The Mystery deaths.

[ebruno01]

So I've been keeping a 75-gallon reef tank for a year now. I had 5 fish, a coral beauty angel, pajama cardinal, Ocelaris clown, Starry blenny, and a Flame hawk. Lately, the struggle has been adding new fish. First, we added a carpenters wrasse the wrasse took to the tank well. He got his colors back immediately and began eating an hour after we added him (Needed to feed the rest of the fish). However, after a week of being perfectly healthy, it vanished. This repeated several times with a yellow tang, goatfish, Six-lined wrasse, and a royal gramma. All of them appeared to be in pristine health, eating normally, having full colors, and swimming perfectly for about a week before they just disappeared. So I choked it up to the fact that maybe they just weren't handling the stress of going from one store to another, and then to my tank. But, recently something changed my mind. I haven't added any new fish for about a 3 weeks now. I fed the tank everyone was healthy and eating well. The clown was hosting his and ate about what she usually eats. I walked in there five minutes later to it flailing around for about 30 seconds, and then it just stopped moving, almost in what appeared to be a paralyzed state. I netted it, as the hermits quickly approached to eat her( thinking she was dead). It kept breathing for about another minute or so until it just eventually died. Is there a predator that could do this? I tested my water and everything appeared to be normal. 1.025 salinity. ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite all at zero. Someone help please before it happens again.

 

[ebruno01]

She wasn't hosting an anemone, it was an lps coral, which i forgot the name too

 

[ebruno01]

Update: Looked at my log, it's a flower pot coral

 

[Louis Z]

Sounds fishy. I would not buy any more fish for awhile. Sounds like an illness . Do you quarantine new fish or just put them in to your tank right away.

 

[Jdub968]

Parasites don’t usually kill like that, don’t get me wrong some parasites like velvet can kill
Very quick also bacterial issues can kill quick but generally there is a sign somethings wrong for example with parasites scratching flashing breathing heavy or breathing at the top of the tank clamped is white dots etc my suggestion would be sit down in front of the tank and observe your fish for any abnormal behaviors like mentioned. A picture of the fish will generally help diagnose these problems. Also quarantining anything wet for 76 days is a must imo some things don’t need to be qt’ed 76 days but the risk will increase.

 

[Louis Z]

It could be a predator but what? Check when lights are out and see if something comes out . I have heard of large worm like creatures coming out of live rock before . Some public aquaria were missing fish and they sat up one night and found the culprit . It's kind of hard to imagine not finding the bodies or skeletal remains after all those deaths . Does your rock work obscure your vision in the back of the tank . Could the dead bodies be floating back there with the current . And maybe decompose without you seeing it . That's a lot of fish missing and some are large enough not to notice . Maybe a cone snail or maybe a mantis shrimp