What was your most significant loss?

[Gumbies R Us]

At some point, while keeping reef tanks, we will encounter some loss. Maybe we will lose a coral or a fish, or the entire tank will crash. I am wondering what the most significant loss you have ever had in the hobby is. Photo Credit: @kevgib67

 

[felda001]

I have two. Most recently lost this guy to UWND favorite fish since starting a tank after a long hiatus. The biggest loss was a cross country move that required breaking down and selling everything. It wasn't until we came back across the country that I was able to restart

 

[Aiden Soellner]

Valentine pufferfish. Dead in 2 days because of a yellow tailed damsel

 

[i cant think]

It was my 4 year old Magnificent. This is my current guy, but I lost my oldest guy to a loss of oxygen and didn’t realise until it was too late.

I have a few others but I think he was the top of the list of losses.
I also have fish I have 0 feelings towards that I’ve lost - Like my old Scopas Tang and my Twin Spot Bristletooth. They were too aggressive for my liking.

 

[kevgib67]

I would have to say my two trachys. Totally my fault, I had purchased a more powerful wave maker and was hyper focused on the correct flow for my torches and didn’t notice the one trachy was getting blasted and the flesh got damaged and bjd took them both out. I now have a shoebox marked

KFC dip so I could deal with bjd immediately. It takes quite a while to gather all the ingredients.

 

[Sump Crab]

Centropyge Shepardi in a tank move

 

[Reefer Matt]

A few come to mind, but I haven’t weighed them against each other. I’ve lost multiple fish to velvet, and also a tank full of acro frags to stn, etc. As well as countless other significant losses. All part of reefing, imo.

 

[VintageReefer]

This is up there for me as far as corals go

Grew him from a baby. The yellow / green contrast was incredible in person, my photography was crap back then

 

[Justfebreezeit]

dang she's gorgeous.

 

[XtraKargo]

A XMAS tree with the coral still living for the base rock. Swapped out some of my powerheads for a bigger set that were used and didn't realize there were breaks in the 120v leads on them. Shocked the tank badly and losing that rock was my biggest regret in the hobby. I am slowly rebuilding other things, but I don't know if I'll be able to replace it anytime soon. Here is a link to the album when it was in its prime.

Xmas Tree Worms & Friends

 

[VintageReefer]

dang she's gorgeous.

5 day power outage in winter temperature. I lost a lot

 

[Justfebreezeit]

5 day power outage in winter temperature. I lost a lot

The millies really do it for me, they look so good.

 

[VintageReefer]

The millies really do it for me, they look so good.

Millie was my favorite, my main sunrise one was getting huge. I was just starting to make frags to sell

Lost everything

Haven’t kept sps for 10 years now because of the losses. Took down the dosing equip and said I wouldn’t do stony coral again.

Been keeping LPS and have a new tank to setup and thanks to certain members persuading me…started getting a few sps and just got my first Millie in a decade!

 

[Slocke]

Both of these were really tough. The Naoko was my first big loss. It was a dream fish and though I only had it a couple of weeks it had shown so much personality. Unfortunately it UNWD and watching it slowly die until finally I had to euthanize was awful.

The regal was another dream fish and I still consider them perhaps the most beautiful fish in the hobby. Mine was a tiny CB one that someone had given up. It had some HLLE when I got it but I managed to get it back and healthy and beautiful. Then I introduced an unquarintined tang. The regal was my last fish to die of velvet and perhaps the closest I’ve come to quitting the hobby.

 

[Seansea]

Emperor angel that my lunar wrasse ate his eyes out. He was and adult and cost me alot of scratch. Wasn't cool

 

[VintageReefer]

Emperor angel that my lunar wrasse ate his eyes out. He was and adult and cost me alot of scratch. Wasn't cool

I had 5” lunar wrasse and my clownfish bit out one of his eyes. I set up a separate tank for the large wrasse and had him for a few more years. He was awesome

 

[Mr_Knightley]

I have had... A lot of losses. The 'biggest' money-wise was a gorgeous red Acanthophyllia that I lost LONG before I understood coral medicine. I had nursed it back to health after it nearly died once, then it turned gold and died again before I could enjoy it. $500, the most I've ever spent on a single animal.
Likewise, I lost an ENTIRE collection of Cynarina to some sort of unidentified, incurable disease. One by one they would get sick and wither, if I treated them they'd look happy for a while before relapsing even worse. Over $2K invested in that collection, some of the most unique and beautiful animals I have ever seen. Really made me want to give up.
I am currently dealing with *something* that is killing off every SPS I put in the tank and slowly causing things to bailout, I believe it was an iron spike from a clip that I forgot to take out. Lost two years worth of growth and over 50 frags, probably close to $1K.

I have had disasters here and there, but so far, every single one was my fault. Whether I wasn't paying attention to sick animals, neglecting to do maintenance, or just making poor decisions...
I am sick and tired of being a slave to my laziness. I want to grow acros again.

 

[dangles]

I brought home a yellow tang and a scopas tang from my LFS. They had both been there for over a month, eating well. Apparently very healthy.

I put them in a QT tank. The scopas was dead in less than 12 hours. The yellow was dead 6 hours later.

It was devastating. I never did figure out what happened.

 

[littlefoxx]

At some point, while keeping reef tanks, we will encounter some loss. Maybe we will lose a coral or a fish, or the entire tank will crash. I am wondering what the most significant loss you have ever had in the hobby is. Photo Credit: @kevgib67

My beautiful regal angel and my dwarf lionfish. Lost both when my cucumber decided to commit suicide in my return pump. (Still not sure how that MF got in the stump)

 

[Seansea]

I had 5” lunar wrasse and my clownfish bit out one of his eyes. I set up a separate tank for the large wrasse and had him for a few more years. He was awesome

The clown ate the lunar wrasses eyes? Must have been one mean clown.