Grrrr. It's always the expensive ones!

[asylumdown]

As I've been gone for two weeks, I've trained my roommate and a friend how to care for my tank. They love it almost as much as I do, so they are (luckily) taking very good care of it. Last night I got a facetime tour of the tank and not only are all the corals still growing like gang-busters, but all my fish were fat, happy and behaving normally.

I got a second facetime 4 hours later. My Hawaiian flame wrasse, which had been perfectly healthy a few hours before, was dead with it's throat ripped out. She said that a couple hours after we talked the first time, she fed a frozen clam, and the harlequin tusk went seriously after the wrasse who tried to be the first one in at the buffet. With no other explanation for a sudden death like that (I haven't added anything in weeks, and all fish were vigorously QT'd), I have to assume that the tusk fish killed the most expensive fish in my tank, as he's the only one with the jaws or the teeth capable of doing so.

First order of business when I get home will be the capture and sale of that tusk fish. Why, oh why, couldn't he have gone after a $20 fire fish? or a cardinal? Or any other freaking fish in the whole freaking tank. GRRRRRRRR.

[monocus]

i don't think it was the ht-they are normally peaceful,and if it did do it it's a rarity

[asylumdown]

Normally I would agree with you, and if this was my last HT that we were talking about I wouldn't entertain the idea because he was a puppy. But this one has already been responsible for the demise of a goby, a goby that I watched him bite almost completely in half. I was willing to forgive the goby, because he was small enough that I could see the tusk mistaking it for food, but this wrasse was an adult male. My roommate sent me pictures, there's nothing else in the tank with a bite big enough to have caused that kind of injury, and right before she found the wrasse dead, the tusk fish was chasing it all over the place.

Hopefully when I catch him I can find someone with a semi-aggressive tank of larger fish who will want him.

[George]

that sucks. As beautiful as Harlequin Tusk is, it's carnival and known to eat small fish. I saw a baby Harlequin Tusk (around 3") trying to eat a wrasse but it couldn't because the wrasse was too big for its mouth. So the Harlequin Tusk was swimming around and carrying the wrasse in its mouth.

[asylumdown]

oh sweet jesus, was that from a LFS? any idea if the fish was dead first?

Man they're beautiful fish, and my last one was soooooo nice, but lord. $300 up in smoke because of a fight over a frozen clam. I've told my roommate to feed heavier until I can get home and catch they guy.

Does anyone have any experience catching these guys with barbless hooks? Is there any tricks I should be aware of?

[Coralgurl]

Try a net to catch him. Leave the net in the tank for a day or 2, then start putting food in the net. Ive left the food in the net for a couple of feedings till they were comfortable and not so skittish. Then scoop him up. I've caught 3 fish this way, no stress, no chasing. Just a bit of patience.

Sorry for your loss! That sucks!

[subman]

My tusk was a bad azz as well he destroyed many fish. Large or small he wasn't picky. Ended up in my tank full of triggers lions and eels spending the rest of his days ripping feeder chromis to shreds

[fishoholic]

Sorry to hear that. I love tusk fish and wanted one for a long time. I had a baby 1-2" tusk fish that was doing great in my tank for months until I had the opposite of your problem happen. I added a mystery wrasse 2-3" (only slightly bigger then the tusk fish) and the mystery wrasse killed the tusk fish!

My 230g fowlr tank would be a good aggressive match but Doug told me, no more fish for that tank, as he thinks the big guys will most likely kill any new ones. It is getting full, there are 10 fish in there and 3 are huge and a couple more will get big. When it comes to adding though I find it depends on the fish, the burr puffer (which I thought would be ok) didn't work out (oddly the eel and hawkfish terrorized him) but the filefish (that I wanted for aiptasia control, but thought the trigger might kill) is totally fine in the tank. However if there was ever a fish I'd try to sneak/squeeze in, it would be a tusk fish.

[asylumdown]

Hmmm, that's a good idea. I'll try that, I should be able to scoop him in to a bucket without taking the trap out of water.

[asylumdown]

Alright, he's upright and swimming around. Looks totally normal. Turned off the fuge light and opened the cabinet doors to keep him on the same diurnal schedule as he's used to. Assuming he's eating tomorrow, I'll be putting him up for sale/trade.