RIP Little possum wrasse

[JaneG]

I woke up this morning to find my possum wrasse completely dead- my clean up crew already got to half of him over the night! His body looked like he had been dead for a week but I saw him last night.

Yesterday, he was acting more reclusive than usual in a cave. He ate though and didn't have bumps, discoloration, funny eyes, heavy breathing or anything obvious. The only thing unusual was that he had semi-jerky movements like he was nervous when he was outside the cave. Could it have been Velvet? That is the only disease I can think of that progresses SO quickly. HOWEVER, his body didn't have the physical symptoms of it and he didn't have rapid breathing through this whole thing. I'm starting to think it wasn't a disease, but I don't know. What do you all think? Can diseases progress that fast?

I feel soooo guilty about this like its all my fault- I was going to do a FW dip on him in the morning... What do I do now with my other 2 fish? Im already starting an emergency water change. My tailspot is acting normal and my jawfish still has the semi-frayed fins and slime coat but seems to be getting better.

 

[JaneG]

I went through a list of diseases, but I think I can disprove each of them. I would like to hear what all of your thoughts are:

Fin rot- His fins were normal, and even on his body they were normal.
Wasting disease- Wouldn't have killed him so quickly.
Vibriosis- No darkening color, no ulcers, no bleeding gills, etc.
Cauliflower- No growths
Ich- No grain-like dots
Exophilia- No lethargy, doesn't kill that quickly
Velvet- No fuzziness on the dead body, no fasting or gasping for air.
Uronema- No ulcers
Black spot- No black dots
Flukes- This seems most probable as is Velvet. However, he didn't lose his appetite and I didn't think it proceeded this quick.

Could he have been somehow poisoned? I get my water from an RO/DI system and my test kit says 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, low Nitrate. Was it an accident in the tank? I'm soo confused! Im worried about my other fish now but I can't get a concrete answer as to what is wrong.. I feel so guilty about this

 

[HOZERTHEBONEFISH]

What is the pH of your tank? I lost a nice fish when my pH dropped a full point many years ago...

 

[huggybear1000]

Have u tested the parameters of the water? how long was the tank up and running? how long did you have him for?