Help with sudden, unexplained Valentini Puffer death

[GroktheCube]

My girlfriend's Valentini puffer was happy and healthy this afternoon, eating mysis like a pig, and was found dead for no apparent reason this evening.

There were no signs of injury to the fish, and his appearance was normal.

He (along with all tankmates) were properly QTed, going through TTM followed by prazi and a month of observation. He has been living in my GF's 65 for about 9 months.
His tank mates (1 McCosker's wrasse, pair of Ocellaris clowns, 1 Bicolor blenny) seems normal, though the blenny does have a few blemishes that resemble aiptasia stings. All inverts also seem fine.

Salinity is 35ppt, temp is 80. NH3 is zero.

I hooked up some GAC in a reactor, and am making water for a WC.

I have NO ideas on this one. Any help?

 

[Dmorty217]

Do you know where the puffer was caught? Cyanide poisoned fish will die sometime after being caught, not sure about 9 months later though

 

[GroktheCube]

"Indo Pacific". I got the math wrong, it was actually more like 11 months. He arrived November 15 of 2013.

He seemed quite healthy, all things told.

He came in with ich and some sort of arthropod ectoparasite, but both were resolved quickly with treatment. He was under .75" when she first got him, and got up to nearly 3" at time of death.

My GF's working theory is that while "surfing" in her MP10, or trying to bite something off of it, he managed to swim far enough in while it was slowed down (Reef Crest mode) only to get hit in the head and suffer some sort of traumatic brain injury.

I'm honestly not sure how feasible that theory is. I've never seen an otherwise happy and healthy fish go from swimming around acting 110% normal to dead with absolutely zero warning signs in a matter of an hour at most with nothing else in the tank being negatively affected.

I'll miss the little guy. He loved my GF, but always hated me. Whenever I went in front of the tank, he'd swim over, extend his top and bottom ridges, turn them black, and then point his tail at me.

 

[ca1ore]

I think none of the 'usual suspects' work in this case. I'd have thought cyanide also, but 11 months is a long time for that, plus it was growing. I will tell you that if it got whacked by the power-head hard enough to cause death, there would have been observable injury. It sounds like you did all the right things, so maybe it was just his time to go.

 

[GroktheCube]

I think none of the 'usual suspects' work in this case. I'd have thought cyanide also, but 11 months is a long time for that, plus it was growing. I will tell you that if it got whacked by the power-head hard enough to cause death, there would have been observable injury. It sounds like you did all the right things, so maybe it was just his time to go.

If so, odd that he went so young. I thought they lived pretty long lives.

But I guess it's tough to tell, sometimes "stuff happens". I suppose he might have had a fishy aneurism or something of the sort.

 

[LukFox]

Stuff happens is right and without a necropsy you may never know. I had a male cherub angel who I had for a while and went through a strict quarantine when I got him. He was chubby, always hungry and active, and courting with his females. One day he died without any warning. His behavior never changed or anything.

I was worried so I took the body to a fish vet (haha, can be difficult to find). In the necropsy the vet found lesions on internal organs, and says the fish looked to have died from Mycobacterium marinum. Well that was fun to discover... The fish did not experience any wasting warning, just sudden. Never would have known the cause of death without the vet. Haven't lost any other fish like that though thankfully.

 

[GroktheCube]

I was too shocked to think of saving the body to perform a necropsy, I wish I had.

I hate not knowing why when something goes wrong, but I might end up having to let this one go.