Niger Trigger Died

[rinconmike]

I had a 4"-5" Niger for around 6 months and as I was doing my water change this morning I looked up and he was floating upside down dead.

I was busy this morning and had not looked at the tank yet. I came home and started my weekly water change and after I lowered the water level, that is when I noticed the Niger Trigger floating upside down. All other fish appeared fine.

The Niger has been the dominant one in the tank and last night was no different. I do feed frozen foods and alternate with NLS pellets. Last night I fed NLS pellets. I use a variety of sizes to include Jumbo, Large, and Medium. I assume the Niger died over night or early this morning and I just did not notice.

I am not sure why. I have read NLS causing issues with a blockage and fish dieing.

I am just wondering what it could be.

My tank is 150 gallon FOWLR. Been up for over two years now. No signs of disease, water levels are good, even my nitrate is under 20ppm. Along with the Live Rock (around 75 pounds) I have 4 liters of seachem pond matrix and run reactors with Rox Carbon and GFO. I also have an Octopus XP2000sss Skimmer.

The fish now in the 150 are:

24" snowflake eel - 26 Months
7" porc puffer - 24 Months
7" red breasted wrasse - 13 months
6" banana wrasse - 6 months
4" Blue Hippo Tang. 2.5 months (had this for 2 years before in a smaller tank)

The 4" Niger Trigger was in there for 6 months too.

I did have a Blue throat that I had in the tank for 2 weeks and had to take out due to the Niger. I took him out around 3 weeks ago and put him in my 55 gallon QT. I am going to move him back to the display now since the Niger is gone.

All Fish were quarantined and treated with either Cupramine or Quinine Sulfate and also prazipro.

I was looking at removing the Niger not only due to the aggression towards the 6" Blue Throat Trigger, but there is mild aggression towards other fish and nips on the Hippo Tang tail. But this is not how I thought I would do it.


thanks for any insight,

Mike

 

[Mental1]

Were there any marks on him?

 

[rinconmike]

No marks. It's weired. Good looking fish and long steamers. He was the aggressive one and others stayed away.

Thanks.

Mike

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[billsreef]

[moved]...

 

[billsreef]

With no external signs of anything, it would take a necropsy to really figure what might have happened. I've also been using NLS pellets for quite few years, and have not any issues with intestinal blockage. Though overfeeding of any dry foods can cause issues if too much is consumed at one feeding before the dry food has absorbed moisture from the tank.

 

[MrTuskfish]

With no external signs of anything, it would take a necropsy to really figure what might have happened. I've also been using NLS pellets for quite few years, and have not any issues with intestinal blockage. Though overfeeding of any dry foods can cause issues if too much is consumed at one feeding before the dry food has absorbed moisture from the tank.

Yeah; I don't think you'll ever know what happened. As long as the fish are fed a variety of foods, I doubt the NLS pellets had anything to do with it.

 

[aleonn]

If you still have the body, try dipping it into fresh water to see if flukes come off. Even though you treated with Prazi-Pro before, those flukes can be resilient if you don't do 2-4 consecutive treatments sometimes.

 

[rinconmike]

I froze it untill I can toss in the garbage. Can I defrost and try?

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[aleonn]

I think it's worth a try.

 

[billsreef]

If you still have the body, try dipping it into fresh water to see if flukes come off. Even though you treated with Prazi-Pro before, those flukes can be resilient if you don't do 2-4 consecutive treatments sometimes.

Typically flukes and other external parasites will leave a host very shortly after the host dies. Hence postmortem external exams for such is really only good for looking for tell tale evidence such as skin damage.

 

[rinconmike]

All, thanks for the comments. I never did any testing (or dips) with the niger. All other fish still seem fine. I added the 6" blue throat back to the tank and he is fine too. I will keep watching for signs of issues, but do not think it was a disease in the tank that killed the niger (I just do not see any signs).

Now the hippo does have nipps on the tail that I believe was from the niger. Now with the niger gone, I will monitor to see if that gets better or if it is actually something else.

Thanks, mike


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