Bad day for the duck tank

[The_DuckTank]

So unfortunately i had to euthanize my convict tang today.

i know i will get a lot of criticism for everything leading up to this event including this event and im okay with that as im having a little bit of a hard time justifying what i did. Basically i added a medium size convict early on in my stock because everything i was seeing online and from what people were telling me it was supposed to be the most peaceful among tangs. were i messed up was letting him be the only " big " fish in the tank for too long. there are 12 fish in the system right now but are all extremely peaceful species and are " small " fish. last week i tried adding a tomini tang thinking " this will be fine they are both supposed to be peaceful ". well i was wrong because within 24 hrs the tomini was murdered. so i start thinking okay this is my fault, the tomini was too small and couldnt defend himself. ( keep in mind ive been keeping fish for a little over a year but ive never had experience with tangs ) i was bummed, felt bad, and learned from my mistake. at this point ive made the decision to not add anymore tangs for a while until i can add the remaining amount at once. but today i picked up an anthias, as soon as i set the fish in the water the tang started aggressively attacking. so i immediately take action to try and catch the tang because now i know " this isnt a acclimation problem, this is a big fish bully complex ". took 2 hours including ripping apart all my rock work to catch the tang. once i caught it i realized there was only one thing i could do. during trying to catch the fish it obviously became extremely stressed and injured from trying to catch it for 2 hours straight. LFS dont open till wednesday. i dont have anywhere else to keep it. and i sure as hell wasnt going to let it go in the tank to continue to try and kill the fish that was just added. and out of all things a freaking anthias??? like are you kidding?

tang police, please feel free to butcher me for my mistake and lack of knowledge. i know understand why people have certain methods of adding tangs. im just bummed. ive always properly acclimated, i always turn the lights off when adding, turn the flow down. i really like to think i have a very good acclimation routine. and ive never had fish attack eachother like this before. even after doing research into tangs its always " chasing & tail slapping " but in this situation this fish was going for straight kill shots. ive learned my lesson and dont know how confident i feel in adding tangs now. which sucks because its my dream to have a few. but oh well we will see what i think once my head clears a bit.

also i know i barley touched on it above but in the moment i thought putting the fish out of its misery was the best option. obviously i would have rather put the fish elsewhere but idk. its kinda hard to explain. i do feel bad but at the same time i feel like it was only fair.

 

[Ks4726]

It wasnt fair to the fish. It was just doing what was natural. did you have a sump or an acclimation box? You could of made a small box out of egg crate and zip ties.

 

[The_DuckTank]

I agree with you and under other circumstances yes, I would have rather gone this route. And the only reason I didn’t was just the condition the fish was in once I finally caught it. I feel like it would’ve been more traumatizing to stick the fish in my sump.

I really don’t wanna seem like I’m a fish killer because I really do feel bad just in that moment in time I felt like that was the right decision. Plus, it makes me feel better knowing that somebody else wasn’t gonna get this murderous fish who’s already had a taste for blood. I completely agree with your aspect of nature, taking its courses. But when a hundred dollar fish is on the line and the fact of knowing that every other fish I had after he’s already killed one we’re just gonna have the same situation then it speaks for itself

 

[Mebbid]

That's an unfortunate situation, especially with the LFS being open soo rarely.

For future reference, a sizable acclimation box will be the best way to go when adding really any new fish. Whether you get a piece of eggcrate and secure it in the corner of your tank or make a hang on acclimation box would be fine. I bought one from amazon that works great, but I don't have anything larger than 4".

The idea is to let a fish live in the acclimation box exposed to the other fish but protected from aggression. Add some fake aquarium plants, rock, or pvc for it to hide in. This will allow any existing fish to get used to being around the new fish and seriously cut down on aggression when you release the fish after a couple weeks.

 

[Ks4726]

At least the fish would of had a chance in the sump. Some tangs can be pretty resilent. Or you could of had it in a bucket with an airstone for a few hours and posted a question here for some options. I think you didnt want reasonable options and had your mind made up. You had better options and it may not of been a murderous fish in a new tank that it was the new fish on the block. And a convict tang doesnt get a "taste for blood". It was just being a tang. Youre just justifying your poor decisions. Not adding more tangs is a good idea, maybe learn about the species a bit better before buying them.

That being said i doubt you need a further lecture. If youre staying in the hobby make better decisions please.. Good luck to you.

 

[Tahoe61]

At least the fish would of had a chance in the sump. Some tangs can be pretty resilent. Or you could of had it in a bucket with an airstone for a few hours and posted a question here for some options. I think you didnt want reasonable options and had your mind made up. You had better options and it may not of been a murderous fish in a new tank that it was the new fish on the block. And a convict tang doesnt get a "taste for blood". It was just being a tang. Youre just justifying your poor decisions. Not adding more tangs is a good idea, maybe learn about the species a bit better before buying them.

That being said i doubt you need a further lecture. If youre staying in the hobby make better decisions please.. Good luck to you.

^ This. There are no murderous fish only bad husbandry decisions.

 

[Reef Jedi]

^ This. There are no murderous fish only bad husbandry decisions.

This

Op I won’t beat you down for what has been done however there are many ways this could have been handled without taking the life of a tang with natural instincts. I’ve been in this hobby over 23 years and yes I know it can be frustrating and people don’t always think clearly in high stress times. In the future please come here to R2R and ask questions for help. Heck I’ll even give you my cell # you can text or call to get an immediate response. This is to help you along the journey of taking care of these complicated creatures. To help you be the best care taker you can be. What’s done is done and nothing can change that now. So I’d like you to learn from the experience.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

So unfortunately i had to euthanize my convict tang today.

i know i will get a lot of criticism for everything leading up to this event including this event and im okay with that as im having a little bit of a hard time justifying what i did. Basically i added a medium size convict early on in my stock because everything i was seeing online and from what people were telling me it was supposed to be the most peaceful among tangs. were i messed up was letting him be the only " big " fish in the tank for too long. there are 12 fish in the system right now but are all extremely peaceful species and are " small " fish. last week i tried adding a tomini tang thinking " this will be fine they are both supposed to be peaceful ". well i was wrong because within 24 hrs the tomini was murdered. so i start thinking okay this is my fault, the tomini was too small and couldnt defend himself. ( keep in mind ive been keeping fish for a little over a year but ive never had experience with tangs ) i was bummed, felt bad, and learned from my mistake. at this point ive made the decision to not add anymore tangs for a while until i can add the remaining amount at once. but today i picked up an anthias, as soon as i set the fish in the water the tang started aggressively attacking. so i immediately take action to try and catch the tang because now i know " this isnt a acclimation problem, this is a big fish bully complex ". took 2 hours including ripping apart all my rock work to catch the tang. once i caught it i realized there was only one thing i could do. during trying to catch the fish it obviously became extremely stressed and injured from trying to catch it for 2 hours straight. LFS dont open till wednesday. i dont have anywhere else to keep it. and i sure as hell wasnt going to let it go in the tank to continue to try and kill the fish that was just added. and out of all things a freaking anthias??? like are you kidding?

tang police, please feel free to butcher me for my mistake and lack of knowledge. i know understand why people have certain methods of adding tangs. im just bummed. ive always properly acclimated, i always turn the lights off when adding, turn the flow down. i really like to think i have a very good acclimation routine. and ive never had fish attack eachother like this before. even after doing research into tangs its always " chasing & tail slapping " but in this situation this fish was going for straight kill shots. ive learned my lesson and dont know how confident i feel in adding tangs now. which sucks because its my dream to have a few. but oh well we will see what i think once my head clears a bit.

also i know i barley touched on it above but in the moment i thought putting the fish out of its misery was the best option. obviously i would have rather put the fish elsewhere but idk. its kinda hard to explain. i do feel bad but at the same time i feel like it was only fair.

You're not the first newbie to make this mistake and sadly, you won't be the last. With the internet at hand these days it is so much easier to do some research on the livestock we want to keep. When I started off there was just the public library and various magazines from the LFS. I cringe when I come across a post that screams "I want it all and I want it now". I blame today's culture of needing instant gratification.

It sounds like you have real remorse and that like the rest of us you are learning from your mistakes. Had you spent more time here, you may have known to try a couple of dollar-store mirrors taped to the sides of your tank to give your tang something else to focus on. It may have saved both fish.

 

[christinna77]

You said the anthias was properly acclimated, but I don't really see that here. If you had placed it in an acclimation box first, you likely would have noticed right away that the tang was trying to attack it. At that point you could have tried waiting to see if it improves, or catching the tang and putting it in timeout instead.

I always try to put every new fish in an acclimation box for at least 24h (with some exceptions) and set up a camera in front of it. Then I replay the sped up footage to watch for any signs of aggression from current inhabitants before releasing it.