Mysterious Death

[ReefHotSpot]

Hey Everyone,

Maybe you can help one of my customers out. He has had three fish die for no apparent reason. He has a large tank--about 400. It is set up with an oversized UV and it is professionally managed. Set up for over 4 years. Set up in an office environment. All tests normal.

These three fish died overnight earlier this week.

1) I sold him a show golden puffer from Hawaii about 4 months ago. I knew the fish well because we had it in our tanks for about 5 weeks. Ate well, a little aggressive.

2) Female crosshatch trigger which he had had for 3 months from another vendor.

3) Black solomon puffer which he had had for 6 months from another vendor.

According to the tank owner, none of the fish had any visible parasites, fins looked good, all fish eating well, no signs of stress. In short, up and dead the next day. He's pulling his hair out.

Poisoning? Bad Batch of food?

Any ideas?

Much Appreciated,
Max

 

[White Tiger]

Fish can be killed by an electric current in the tank. Some fish have been known to chew through electric wires for heaters in the tank, causing electricution.

 

[ReefHotSpot]

That is a good idea. I'll run that by the guy. That puffer did have a propensity to go after black objects if I remember correctly.

 

[LargeAngels]

Doe's he have other fish that are fine and has a power outage been ruled out?

 

[ReefHotSpot]

He does have other fish that are fine. I have not spoken to him about the power outage idea yet. I'd like to get a collection of ideas together and we have set up a conference call for next week between myself, the customer and the gentleman that maintains his tank.

The customer has already contacted a local vet who says that he can do an autopsy, if that is the correct term, on any new deahts.

 

[ReefHotSpot]

Any ideas, LargeAngels?

 

[LargeAngels]

With other fish alive and 3 mysterious sudden deaths at the same time my first thoughts were something they ate or power outage.

 

[White Tiger]

Do the colors of the surviving fish appear to look a little faint?

 

[ReefHotSpot]

Yes. The colors look good on the other fish. My first thought is a bad batch of food or some kind of poisoning event as well. Office location, the customer is the owner. Malicious employee? Who knows.

Its got me scratching my head that is why I posted for ideas. The golden and the trigger could have come from the same collector, even though they made it to his tank from different vendors, because they are both Hawaiian but then what about the solomon puffer. Most likely though there is some unseen disease in the tank or it was a bad batch of food. The other fish in the tank are herbivores and wouldn't necessarily go after something like enriched silversides which I think all the fish that died were eating.

The guy didn't have the name of the food manufacturer offhand but he said they came out of Jersey so it wasn't ocean nutrition which is what we always recommend.

 

[White Tiger]

Since the survivng fish do not look faint in color, electricity could not have killed the other fish. When electricity is present in the water, fish will turn faint in color. Another possibilty would be ick. Ick is a disease that does not always show its symptoms.

 

[ReefHotSpot]

Thanks White Tiger,

The guy had been constantly battling ich outbreaks in the months previous. Which is surprising because he told me the size of his UV and it is way oversized. I don't know. Its hard for me to say this because I don't know the guy that is maintaining his tank but he shouldn't be having these kinds of constant and mysterious problems with such a large and sophisticated system.

Maybe he is using the wrong spectrum of UV? Maybe he is'nt changing the bulb regularly? UV is such a hard thing to size for the home aquarium? Maybe his flow estimates are off massively?

Anyways, thanks everybody for your input. We (me, the guy, the fish) really appreciate it.

Best Regards,
Max

 

[LargeAngels]

Max,

Did you ever find anything out?

BTW, that juvi flagfin angelfish pictured on your site has now quadrupled in size and gotten its black fin stripe.