sudden fish death - explanations?!

[cdobson]

Hello,


Yesterday I suffered the sudden loss of a Yellow Tang, this coming a couple of months after the loss of a Banggai Cardinal.

Although both in separate tanks, the symptoms were identical in each instance.

Seemingly fine, eating well and swimming unhindered through the water, both succommed rapidly to some kind of dehabilitating condition. Showing no obvious external symptoms, in each case the fish rested on rocks/sand bed, dying within hours of the onset.

Both fish had been housed in their respective tanks for some months and in each case the rest of the inhabitants (fish and inverts) have remained unaffected, with water params indicating no adverse conditions.

I appreciate that is probably hard to provide a reasoning as to their deaths, but if anyone can provide me with any pointers on a possible cause, I would greatly appreciate it!

I currently don't have a UV filter on my system, but am now considering it? I'm thinking that perhaps the relativley small investment would be worth it...

Thanks in advance for any of your help!

 

[douglasnj]

I had the same thing happen last night to my Banggai. Doing fine for several weeks, turned off the streams to feed at lunch and noticed he went to the surface until the streams came back on. Last night I fouind him setting on the sandbed. Died within an hour or so. Never seen this happen.

 

[cdobson]

It's the swiftness of their demise that has surprised me. Literally going from an apparently healthy fish to death within hours.

If something had polluted the water then I could understand it, but given that the rest of the inhabitants have been fine in both cases, I really don't know where to begin in trying to address the problem.

 

[whosjohnny]

This is just my personal experiences that I suffered but to share in case some expert might poke in to comment:

I had a stable tank for 3 years in my 60g. Then on the 4th year, I upgrade from a 60 gallon tank to 150gallon, no new fish after the move initially, just adding more rocks and more live sand, stable for 2 months, then I start to buy new fish.

1st fish, Cheveron Tang junvenile, $90, died within 72 hours, 1st 36 hours perfectly healthy swimmming and eating! no visible signs of trouble. Then the last 36 hours, mouth cannot close fully, no external visible signs of anything, breathing difficult; by the time it died, it looks so healthy, I am amazed at the speed in which it died and how perfect the fish looked from the outside. I "sort of" found out later that it has some kind of disease within it's mouth that prevent the fish from getting oxygen. Although no other fish in the tank has this problem.

2nd fish, Unicorn Tang (8 inches), $150, lived happily with us, always following us when we walk around the room, eat from our hands, everything went great for the 1st 2 months. Then one day, a small ick appears on its skin and from there on, it's history, the ick grew worse, no freshwater dipping, copper treatment, in the qurantine tank works. The strangest thing is, my purple tang, is FINE, no problem! Question is, why are there 2 month period of no ick and suddenly and outbreak? I notice right before the Unicorn Tang, there is a noticeable cut on its body from purple tang's tail bone. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ICK VIRUS LIVES DORMANT FOR 3 YEARS IN PURPLE TANG, BUT PURPLE TANG HAS IMMUNITY BUT STILL A CARRIER, and when the skin breaks on other fish, the ICK VIRUS attacks them? After all these years, I still need an answer. ANYONE on the ICK formant theory?

Now i'm quiet scared and too busy to mess with buying new fish.

 

[old salty]

I've had 2 fish that were otherwise pretty healthy just up an die on me. Everything else in the tank was doing just fine as well. I guess "It" happens!!

 

[douglasnj]

Second Banggai dead at lunch. No one else showing any signs of trouble. Tested water this weekend and did 15% water change as scheduled. Everything tested within parameters and compared with log showed no sign of any changes. Maybe I screwed something up during water change. Will retest tonight.