My first dead fish. Analysis.

DasCamel

Active member
My six line wrasse passed away today. Family and I held a wonderful service before the toilet did the honors.

Now, to figure out why. Tank details 48x24x30, 150 g + 50 g sump. 175 pounds live rock, em300 skimmer, 200 micron sock, 77.6 deg constant, ph8.0-8.1, water chemistry pristine last few weeks. 1.025 salinity, raised slightly on Sunday during 15% water change from 1.024. Using a calibrated refrac.

Tank mates, 2 osc clowns, dwarf flame, royal gramma, 2 pepp shrimp, cleaner shrimp, recently added on Sunday lantern basslet. Small clean up crew.

QT same, kept in great care with frequent water changes 20L tank.
First sign of trouble was yesterday, nowhere to be found. Normally a great fish, very visible and active. Today lying on his side not eating, this evening motionless, transferred him to the sump where he passes shortly after. No visible signs of trauma, all fins intact. Under bright light, zero lesions evident. Until yesterday eating fine. Had him 4 weeks.

Last thing, possibly important, had to do an emergency transfer of the six line wrasse, dwarf flame and royal gramma on New Year's Eve to the DT. My friends son, dumped half a bottle of pellets(food) into the QT early in the day. Discovered it New Year's Eve when the room began to stink. Best plans ruined when all variables can't be controlled. Spent 90 minutes catching and doing a quick acclimation the 3 fish were very lethargic. Guessing the ph was low, and the oxygen levels also very low. Qt tank was a mess, spent New Years cleaning it.
After the transfer all 3 fish perked up and were doing great! In the main tank seemed to be doing fine, eating well until the six line went south. All other fish look great, lantern basslet seems to be a bully with a few of his tank mates.

Best guesses on what killed him? Trying to make sure everyone else will be ok.

Thanks
 
Basslets can be very mean from my own experience. I am not sure if that factored in or not, but just a thought. Parameters look great so this is all I could come up with. Sorry for your loss. Ceremony was funny to read though. Wife and I had a chuckle when reading. :)
 
Tough to say regarding the basslet, no signs of trauma, didn't see much of anything between them. Then again he's been in hiding since Monday. So far the Basslet seems to have the shrimp terrorized but that's a different issue. I may get rid of him.
 
Tough to say regarding the basslet, no signs of trauma, didn't see much of anything between them. Then again he's been in hiding since Monday. So far the lantern Basslet seems to have the shrimp terrorized but that's a different issue. I may get rid of him.
 
Be easier to tell what it died of if you had done an autopsy. Only way to tell if it was internal disease or parasite.

He was treated with Pazri Pro in the QT tank recently(first week I got the three). If it was parasites would the decline occur that rapidly? He looked fine on Sunday.

Also, any good references for autopsying fish?
 
Gill damage from an ammonia spike in the polluted QT perhaps? Often fish just die, and the reasons are not always clear. Could also have been poorly collected.
 
Damage from polluted water.

Damage from polluted water.

Gill damage from an ammonia spike in the polluted QT perhaps? Often fish just die, and the reasons are not always clear. Could also have been poorly collected.

That what I was wondering, even though he did better in the oxygenated water of the DT, was permanent damage still done?
 
So the day after, nothing unusual, everyone's eating. Even the cleaner shrimp came out and cleaned the lantern basslet. Zero aggression evident, been watching from the couch last hour.

I'm leaning towards a downward spiral since the emergency tank transfer.
 
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