Grrrr. It's always the expensive ones!

asylumdown · #1 02-22-2013, 04:36 PM

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 · #2 02-22-2013, 05:17 PM

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

asylumdown · #3 02-23-2013, 08:50 PM

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 · #4 02-23-2013, 11:09 PM

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 · #5 02-24-2013, 03:37 AM

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 · #6 02-24-2013, 03:44 AM

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 · #7 02-24-2013, 01:58 PM

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 · #8 02-24-2013, 02:53 PM

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.

mandyplo · #9 02-24-2013, 03:14 PM

I feel your pain! I have exactly the luck you do

I am a reefer, but I also have a passion for Koi, and my 3000g Koi pond is my baby... They are wintering outside as they do every year, and the winter is so close to being over! But of course, I found my prized japanese $250 imported Matsuba Koi belly up the other morning with NO explanation... the ONLY koi death I've ever had during wintering, and it had to be my imported baby!!! GAHHHH!!! WHY!

asylumdown · #10 03-03-2013, 02:18 AM

Well, the fishing trip worked, but it was considerably more traumatic than I thought it would be.

I couldn't find a hook small enough at Canadian Tire, so I had to buy trout fishing flys, and then cut away at all the material until I just had the hook. I thought I had bent/filed/plied the barb down enough, but after I caught the tusk, I couldn't get the hook out of his mouth. I ended up having to very carefully cut off the loop for the fishing line using wire cutters, and then remove it from the other end with pliers. There was no visible damage to his mouth (the hook couldn't have gone through in a better spot), but in the process of getting the hook out, I handled him for about 5 minutes, and he jumped out of my hands a couple of times. I was already on my knees on the floor to try and prevent a significant fall, but several hours later and he's still lying on his side in the fish trap I put him in in the sump. His condition hasn't changed in hours, not getting worse, not getting better, and he's breathing normally, but he won't hold himself upright.

I'm going to give him the night and hopefully he'll be recovered tomorrow. As much as he was a terror in the tank, he's one of my favourite fish. It will break my heart if he doesn't pull through.

On the upside, the behaviour of the rest of the fish in the display is literally transformed. I only ever saw him being overtly aggressive to the Copper Band, who's been getting relentlessly chased, but I guess he must have been going after everybody when I wasn't looking. The replacement for this fish will need to be very carefully considered, I need a peaceful tank.