My healthy well established tang is missing?????? Any ideas?

[fishoholic]

My Blonde naso tang (he's about 3-4 inches) that I have had since June 2009 (six months) who has always ate like a pig, always got along well with the other fish, and is always swimming around the tank front and centre is MISSING!!!!!!!:surprise: How does a healthy totally settled in tang go missing?????????

There is only two things I can think of #1 some rocks slid somehow (even though all the rocks look like they're in the same spots they've always been in) and he's trapped under one or #2 my cat who likes to sit on the centre brace somehow scooped him up and ate him. The later seems unlikely as I have never seen my cat stick her paws into the tank and I don't see any signs (like water on the centre brace or part of a fish body somewhere) of that having happened, but I just can't figure out why all of a sudden he would go missing.

He was totally healthy and young and all my other fish are fine (even my new flame angel I just got is swimming around, looking a bit shy, but fine) so I don't get it. Anyone ever had anything like this happen to them?

Here is a pic. of him taken a few weeks ago http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii53/Laurie_Morin/DSC_1837.jpg

[Leah]

Oh Laurie that is so sad, maybe he is just hiding.

[Trocar61]

Do you have A cat:lol:

[the marine apprentice]

did he possibly go over your overflow or in your sump. fish do the damndest things sometimes

[fishoholic]

Do you have A cat:lol:

Yes (read through my original post) I was wondering if maybe somehow my cat got him but it seems unlikely that she would be able to actually catch a fast moving tang in a tank as large as mine.

[fishoholic]

Oh Laurie that is so sad, maybe he is just hiding.

That's what I'm hoping but I have no idea why he would suddenly hide. Also I know I haven't seen him today but I can't remember exactly when I last saw him. I don't think I saw him yesterday but I think I saw him the day before that but I really can't remember. I know this past weekend on Sunday I was staring at my tanks and I remember seeing him then, because I remember thinking how big he's gotten compared to when I first got him, but after that I'm not sure. I'm so used to always seeing him that it was really odd looking into my tank today and not seeing him. Came as a bit of a shock to say the least :sad:

I'm really paranoid that he's trapped somewhere (that happened to my sleeper goby, he was trapped for almost a week when we moved some rock around and much to our surprise he slowly swam out but unfortunately his injury's were to bad and he died a week later :cry:) I just don't know what has happened to him and it's driving me nuts as well as worrying me like crazy.

did he possibly go over your overflow or in your sump. fish do the damndest things sometimes

Sorry, I forgot to mention (as that was my first thought) but I looked very carefully in my sump and there is no signs of him being in there. My overflow empties into my refugium part of the sump so it's safe from pumps etc. I have had fish go down my overflow into my sump but when that has happened I have always found them easily in my refugium.

[Marlin65]

I lost a 3"-4" trigger no trace checked all my rock overflow everything. No trigger I have a cat as well but I found bird **** next to the tank.:twised:
So cat or Bird.

[the marine apprentice]

this may be a long shot but can you look down your drain in the overflow? he may be stuck in there since he is that size

[kien]

cat jumps on tank, fish spooked, fish jumps out of tank, cat jumps down from tank, cat eats fish, fish missing. :(

[fishoholic]

I lost a 3"-4" trigger no trace checked all my rock overflow everything. No trigger I have a cat as well but I found bird **** next to the tank.:twised:
So cat or Bird.

:sad: Sorry to hear that

this may be a long shot but can you look down your drain in the overflow? he may be stuck in there since he is that size

I have a small side overflow on that tank with a lot of long plumbing pipe before it gets to my sump, there is pretty good flow through it all but I'm going to shake some pipes right now just in case......Well I banged on and shook the plumbing pipes (I heard the water slosh around inside) but no fish came out into the refugium.

[fishoholic]

cat jumps on tank, fish spooked, fish jumps out of tank, cat jumps down from tank, cat eats fish, fish missing. :(

My cat jumps on top of the tank all the time (my fish are pretty used to her) and it doesn't usually phase them. I can't see it spooking him but it's hard to say. However I will admit that I really don't want to think it's possible that my cat could of killed him :sad:

[Zoaelite]

My Canary wrasses mate has been gone for 3 days now, perhaps there's a fish convention going on that we don't know about. Hope he comes out of hiding for you Laurie Naso's always have the best personalities!

[fishoholic]

My Canary wrasses mate has been gone for 3 days now, perhaps there's a fish convention going on that we don't know about. Hope he comes out of hiding for you Laurie Naso's always have the best personalities!

Thank-you, hummm maybe there's something to this fish convention :wink: I've had wrasses hide on me for weeks at a time so don't give up hope yet, they are very good hidders. Never heard of a naso hiding before though. He is an awesome fish I'm really worried about him and I'm hoping he's ok.

[PoonTang]

Any possibability that he surfed to somewhere? he could easily travel up to 10 feet if no one was around when it happened. Get out a flashlight and look under everything and then start looking into all the little nooks and crannies in your LR, you may be able to see a piece of him stuck somewhere in the rocks.

[Delphinus]

I thought I lost my trigger on the weekend. I checked my overflows 10 times and each time I fully convinced myself "there are no fish in here." Guess where he was? They are the darndest good hiders/camoflagers sometimes. Also second the suggestion to check your pipes and so on. You never know.

Good luck, I hope you find him.

It's not impossible about the cat theory, but fwiw, I kind of doubt it too. There'd be some evidence, they're not exactly the cleanest/neatest of eaters when they're eating a whole animal. :neutral:

[Leah]

Laurie,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Sookie may not only have killed him but she probably ate it too. Bad Kitty!

[kien]

My orange tabby cat once dragged an angel fish to his lair (behind the sofa) :cry:

I would check your cat's usual haunts.

[Marlin65]

If a fish that big dies in your tank you will know by the NO3 spike in the next few days. Hope he shows up but a Naso is not a Wrasse so I don't think it is hiding somewhere.

[fishoholic]

Any possibability that he surfed to somewhere? he could easily travel up to 10 feet if no one was around when it happened. Get out a flashlight and look under everything and then start looking into all the little nooks and crannies in your LR, you may be able to see a piece of him stuck somewhere in the rocks.

My boyfriend and I have done that twice now (we did it twice just in case we missed something the first time) but neither one of us found anything. There also is no water spots on the floor suggesting he jumped.

I thought I lost my trigger on the weekend. I checked my overflows 10 times and each time I fully convinced myself "there are no fish in here." Guess where he was? They are the darndest good hiders/camoflagers sometimes. Also second the suggestion to check your pipes and so on. You never know.

Good luck, I hope you find him.

It's not impossible about the cat theory, but fwiw, I kind of doubt it too. There'd be some evidence, they're not exactly the cleanest/neatest of eaters when they're eating a whole animal. :neutral:

I banged on all my plumbing pipes and all I heard was water sloshing through them, there is a lot of pipe so I guess it's possible he could be suck, but the water flow on the other end (into the sump) seems normal. I only have one over flow on that tank and it is a pretty small side overflow so I can see he's not in there. Also I keep thinking like you (as in) you would think there would be some evidence if the cat ate him.

[PoonTang]

Is your skimmer going crazy? that would be an indication of a rotting body in there somewhere.

[fishoholic]

Is your skimmer going crazy? that would be an indication of a rotting body in there somewhere.

No it seems to be running normally

[Zoaelite]

Thank-you, hummm maybe there's something to this fish convention :wink: I've had wrasses hide on me for weeks at a time so don't give up hope yet, they are very good hidders. Never heard of a naso hiding before though. He is an awesome fish I'm really worried about him and I'm hoping he's ok.

Any luck Laurie? If your skimmer hasn't gone crazy I guess that's a pretty good sign. The thing that's worrying me about my missing Canary is normally they never leave each others side so for the male to be swimming around for 3 days by himself is a little odd.

[BC564]

I had the same thing happen to me.....Naso Tang.....had him for a few months...then one day.....gone.....havent seen him since....its been about 1 1/2 months now.....im assuming the clean up crew cleaned him up. I hope you have a happier out come....

[chevyjaxon]

my yellow tang died, seen him kinda buried in the sand under a bunch of rocks the cleanup crew was working hard getting rid of the corpse.
a Week later my unicorn tang all 8 inches of it dissapeared that was 3 months ago my mistake i didnt dig for it. I had an ammonia spike killed the other tang
Dont make the same mistake I did if you find it Dig Dig Dig get it out if its dead before you get a spike btw sorry to hear about your tang missing:cry:

[fdiddy]

Damn, after reading this thread last night, my hawaiian flame wrasse is missing today >.> Hope it's a case of hiding wrasse. Don't really want to look too hard as he might be in the sand bed i guess. I hate when that happens >< Didn't knock on wood hard enough i guess.

[fishoholic]

I had the same thing happen to me.....Naso Tang.....had him for a few months...then one day.....gone.....havent seen him since....its been about 1 1/2 months now.....im assuming the clean up crew cleaned him up. I hope you have a happier out come....

Me too :sad:

my yellow tang died, seen him kinda buried in the sand under a bunch of rocks the cleanup crew was working hard getting rid of the corpse.
a Week later my unicorn tang all 8 inches of it dissapeared that was 3 months ago my mistake i didnt dig for it. I had an ammonia spike killed the other tang
Dont make the same mistake I did if you find it Dig Dig Dig get it out if its dead before you get a spike btw sorry to hear about your tang missing:cry:

My system is pretty big so even if he is dead I probably won't get a spike. When my toadfish fish died (which was 3 times the size of my naso) my water never spiked. However I did find his body late that night but he had been dead in my tank for a while.

Damn, after reading this thread last night, my hawaiian flame wrasse is missing today >.> Hope it's a case of hiding wrasse. Don't really want to look too hard as he might be in the sand bed i guess. I hate when that happens >< Didn't knock on wood hard enough i guess.

I hope you find your wrasse.

[fishoholic]

Any luck Laurie? If your skimmer hasn't gone crazy I guess that's a pretty good sign. The thing that's worrying me about my missing Canary is normally they never leave each others side so for the male to be swimming around for 3 days by himself is a little odd.

I'll look closely again all around the floor and in the tank/sump again tonight, but he never showed up last night. That is odd about your wrasse, I hope it turns up.

[Namnuta]

I lost my Dragon Goby, and was so puzzled on where he went.

Turns our he jumped (Common with dragons) and my son found him and flushed him without telling me. I was going crazy looking for him, pulling things apart.

I ask my son, he said "Hmm, that's crazy, i wonder where he went".... 30 minutes later. "Oh yea, i found a fish dead on the carpet, so i flushed it. Maybe that was your missing fish" Doh!!

So do you live alone? Maybe a room mate, sibling etc may have some information.

[bvlester]

do you have any large Nem's in the tank they will eat anything that can get there fingers on.... At least mine does, fish go missing and he gets blamed or the little pygmy angle gets blamed as he will swat other fish with his tail and make them move towards the large carpet Nem. I thinks he has figured out that he can get rid of any fish he wants by being pushy. He will be moved to my kids tank once I get the 110g to my place and get it running. out of the 55g and into a 30g for him. My kids like him so they should be excited about it. I call this little angle the herding angle he is only about 2 inch in size and runs the tank. even the clowns will now let him near there Nem which they wouldn't let happen before.

Bill

[oilfieldsafety]

My Tang went missing for over a week and then showed up out of the blue looking and acting like nothing ever happened.

[fishoholic]

So do you live alone? Maybe a room mate, sibling etc may have some information.

It's just me and my boyfirend Steve, and he has no idea what happened to the naso either.

do you have any large Nem's in the tank they will eat anything that can get there fingers on....

Bill

I do have a large GBTA but he barely grabs onto mysis so I doubt he'd eat a fish, never has before and I've had him for 3 years. Plus I've seen my tiny green clown goby get a bit to close to my GBTA and he never touched the goby so I don't think that's it.

My Tang went missing for over a week and then showed up out of the blue looking and acting like nothing ever happened.

Let's hope and pray that's what happens with mine. The thought of him being stuck somewhere slowly dying or dead already is really worrying and upsetting me :sad:

[fishoholic]

I just got home and unfortunately there is still no sign of him :cry:

[Chase31]

sift through the sand or move rocks? maybe time to re-aquascape?

[bvlester]

Time to through on a set of flippers and a mask and go swimming with the fish don't forget the snorkel. LOL just joking. But it might be an idea to put on a mask and see what you can see from the top down.

Bill

[fishoholic]

sift through the sand or move rocks? maybe time to re-aquascape?

My tank is 3 feet deep and I can't reach much farther then half way down. However I might be able to convince my boyfriend to try moving a few rocks around to see if we can find him. Although it's hard to move the rock because every piece is covered in coral and the coral is doing well, so I'd hate to move it and not be able to get it back into a spot were it would be happy and continue to do well.

Time to through on a set of flippers and a mask and go swimming with the fish don't forget the snorkel. LOL just joking. But it might be an idea to put on a mask and see what you can see from the top down.

Bill

Flippers and a mask sounds about right :lol: I have a Super spy coral viewer which makes it easy to look at the tank from the top down. I looked top down from standing on the ladder with a flashlight but I forgot about the viewer, I will try it out tomorrow when the tank lights go on.

[fishoholic]

Just thought I'd update as it was a week ago that I first noticed my naso missing.

Unfortunately he never showed up and there has been no signs of him in or out of the tank :sad: I did have a bit of a cyano break out a few days after I noticed him missing (it's since cleared up) so maybe he died and the cyano was from that :sad: Wish I knew what happened :sad:

[Delphinus]

I'm really sorry to hear that Laurie.

I've asked it before, but are you 100 thousand percent, million-billion percent, sure that he's not in your overflow(s) ?? I can't tell you how many times I've been fooled myself by fish hiding in the overflows. The slightest bit of coraline and the lack of light makes for impeccable hiding/camoflage opportunities. You'd think, for example, that I would have noticed my trigger in there when he was in there ... no word of a lie I checked it *10* times and each time concluded "there is no fish in here" and then poof, that night I caught a glimpse of him when he allowed himself to be seen. :neutral:

The flip side of the coin is I lost a sizable rabbitfish back in September and it was the same thing, just mysterious disappearance. I scoped and scoped and scoped my rock and finally caught a glimpse of something I hadn't seen before and could not identify. I had to take apart a good quarter of my rockwork to get at it and then I could identify it as a fish-shaped pile of goo that used to be the rabbitfish. I had seen him the night before so less than 24 hours and yet he was in a surprisingly fairly advanced state of decomposition. :cry: No colour whatsoever .. totally blended into the rock and in a spot I would never have guessed a 6" fish could have fit into (either dead or alive).

Anyhow I'm very sorry for the loss if that is indeed the case. :cry:

[fishoholic]

Unfortunately Tony I'm sure it's the later. My overflow is very small in that tank, and while it is covered in coraline when I stand on a latter and look in I can see everything in it, as it's not deep enough to really hide a fish. As you can sort of see it's just a small box on the side of the tank.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii53/Laurie_Morin/DIY%20skimmer/DSC_1888.jpg

[Delphinus]

Oh.. :cry: