Which Coral or Fish Has Broken Your Heart?

[Revt]

File fish...
I got him to get rid of aptasia. He did that, but then went after corals. For over six months, I tried to catch that fish but couldn't. In that time, he destroyed my acan garden, my blastos, a huge colony of bizarro cyphastrea, both my lobos...you get the idea. I finally caught him and put him in my sump. Aptasia is making a strong comeback but at least my surviving corals are starting to regrow. If I could go back in time and stop myself from buying that fish, I would. Truly heartbreaking...

 

[Darwin]

 

[Darwin]

This was the one that got me

 

[Sean Clark]

This one for me.

 

[JoJosReef]

Crocea clam

 

[PeterC99]

Wow - what a beauty! Did you get another one?

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Paddington, my White Tail Bristletooth, for me. Died unexpectedly in the care of the tank-sitter when I was out of town, lodged under a rock nowhere to be found, and by the time I came back he had practically dissolved to the bone and I had to remove him from my tank in several parts. Still don't quite know what happened as he was fat and healthy, and I didn't lose anybody else. Absolutely gut-wrenching as he was my favorite fish and I had owned him for well over a year and a half

Sry for your loss. I recently got one from TSM. Named Alfalfa

 

[zheka757]

I had a 10'' blonde naso tang jump my tank, found her on floor next day dried, that hurt my filings!

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Mine was a gem tang that wiped out my original white tail, mystery wrasse &
Blue dot jaw. 2 survived the treatment luckily. Ruined my day for sure. Made me
Sick. Ugh. 1st and hopefully last time. Always got lucky but it only takes one
Time. Now I get conditioned and QT courtesy TSM.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Mine was a gem tang that wiped out my original white tail, mystery wrasse &
Blue dot jaw. 2 survived the treatment luckily. Ruined my day for sure. Made me
Sick. Ugh. 1st and hopefully last time. Always got lucky but it only takes one
Time. Now I get conditioned and QT courtesy TSM.

Survivors were the Starkii Damsel and flame hawk

 

[exnisstech]

From my freshwater days in my South American cichlid tank. It's a Toss up between "sunshine" my red faced severum and "chocchoc" a chocolate cichlids. I raised them from little 1 inch juvies to large adults. Sunshine was 8 inches and the chocolate close to 10 inches. I think they died of old age. Unfortunately it wasn't quick

 

[bxclent]

I love Watchman Gobies, they are fun to watch and very good for the turnover of sand. Twice they ended up dried out on the floor. I never figured out how those little suckers escaped !

 

[EricR]

My bicolor blenny just died last month. (No idea why)
My very first fish and had him about 2 years,,, bummer

 

[Andreas' Reef]

My first clownfish and first fish. Had her for 4 years. Came down with brooks and died in a week. There as nothing I could do because of new laws that ban certain fish medications in Canada without a perscription.

 

[WilGao]

A Zebra shark (stegostoma sp.) egg that died just a couple months ago

 

[Dave Dumanski]

Flame angle for me, had him for 4 years

 

[Pntbll687]

Mine is two in one

My hippo tang, I've had it for almost 6 years. Got it at a store for $20, and was about 1.5-2in in size. Now about 8in and just BEAUTIFUL!! No HLLE to speak of, just a absolute perfect fish.

Coral wise, my dragon soul torch is the one that got me. The first "high end" coral I ever bought.

And then the hippo bit a nice chunk out of the dragon soul. Stressed the coral so bad that brown jelly set in, and it was gone in a matter of hours. The brown jelly got in the water column, and took out another torch, and some hammers. Probably lost $1000+ in coral in about 3 days.

 

[Pntbll687]

How big is that thing?

It looks just STUNNING!!!

 

[o2manyfish]

The title of this thread made me think of my "Unicorn" fish -- The Colini or Colins angel fish. This is a dwarf angel, available from the Phillipines, Austrailia and a few other deep water areas. They are seen in the industry only a couple of times a year. They come into LA in very small quantities. A big shipment might have 10 fish in it.

These fish have been impossible to keep. My record is 2 different specimens to 6 months. I know of only one other hobbyist in Europe to keep them for past 60 days. I know of no one in the US to successfully keep one long term. And in my visits to Public Aquariums around the country I have never seen one on display.

People talk about Moorish Idols or Copperbands being impossible to keep. But they are just difficult to get them into a home they are comfortable in. In a comfortable home there are many people who keep them long term with great success.

But there are no such stories of the Colini. My wife knows this fish is a goal of mine. And she lets me purchase up to 5 a season to try with - Singles, Groups, QT, medicated, live foods, Fresh Lobster Eggs shipped overnight from the East Coast, Clams on the half shell, live brine, live black worms. We've given it every attempt we can.

Most fish last less than a few weeks in captivity. They are from deep water and shy fish. So even when they are comfortable it's hard to tell the fish is comfortable.

The 2 times we have gotten past the 2 month mark - two about 6 months on each fish. There was nothing we did differently. The first time I had a 350gallon fiberglass trough outside in the sunlight. It had started out as a frag tank and turned into a Phytoplankton soup tank. Dark green water. But fish flourished in it. Purple Tangs with exacrebated HLLE, Angels with Pop Eye, we brought home all kinds of fish and threw them in the soup and they healed and thrived. You could only see the fish when they broke the surface to eat. We had attempted a group of 4 Colinis and three died within a few days - the 4th one was on it's last legs and I tossed it into the green soup tank when it was just starting to lay down and gasp. Knock me on my butt when about 2 months later we were feeding the fish in the swamp tank and boom there is a Colini eating pellets from the surface. But at 6 months the fish vanished - No idea why as we couldn't see into the tank.

The second partial success story was a Colini that I just directly added to a mature 400g packed reef tank. The fish did well for 6 months and then vanished without a trace.

This is a heart break fish for me. My wife and I have tried everything to save the lives to these fish that come into the US. While not having the same facilities and staff as an Andrew Sandler, I have tried my best to provide great homes and food sources to keep these fish happy.

This season there are Captive Bred Colini's avaiable from Bali AquaRich. My wife keeps telling me NO, to let it go, but the temptation still lurks.

Dave B

 

[PeterC99]

The title of this thread made me think of my "Unicorn" fish -- The Colini or Colins angel fish. This is a dwarf angel, available from the Phillipines, Austrailia and a few other deep water areas. They are seen in the industry only a couple of times a year. They come into LA in very small quantities. A big shipment might have 10 fish in it.

These fish have been impossible to keep. My record is 2 different specimens to 6 months. I know of only one other hobbyist in Europe to keep them for past 60 days. I know of no one in the US to successfully keep one long term. And in my visits to Public Aquariums around the country I have never seen one on display.

People talk about Moorish Idols or Copperbands being impossible to keep. But they are just difficult to get them into a home they are comfortable in. In a comfortable home there are many people who keep them long term with great success.

But there are no such stories of the Colini. My wife knows this fish is a goal of mine. And she lets me purchase up to 5 a season to try with - Singles, Groups, QT, medicated, live foods, Fresh Lobster Eggs shipped overnight from the East Coast, Clams on the half shell, live brine, live black worms. We've given it every attempt we can.

Most fish last less than a few weeks in captivity. They are from deep water and shy fish. So even when they are comfortable it's hard to tell the fish is comfortable.

The 2 times we have gotten past the 2 month mark - two about 6 months on each fish. There was nothing we did differently. The first time I had a 350gallon fiberglass trough outside in the sunlight. It had started out as a frag tank and turned into a Phytoplankton soup tank. Dark green water. But fish flourished in it. Purple Tangs with exacrebated HLLE, Angels with Pop Eye, we brought home all kinds of fish and threw them in the soup and they healed and thrived. You could only see the fish when they broke the surface to eat. We had attempted a group of 4 Colinis and three died within a few days - the 4th one was on it's last legs and I tossed it into the green soup tank when it was just starting to lay down and gasp. Knock me on my butt when about 2 months later we were feeding the fish in the swamp tank and boom there is a Colini eating pellets from the surface. But at 6 months the fish vanished - No idea why as we couldn't see into the tank.

The second partial success story was a Colini that I just directly added to a mature 400g packed reef tank. The fish did well for 6 months and then vanished without a trace.

This is a heart break fish for me. My wife and I have tried everything to save the lives to these fish that come into the US. While not having the same facilities and staff as an Andrew Sandler, I have tried my best to provide great homes and food sources to keep these fish happy.

This season there are Captive Bred Colini's avaiable from Bali AquaRich. My wife keeps telling me NO, to let it go, but the temptation still lurks.

Dave B

Had to look this one up! Beautiful!