Fish dead, covered in mystery goo!

[Tyrenlds]

Found one of our green chromis this morning dead under strange circumstances.

It was perfectly fine eating last night before lights out, wake up this morning and it's dead attached to the live rock. It was unbelievably decayed for the amount of elapsed time. It's eyes were torn out and a large section of it's midsection had been eaten away. The weirdest part, when I netted the corpse I discovered the entire body was encased in a thick clear gel. I'm talking a lot of it, a clear glob the size of a golf ball with the chromis inside. We found a dead cerith snail two nights prior under the same circumstances. Its was encased in this clear gel and when we 'poured' it's body out of the shell all that came out was more gel.

What the heck is going on!? Has anyone seen something like this before?

 

[MARINECRITTERS]

Sounds like it was just attacked by a fish or a secret hitchhiker ( mantis maybe ).
The goo is probably just bacteria breaking down the body, but since it happened to a snail as well then decomposing bacteria may be out of the question.
There are some animals that produce a slimy coat at night like parrot fish and wrasses but I don't think it would end up on a dead animal.
Not to sure maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Chromis seem to be dropping like flies for the last several months; I have no idea why.

 

[zachfishman]

The slime glob is not unusual. It's the mass of bacteria that abound on the dead organism. The rapid decay is not abnormal either. I once had to extract an 8" sohal tang only ~6 hours dead, and it looked as if it'd been dead for much, much longer.

 

[Anemone]

Eunicid worms are known to kill snails by smothering them in slime. I haven't heard of them attacking fish in this manner, but it's possible the fish succumbed to something else and a Eunicid came along for a free meal. If you have one of these worms, they can be a real terror - they munch on snails, clams, and some corals (zoanthids and ricordea in one of my tanks). I'd look to the rock the dead fish was "attached" to as the likely home for a Eunicid. Good luck!

Kevin

 

[dannybox347]

Same goo on my dead fish this morning!

Same goo on my dead fish this morning!

I have noticed this goo was all over under the rock where the I found the dead fish. It used to sleep in the same spot but this morning it didn't come out and noticed this big clear gel around it. I lifted the rock and found like goo strips and I tried to take it off with a gentle brush but now all this goo strips are all around the fish tank...

Should I worry about it or would it disappear?
I noticed it grew under the one rock that does not get hit bit the flow motor, how dangerous is this for my tank?
Does anybody know its name?

 

[dannybox347]

Same goo on my dead fish this morning!

Same goo on my dead fish this morning!

I have noticed this goo was all over under the rock where the I found the dead fish. It used to sleep in the same spot but this morning it didn't come out and noticed this big around it. I lifted the rock and found like goo strips and I tried to take it off with a gentle brush but now all this goo strips are all around the fish tank...

Should I worry about it or would it disappear?
I noticed it grew under the one rock that does not get hit bit the flow motor, how dangerous is this for my tank?
Does anybody know its name?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Don't rule out crabs. Had emerald crabs once and found one morning them having a feast
on one of my fish. Most fish sleep in the rocks at night, making them easy prey.

 

[ca1ore]

I find it amusing that these threads invariably end up being a rogues gallery of fish predators. OK, it's possible that you have some aquatic boogeyman lurking in your tank, but it's FAR more likely the fish died of some kind of more mundane reason and got munched on by your CUC. I've had a fish get almost completely consumed in less than 12 hours; and the clear gel you report is a pretty standard symptom of decomp. FWIW, green chromis are legendary for winnowing down their numbers until you have one, or two if lucky.

 

[jangofat25]

Hi, did you ever have any further luck discovering the culprit?
I havebeen searching for these specific incidents after lising two clams and numerous snails in similar circumstances.
Read this.
http://aquatic.alexraptor.com/?p=172
I caught one of these inmy tank and thought it was safe to get back in the water. Wrong. :-(

 

[jangofat25]

I took the piece if live rock out of my tank left it in a bucket with no water and hey presto, out pops this disgusting worm.
Looks like I'll be doing it again just need to find out which rock this other one is in.
Will post photos when i can work out how!