Odd fish death
 

So I came home last night to find out that my rainford goby and one of my anthias had been found belly up floating in the tank. The rainford goby was in our frag tank the water tests came back normal and the anthias was in the main tank and tests came back normal on that tank too. Both fish were fat and seemed to be eating fine and looked perfectly healthy that morning. When the fish were found dead they hadn't lost any of their colour or body size and there was no nip marks on the anthias (the rainford was the only fish in the frag tank) Anyone else ever had a fish go belly up on them when the fish seemed and looked perfectly healthy still, even in death? Any ideas as to what could of happened? Since water quality doesn't appear to be a factor, I'm guessing it's something else.

I have heard of this soon after a water change. One guy I knew when I lived in Edmonton had a tank maintenance service and had something similar happen after doing water changes in a couple tanks. He was using tap water with chlorine remover. The chemicals in used in the tap water were different one week and he had fish die in a number of tanks. The water tested fine.

This wouldn't be the problem if you are using RO water.

We use RO water, and the last WC we did before the fish died was last Sat. We did another WC last night after we found the dead fish and after we tested the water. It just so odd that the fish looked very healthy but were floating upside down and were dead.

Had this happen before. Both in f/w and s/w. Fish were happy and seemed to be ok the day before. No apparent reason for death. Water changes done regularly and water tests were ok. One question, when you do your tank top ups do you fill tank right to the top? If you have a covered tank this may cause a lack of oxygen in tank, learned that lesson with some f/w angels, lost 18 in one night. If you have tested all your water and all seems ok, unless you start to see fish float again I would probably say you have done all you can do to this point. Sometimes stuff happens. I would also add make sure you check tempurature and maybe even for electrical charge in water too. All could cause problems without affecting water quality. Good Luck.:biggrin:

The top ups don't fill right to the top about a 1/2" below and it's an open top tank. The temp was 80 and hasn't changed, but I will check for electrical charges however I don't think there is any. I did think of a possible cause (not sure if this would effect anything or not but it's the only thing I can think of) we fraged our brown zoo/pally's the day before the fish died. The colony is in the main tank and we put the frag in the frag tank. Could the brown zoo/pally's (they have long stems) possibly released some sort of toxin into the tank? But if they did why do none of the other fish in the main tank seem effected?

IMHO That sounds like the reason to me, the paly fragging. According to everything I have read, toxins are tricky because they might not kill a fish right away.

But if they have long term exposure, or multiple fraggings happen, the toxins can build up and the fish cannot get rid of the toxins.

So the toxins just build up and with enough in their bodies, their organs would shut down. little fishy heart attacks.

Where were these fish ranked in terms of Size of all your fish, and how long had they been in your tanks?

JMO

Toxin is a definate possibility, I would certainly put that as a #1 suspect on your list.

The anthias are one of the smaller fish in our tank. We have some chromis and a green clown goby that are smaller and we have lots of tangs and some angel fish that are bigger. The anthias have been in the main tank for a little over a week (so that might have something to do with it too, although they did come from a reliable fish store) out of the 3 anthias that we had (which were all about the same size) one died, one's missing and one's alive and well.

Ok so it just keeps getting better. I've now noticed what appears to be ick on one of my tangs :evil: I originally thought she just had sand stuck to her because I noticed the odd spot on her every now and then shorty after we moved all of our fish into the 230g. I don't think any of the new fish we've added gave it to her because I noticed the 1st few spots on her long before any of the new fish were added.

I also just fed the tank and the last anthias that is swimming around in the open (one might be hiding) is no longer eating!!!!!!! :bad-word:

Oh ya I also just found my scooter blenny in the sump! I guess he thought it'd be great to take a ride down the overflow! Thankfully he's ok and is now back in the main tank. Needless to say it's not a great day for fish at my house :turn-l: