Coping with my first loss..

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agentdelaney

New member
I came home today to my first fish loss. I just purchased a beautif
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ul mystery wrasse. I came home today to feed my fish to find my wrasse upside down with a huge whole in his gills. I had just added the wrasse 2 days ago along with a coral beauty angel. I originally had a flamehawk and a pair of black clowns. Any idea how this happened?
 
Eeek. Sorry to hear about the loss. A few things do come in to play. Acclimation period to the aquarium, aquarium parameters, fish aggression/compatibility, etc. Hopefully we can figure it out as well.
 
sorry, i'd guess cooties or a fight. dump and pray gets most people sooner or later. the sad truth is, any fish may be sick when you buy it. fish are really good at hiding weakness. by the time a fish looks in trouble ,it's usually too late. assuming the fish was 100% heathy, it's still tough on fish ( fresh meat) . qt ,gives you a chance to figure out what you have, get it used to eating, then medicate, if appropriate. doesn't need to be fancy. a $2 bucket/tote ,heater, airstone will work . i prefer a a glass tank with a $10 hob filter from wally world.
 
i do have a reef tank. i had my paramaters tested when i bought the fish and everything was dead on, salinity, alcalinity, calcium were all perfect. I have an emerald crab, and i'm assuming he did the damage that i mentioned (fins eaten, gills damaged, etc.) the only fish i can think of that was pretty territorial is my flame hawk. i let the bag sit in the tank for 25 mins to acclimate temerature. every 5-8 mins i put in a little water into the bag, roughly an ounce or two each time until i double in volume. i let him sit for another 10 mins after that to acclimate, then get a lot of the water out and slide him in trying now to get any water in my tank. he acclimated ok, swam around, checked stuff out for the first couple of hours, then started to hide. i ararely saw him for the first 48 hours and then came out a lot and started eating. thought he would have been ok. of course the next day was when I found him dead and eaten lol
 
This happens, it was a new fish, doesn't sound like you can lay any blame on yourself. I had a pair of Borbonius Anthias for a couple of years, they didn't eat one day, and then the next day they were both dead. Every other fish in the tank was fine. Borbonius or Blotchy Anthias are not cheap. If you plan on getting another Mystery Wrasse just know that it will probably kill any other Wrasse you try to add after it.
 
BlackLagoon said:
If you plan on getting another Mystery Wrasse just know that it will probably kill any other Wrasse you try to add after it.
Click to expand...
I've had a mystery for over 4 years, its about 5", and I've added at least 15 new wrasses in the past year, some as small as 1/2"...never even looks at them!

I do use an acclimation box, when they've done with QT!
 
albano said:
I've had a mystery for over 4 years, its about 5", and I've added at least 15 new wrasses in the past year, some as small as 1/2"...never even looks at them!

I do use an acclimation box, when they've done with QT!
Click to expand...

I tried a Yellow Flanked Fairy Wrasse and my Mystery killed it within two days in a 180 gallon. Albano I think your experience would be different if your putting multiple Wrasses in a 675 gallon system. In a tank that large normal rules for compatibility don't apply. I would estimate a large majority of hobbyists have tanks smaller than 120 gallons, completely different ball game.
 
BlackLagoon said:
Albano I think your experience would be different if your putting multiple Wrasses in a 675 gallon system. In a tank that large normal rules for compatibility don't apply. I would estimate a large majority of hobbyists have tanks smaller than 120 gallons, completely different ball game.
Click to expand...
IME, I think you are correct about the large tank...however, before the 450g DT, the mystery was in a 4'/130g DT for 2 yrs. with 4 or 5 other smaller wrasses.
In the end, it's the individual fish's 'personality'...which can change, and (unfortunately) someday, he may have to go!
 
My guess would be that he had some unknown poisoning or affliction that you weren't aware of and died. The hole in the gill was probably caused postmortem by your CUC.
 
After everything I believe it was the hawkfish. He is a little aggressive, definitely loves his food at feeding time. Hasn't ever attacked anything else though.
 
So I came home today to now find my coral angel is dead too. Anyone want a flamehawk? Pretty upset after losing 140 bucks worth of fish in 2 days! Grrr...
 
My clowns went in first and then the flame hawk. i introduced the wrasse and angel after and I think the hawk took to much territory. That's my guess
 
Awww...sad. I'm sorry to hear about that! I had my first lost a few months ago, so I can relate to what you're going through!
 
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