Random Anthia Death!

[brannock_16]

Hello Everyone,

Well I am getting ready to go on vacation for 10 days and as such I did some maintenance on my tank. I blew off all my rocks of detritus, cleaned my vortechs, and mixed up some kalk paste to kill some aiptasia.

Well about an hour after my lights went out I noticed that there was a nassarius and hermit crab cluster in the corner of my tank. I went over and noticed that one of my Bartlett Anthias was dead and being consumed!

Is it possible that this anthia decided to eat some of the kalk paste in my tank and died from it? I know for a fact that all of the fish in the tank readily ate at 8:00 pm (when I fed them frozen) and none of the fish showed any signs of distress.

I don't know what happened and am really bummed about this. I hope that none of my other fish followed suit...but I will have to wait until the morning to see. :sad1:

 

[launchnukes]

If I had a nickel for every random fish death.....

I doubt it was the kalk paste. It could have been anything, from disease to parasite to stress to whatever. Do u quarantine your fish? How long have you had him? Oh, and of course double check your water parameters.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Lets not avoid the obvious. Anthias are difficult to keep, even the 'easy' varieties.

How many did you have?
How many males?
How many females?
How often were you feeding?
What were you feeding?

Not to mention, who is going to feed them for the next 10 days?


I have kept schools of various anthias over the years. Constant food supply, 6-8 times a day feeding or more, is really vital to the long term support of the group.

 

[d-man]

Heart attack. I've seen a dispar anthia do this in a store onetime. The emp. Was trying to catch it without a net and after about5mins it went to the corner and seized, hyper ventilating and eventually within minutes, died

 

[ryanrid]

BTW there is no such thing as anthia they are anthias

 

[brannock_16]

If I had a nickel for every random fish death.....

I doubt it was the kalk paste. It could have been anything, from disease to parasite to stress to whatever. Do u quarantine your fish? How long have you had him? Oh, and of course double check your water parameters.

I do not quarantine my fish due to renting an condo and the landlords don't know about this tank...I don't want to push it . But with that being said all fish are placed in a friends hospital tank for a few weeks until they are eating and show no signs of disease.

I have had these bartletts (group of 5) for about 11 months now. Right off the bat one died, but from then the other four have been bullet proof. They eat any type of frozen food, actively eat mysis, and I am starting to get them to eat pellet. They are fed at least 2 times per day.

Water parameters are as follows:

temp 76
alk 9 dkh
ca 420
mag 1450
nitrite 0
nitrate 15 ppm
ph 8.1

 

[brannock_16]

Lets not avoid the obvious. Anthias are difficult to keep, even the 'easy' varieties.

How many did you have? 5 originally but one died day of receiving
How many males? 1 distinguishable male
How many females? 3 females
How often were you feeding? minimum 2 times a day (once flake and once frozen0
What were you feeding? I mix up the flake food every two weeks between brands and as per frozen I feed garlic soaked Mysis, Mini Mysis, Cyclops, Rotifers, PE Mysis, LFS's homemade food, coral food, spirulina brine and nori.

Not to mention, who is going to feed them for the next 10 days? I have a very experienced reefer who works less than 1/2 mile down the road from me. He is coming over every day to feed the fish, test water parameters, and top off for me. I also have two room mates that will change the modes on the vortechs and feed a small pinch of flake once a day.


I have kept schools of various anthias over the years. Constant food supply, 6-8 times a day feeding or more, is really vital to the long term support of the group. I will try to bump up my feedings...I just don't want to proliferate the nuisance algae that is starting to crop up in my tank.

 

[brannock_16]

BTW there is no such thing as anthia they are anthias

Thanks for the contribution to the issue at hand.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Yes more feedings, flake is not a good choice.

Mysis, Cyclopeeze, oysters eggs, etc... will be much better. Was it a female that died?

The male needs at least 6 or more females to spread his aggresion across ime, otherwise one will get pestered to death, then another, then another...

 

[brannock_16]

Yes more feedings, flake is not a good choice.

Mysis, Cyclopeeze, oysters eggs, etc... will be much better. Was it a female that died?

The male needs at least 6 or more females to spread his aggresion across ime, otherwise one will get pestered to death, then another, then another...

Upon inspection of the dead fish it did appear to be one of the females that perished. I left for vacation before my daylights came on but I will have my tank sitter update me tomorrow.

I will also up my feedings once I return. I have not heard about the Multiple female aspect... For the most part they are very laid back and I rarely see the male attacking the females. I am really bummed about this because I thought that they were doing well and were going to thrive in the tank. Very beautiful fish too.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

That is the reason these fish are recommended to be kept in harems. Just like with many freshwater fish.