I lost my Bangai Cardinal!

4 days ago, I noticed my Bangai lost part of its upper tail. Prior to that, it seemed to not eating well. A day later, the entire upper tail was gone. I thought the fish was attacked by something and I suspected the Sally Lightfoot crab that I added about one month ago. The crab was quite small when I got it but it molted once and is almost 50% larger than its original size.

First picture below showed what the Bangai looked like 4 days ago. I finally caught the fish and put it in the QT tank 2 days ago. While in the process of transferring the fish to the QT tank, it jumped out and landed on the floor:-[. More stress to the fish. To add to the injury, my heater in the QT tank quit working and the tank temp dropped to 71F the next morning.

So the fish had a really bad start in the QT tank. While in the QT tank and without any treatment, the lower tail gradually dispeared in front of my eyes and getting bloody. (2nd picture)

I decided to treat the fish with Melafix as I found out from the product website that it is safe for marine fish. I had the product for my pond fish. I used 0.5ml for the 5 gal QT tank. The fish didn't like that at all. This morning it was dead.

I really feel sad about this as I have this fish for over 7 months. It is one of the most beautiful fish that I owned. It tripled its size in that period of time.

Just want to share my sad story. May be this adds to my experience of reef keeping.

 

sorry for loss, karma

 

Any ideas as to why this happened?? Anyone??

Sorry for your loss, karma to ya!

 

Sorry for your loss>>>>That stinks....

 

That is a sad story. When I decided to go reef back in Nov., I bought a pair of Banggais; and they've been my only fish since (except for the ill-fated spotted green mandarin with a penchant for carpeting I posted about). They've been the dream couple. Too bad they're not mated. They are docile, friendly, and are exemplary citizens in my 55 gal. I read somewhere in a tank of the month that someone's opinion was to fill the tank with corals, and then add fish to the established reef. I liked that advice, and I'm taking it. I'll be at least another year before I'm satisfied with the coral population in my tank, as right now I only have a shroom covered rock, a zoa rock, a yellow polyp, and a green star polyp. I'm going for frogspawn and/or hammer next.



Simonskl, do you have any fish that you suspect may have harrassed the banggai? Are you pretty confident it's the crab? I'm a bit leery about crabs. Hermits are safe enough, but just about every other crab I've had has been known to take an opportunistic chunk of flesh if presented with the chance.

Simonskl, get another one, but not before ridding yourself of the problem.

 

If given the choice on a crab I'd go with a sally lightfoot, their claws are short to the point of uselessness for anything other than rock and bed grazing. I have a yellowtail that chases my sally out of his rock arch and the sally wants nothing to do with them.

And I've yet to notice the sally even move her claws above her mouth. lol

 

Ditto

The exact same thing is happening to my cardinal. I got the tank from someone else last week. He had the tank for over two years so it is a pretty established tank. I noticed a couple of days after the move that the cardinal's tail was missing... the whole thing. At first there were a couple of "tendons" coming out of the tail in the natural V shape, but now those are completely gone. The injury would darken like it was healing, then it would be red/bloody again. I thought maybe the two clowns I have were attacking him or maybe the crab got a hold of him. I put him in a screened cage (for breeding or isolation purposes) that is still in the main tank (I don't have a QT) over two days ago. The injury is still red/bloody and he isn't showing any interest in food nor is he moving around much. Even at night when the lights are off he doesn't move or eat. The previous owner had him for a long time so I thought maybe he was injured in the move. Anyone have any ideas on what has happend? Is it an injury or some kind of disease? Is there any chance the tail will grow back if he makes it? Sorry for your loss Simon, I hope I have better luck.

 

I dont trust ANY crab. I will not have any crabs, not even hermits.

 

sorry for your loss dude