nemo addict

what blue tang was it ?? a powder or pacific if a powder they can be hard fish to keep and dont take poor water very easily did you check it was eating before you purchased and was it eating in your tank and as above water parameters

pinkfloydpuffer

Yeah, I think it died first before the crabs got it. Poor little fish.

mstevens

ammonia = 0
nitrites = 0
nitrates = 10
salinity = 1.023

It was a blue regal tang. I drip acclimated it for an hour and a half. It ate a little flake food twice, but not much. I did not check to see if the fish was eating before i bought him. I'll know better next time. My water quality is pretty good, I do frequent water changes. I think maybe he got a little overstressed. I had moved around some of my rock to accomadate a fire shrimp that I bought also. Soon after that he died. So maybe too much stress...

On a better note the fireshrimp is doing well!

Thanks guys.

Oil_Fan

Your parameters are all fine so that's not it. You did fine on the acclimation. It could be just that he was already sick...add that to fact of being moved to a new tank... What size is the tank?

Glad to hear about the fire shrimp. I have one of those as well and he is very neat looking.

Oil_Fan

Let me add to this...My first tang was a yellow tang. He died inside my QT about 4 days after I bought him (it was big sale...50% off). I then went back to my LFS and bought one for regular price.

This time around I was very picky. I looked at every single one they had. I went with one that wasn't just a small baby but probably already a year old (maybe more?). One question I asked them was how long did they have him for. The reason was that I was looking for a nice healthy one that I didn't have to put into the QT. The one I bought, they had had him for 5 weeks.

Anyways, point of the story is that if it's one they've had the fish for a while, then you'll know he's in good shape.

Tumbleweed

Sorry I have to disagree. Just because it has been in the fish store for a long period of time does not mean that it is in good shape. Most fish stores use a multi tank water system where as a good portion of there tanks are all on one system and share water. If 1 fish in a different tank gets sick there is a chance that a fish in another tank will also get sick. It depends on the LFS. I personally have built a good relationship with the 2 local fish stores that I use and have given the owners a list of fish that I want for my tank. They hold the list and when a shipment arrives and a fish that I want is in that shipment that fish is put into a stand alone tank in the store and I am called to be told it is in. Depending on the fish I either get it that day and quarantine it at home or I leave it with them for 1 week to de-stress from the trip and then pick it up. Now I know not all fish stores will do this but building a good relationship with your local stores has its advantages, and you never know what they will do for you until you ask.

lilpuffer

i agree with tumbleweed. most almost all fish stores use the same system. only good side is that there might be enough water in there system, to dim the disease. but it is still there. but back to the main topic. a while back two of my emerld crab got to my long spine urchin! now im guessing from the way that it looked my urchin tipped over and the crabs some how got in there and had a meal.

Hypnox

This is true, and this is why I love the fish store I go to for my SW needs. He still has a multi-tank water system, but there is only 1 or 2, sometimes 3 fish in a 10 gallon tank. They are rarely in the tank longer than 2 weeks as he keeps a small enough stock to sell through it quickly. I'm happy that he is expanding his coral selection in the next couple weeks here.

nemo addict

my lfs gives me a free replacement if the fish dies within 3 weeks because i joined there club and aslo get a 20% discount on all livestock but then our fish do cost 3xs the ammount of yours in the US

Oil_Fan

The LFS that I deal is actually very good. Which is why I deal with them. Now there are others I wouldn't trust. When I got my tang, he was in a tank that is connected to 2 other tanks. Mostly inverts in there at that. If I had any concerns about the tang, I certainly would have put him into my QT.

So yes, I totally agree a good relation with a good LFS is a must.