WTH -- 1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish

Mr Reefer 1690

New member
I recently lost a six line wrasse and his fins turned a bright blue after he died.
Some background
75 gal reef w/ 6 fish - royal gramma , six line wrasse , 2 perc clowns, flame hawk, tiny tomini tang
All fish have been in the tank for at least 2 yrs except the tomini, in the tank for 11 weeks
Nothing, that I know of, has changed in the tank recently.

Last weekend I told my son that I thought his fish had died as I hadn't seen the royal gramma in a couple days. Mon afternoon he was out, but looked like hell as his fins were torn. At this time I noticed all the fish had issues except the flame hawk. wrasse and 1 clown had torn fins, tomini had spots on his pectoral fins. When I came home from work Tues the gramma was sucked to a power head. On Thurs evening the six line was laying on the bottom, he was covered in bright blue spots. By the time I got home Wed the lights were off, so I'm not sure when he died.
As the flame hawk is the only fish in good cond, he must have gone psycho and turned into a bully. I've never noticed battles in the tank and haven't had fish issues in yrs. I've since removed him.
Do you agree that the problem must have been the flame hawk?
What would cause the blue fins / spots on the dead wrasse?

thanks
 

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Did you quarantine the Tomini? I'm wondering if he brought some sort of disease to your system.

The blue spots on the Wrasse are a total mystery. In all the reading I've done on RC, never saw anything like that one. I hope you get a response from somebody who's seen this before so we get that mystery solved.
 
a few other things to consider - could be flukes or another bacteria based infection or parasite which often requires you to remove your fish to the QT and treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic or hypo-salinity.

You may want to also check to see if there is any stray voltage in the tank from a powerhead or broken heater. Unfortunately you can only check this one by trying to feel for voltage or with a voltage meter. Good luck hope it works out.
 
I last checked for stray voltage sometime over the winter months. I will check again. Thanks for your response.
The fish died in an inaccessible area, and had to be siphoned out. In the one pic, all the tan colored crud in the bucket is detritus. You can see all of the loose blue colored "stuff" that fell off him during this siphoning.
 
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