Scopas tang mystery.

I've been watching a certain scopas tang for 6 months. He was perfect for my 55g dt system and i picked him up on Saturday. After acclimation he was great, came out to eat, established in 30 the pecking order with the tiny yellowtail damsel which is the only other fish in the tank. This morning he was swimming in the open, at lights on at 1130am i didnt see him, and thought nothing of it. by 330pm i was worried and found his dead body behind the rocks under a low arch.
Why did he die? my levels are great, sps and lps thriving. My only inverts are a tuxedo urchin, pom pom crab, and a small black brittle star (CuC of snail of course) His corpse was not mangled in any way, fins intact. for flow and O2 i have an overflow and sump with refugium of about 15 gallons and due to size a large reef octopus HOB 110-F with two korillia 3s and a nano as well. I dont think O2 levels would be an issue but flow back there might be low. Thats my only assumption.

 

That is really weird. Fish don't need high flow to survive, just oxygen. You have sump with a fuge so ur o2 should be fine. do u have surface agitation in the DT?
How did you acclimatise?

 

oh yeah tons of surface agitation. I dripped him and he was fine. He even came out the next day everytime he saw a human and got a little food. I've been in this hobby for almost 7 years and i dont get it.

 

you have been watching him for 6 months... at the store or in a friends tank?

 

sort of both he runs a little operation out of his basement in a couple of tanks. pretty good system

 

watch this.... .bump!

 

When was the last time you tested the water? What is your nitrates level? Do you test for ammonia anymore. how long has this tank been set up and when was the last time you added a fish? i am just looking for anything even a reach like "old tank syndrome".

 

Thanks for the response. I added the last fish in may i think. He died from a very understandable cause, would eat anything but my big acro. Tanks been up since February. Yeah I dont test so much since I have alot of sps and lps that will tell me when something is off. Also he was acting fine one hour then dead the next.

 

yes, that's not that old. i don't know that i would count on the SPS and LPS to tell you that your water is good. animals have an amazing way of acclimating to their environment as long as the change is slow. it's the new additions that won't make it. i would test your water.

 

I really don't know what could be wrong. maybe test ur water as suggested. good luck figuring it out.