jawfish died in quarantine-thoughts as to cause.

[Dustin Thompson]

I lost a jawfish yesterday. He had been in QT for about three weeks, giving him a little time before I put him in my display. The quarantine is a 30 gallon, 1.025 measured SG with a refractometer, pH around 8.2, no detectable NH3 or NO3. He was eating like a champ and starting to become a bit more inquisitive. One morning he didn't eat and he was dead hours later.

His gills looked extremely red hours before he died. This quarantine tank had been set up for four plus months, with a sponge filter that was well established from my DT. When I noticed his gills were red I dosed some metroplex but it was either too late or the wrong course of action. This is the first fish I have lost. Really was looking forward to watching him grow.

Any thoughts?

 

[ThRoewer]

What kind of jawfish was it - Opistognathus aurifons (Yellowhead jawfish)?

 

[Dustin Thompson]

Yes it was a yellow head! Sorry, that slipped my mind.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Did you check ammonia? Do you know if the LFS uses low doses of copper? Three week timeline is in line with low dose copper and velvet.

 

[Dustin Thompson]

I don't know about the copper, but there was 0 ammonia. Newsmryna, what do you mean by copper AND velvet? Are you saying the copper suppressed the velvet or that the two could be separate causes of death? I will find out tomorrow if they dose copper or not.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Yes, low levels of copper can mask the symptoms of velvet. It can take about 3 weeks after the fish is no longer exposed to the copper for the velvet symptoms to appear. I do have personal experience of this happening.

 

[Dustin Thompson]

Thanks for the heads up, I will say that his colors were somewhat subdued hours before he died, looked sort of "anemic" and transparent. I wish I would have known as I would have treated with ick shield as I have it on hand. Also wish I would have kept the fish, I work at a college that has an aquaculture program and bet they could have diagnosed it. I may run a course of ick shield prophylactically next time.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Yeah, sounds like velvet.

 

[Jeremy1988]

Was that the only fish you had quarantined in that particular tank?