Trying to figure out what happened....

[dismayed]

So I have a tank that is just over 2 months old. My metrics are really good, no nitrites or ammonia, and around 10 ppm nitrates. They seem to be stable. I have two black and white percula clowns that I've had a few weeks and seem to be doing great.

So anyway I added a blue throat trigger 2 days ago, late evening. I acclimated him over the course of 30-45 minutes. That night he seemed to be doing fine, was cruising the tank some and ate a tiny bit. Yesterday I noticed I didn't see him anywhere in the tank when I got home but assumed he was hiding. Tonight I couldn't find him either, started moving some rocks around and found him dead at the bottom of my tank.

I looked him over and didn't see any obvious signs of disease. Any thoughts on what might have killed him? I don't have any predators in the tank....

One final note, I know the people at the LFS I go to and they said they'd had him for about two weeks and he had been doing well.

 

[paulamrein]

How did you acclimate him? did you float him or drip? Acclimation is bringing the fish to tempature and salinity. If he was at a low salinity (alot of lfs keep fish at low salinity to fight disease and stress. If he died within a few hours than obviously not disease, unless there was something you didn't know about before purchasing and would have died at the lfs just the same. Bring him back to the lfs and most will work with you. If you already discarded the fish, talk with your lfs maybe they will still work with you. Check your levels again to see if anything was spiked after his death.

 

[JHemdal]

paulamrein,

That is an interesting angle - dehydration from going low to high SG. One way to identify that possibility is to ask if the fish looked "skinny" after it was found dead. Fish that dehydrate because they were moved out of hypo too fast look like they haven't eaten in a month, even though they were full-bodied the day before! Sunken eyes, pinched belly and narrowed nape are all signs....this could be a HUGE issue if there are lots of stores running hypo and then customers bring their fish home and acclimate them to 1.023+ (even over a series of hours may not be long enough...better to match the SG of your home tank BEFORE buying from a dealer who runs hypo - IMO)


JHemdal

 

[paulamrein]

Jhemdal,
Is there any other side effects of osmotic shock? Scratching, etc?

 

[JHemdal]

I've not noticed other symptoms, I've just seen the fish get lethargic and then turn really thin as fluids leave thier body. It isn't really a shock issue, not like pH shock or light shock anyway.

JHemdal

 

[dismayed]

He didn't look thin as best I recall.

How I acclimated him was I put his bag in the water and let the temperatures adjust for about 10-15 minutes. Then I added a cup of tank water into the bag and waited 10-15 minutes. Then I added another cup and waited 10-15 minutes. I believe I did this a third time and then netted him and placed him in the tank.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

No correct answer ... many fish die from stress and there are many items which can cause stress ... enough small stress items can accumulate to overcome a fish.

Not sure what size tank you have ... but its clear that a two month old tank is a "young" tank and I suspect it was a contributing factor. Anytime you introduce a fish to your tank your creating stress on both the new fish as well as the existing fish.

You should note that QTing fish is almost a "must" in SW. QTing allows you to acclimate fish to captivity as well as help prevent disease entering your show tank.

 

[niles1967]

How can you put a strange fish in your tank without a full 3 to 4 week QT? That's just asking for headaches. This is the single most important thing to do. Not only does it save you aggravation and financial loss, it also helps the already dwindling ocean stock when you have to replace an entire tankfull of fish rather than just one. I am currently QTing a scribbled angel that I would love to just throw into my main tank. Patience, patience, patience. QT, QT, QT.