Tang Dissapeared

erm0715 · Apr 9, 2023

~2inch Tomini tang has disappeared. Have not seen in ~24hrs. He has been in tank a little over a week, mostly shy but comes out for feeding. Not a ton of rock in 120g so I normally can spot the hiding spots. He did recently have what appeared to be white marking on one side, almost looked like an abrasion. All other fish appear normal. No spikes in ammonia. As of today, 0ppm Ammonia, Nitrite, 10-20ppm Nitrate, 8.2 pH, 1.026-1.027 salinity. No top on tank. Have checked both overflows, sump area and under stand. Always showed up for feeding time. Never took red or green nori on clip but did eat frozen mysis, tdo chromaboost pellets, live brine. Did not show up for feeding last night.

Think I should go as far as pull rock work or wait and see?

KING KONG · Apr 9, 2023

erm0715 said:
~2inch Tomini tang has disappeared. Have not seen in ~24hrs. He has been in tank a little over a week, mostly shy but comes out for feeding. Not a ton of rock in 120g so I normally can spot the hiding spots. He did recently have what appeared to be white marking on one side, almost looked like an abrasion. All other fish appear normal. No spikes in ammonia. As of today, 0ppm Ammonia, Nitrite, 10-20ppm Nitrate, 8.2 pH, 1.026-1.027 salinity. No top on tank. Have checked both overflows, sump area and under stand. Always showed up for feeding time. Never took red or green nori on clip but did eat frozen mysis, tdo chromaboost pellets, live brine. Did not show up for feeding last night.

Think I should go as far as pull rock work or wait and see?

There is good chance that it is still hiding. They lay under the rocks and find weird places to hide. Sometimes fish just dissappears. I'll Say don't move sand so much, they can get stress easily. They mostly hides when stressed. Hope u will find her

Hopefully it will come out of it's hiding place in a day or 2

Edit- I recently read that u mentioned about white markings so may be possible it is hiding coz of it's sickness. Also what tankmates do u hv.
#reefsquad

erm0715 · Apr 9, 2023

KING KONG said:
There is good chance that it is still hiding. They lay under the rocks and find weird places to hide. Sometimes fish just dissappears. I'll Say don't move sand so much, they can get stress easily. They mostly hides when stressed. Hope u will find her

Hopefully it will come out of it's hiding place in a day or 2

Edit- I recently read that u mentioned about white markings so may be possible it is hiding coz of it's sickness. Also what tankmates do u hv.
#reefsquad

2 ocellaris clowns, 1 diamond goby, 1 longnose hawk. Had a pearly jawfish but he liked life better outside the tank apparently. That's it. Rest is just clean up crew.

KING KONG · Apr 10, 2023

erm0715 said:
2 ocellaris clowns, 1 diamond goby, 1 longnose hawk. Had a pearly jawfish but he liked life better outside the tank apparently. That's it. Rest is just clean up crew.

U mentioned white abrasion so how was it breathing? I think it may be sick. If u don't see it coming out today, u may hv to take rocks out.

#reefsquad @vetteguy53081 may help u here

ca1ore · Apr 10, 2023

It will either emerge or not emerge ..... if it does not, I would not go searching for it as your CUC will take care of any evidence. Unless your biofilter is woefully inadequate, a small 2" fish in a 120 isn't going to release measurable ammonia.

erm0715 · Apr 10, 2023

ca1ore said:
It will either emerge or not emerge ..... if it does not, I would not go searching for it as your CUC will take care of any evidence. Unless your biofilter is woefully inadequate, a small 2" fish in a 120 isn't going to release measurable ammonia.

Yeah I'm at a loss. I did check rock work on left side and then spent the next 30 minutes annoyed it wasn't the way it was before, moving pieces around looking at a picture on my phone from before moving it. I'm not messing with the right smaller stack of rock. No ammonia or nitrate movement today so he's either gone and disposed of by CUC or really good at hiding in small spaces.

erm0715 · Apr 10, 2023

KING KONG said:
U mentioned white abrasion so how was it breathing? I think it may be sick. If u don't see it coming out today, u may hv to take rocks out.

#reefsquad @vetteguy53081 may help u here

Seemed to be breathing fine, eating fine etc. It appeared as a white-ish vertical area just about the height of his body, roughly centered. I assumed it looked as if he scraped against rock.

Sharkbait19 · Apr 10, 2023

Have you checked outside the tank, in filters, etc.?
Did the fish act off last you saw it?

Lost in the Sauce · Apr 10, 2023

I hope it comes out happy and healthy for you.

Was the tang QT'd?

Last time I had a new tang hide after 5 days was because it had brought velvet into the tank.

erm0715 · Apr 10, 2023

Sharkbait19 said:
Have you checked outside the tank, in filters, etc.?
Did the fish act off last you saw it?

I've checked both overflow boxes, one has a siphon drain so it's a bit turbulent, but nothing stood out in either. I've checked the sump as best I can but the design of this sump has a drain chamber that can't be more than 5x2" or 5x3" that's blocked from view as it flows forward into a filter sock chamber. The only thing in the cabinet with the sump was the now crispy pearly jawfish I hadn't seen in a while. He hid mostly so didn't mount an all out search if I didn't see him often.

Regarding acting off, he'd been in the tank a little over a week and I would say he was shy for the first handful of days hiding when anyone came near but pretty much recognized where the food came from after a few days.

erm0715 · Apr 10, 2023

Lost in the Sauce said:
I hope it comes out happy and healthy for you.

Was the tang QT'd?

Last time I had a new tang hide after 5 days was because it had brought velvet into the tank.

I'll probably get flack for this but as the tank is fairly empty regarding stocking he was not QT'd. I pretty much buy from one LFS (not really local, hour drive) and haven't had past issues with fish stocking in a smaller tank with the exception of two black clowns that refused to eat so I risked it.

KING KONG · Apr 11, 2023

erm0715 said:
Seemed to be breathing fine, eating fine etc. It appeared as a white-ish vertical area just about the height of his body, roughly centered. I assumed it looked as if he scraped against rock.

So u can rule velvet out. It can flukes or common tang problem HLLE. Sometimes tang iches from rocks when stressed or in case of parasites. I don't think that anything in your tank can give it stress. Keep an eye on your cuc if something had happened to tang behind the rockwork, they may go to start their work. So, I think it will be a good idea now to take rockwork out or just push a rock. If it is hiding their and is ok, it will come out. If u find it, u should then work what wrong with it