Aquarium Murder Mystery

[Mark Gray]

Maybe get an ICP test done first, I will tell a story that happened to me in the late 80s or early 90s. Back in the day we used to get live rock from the South Pacific. It came wrapped in wet news paper, and they recommend giving it a 20 minute fresh water dip. My rock was going into a 300 gallon tank I did the fresh water dip and put the rock in. Tank was running well I had a blue hippo tank that was about as big as my hand. It disappeared one day. Everything else was fine. Then I lost a clown fish. Well I talked to many people and I threw a shrimp in and watched at night. Sure enough I had a mantis shrimp pretty guy but he cost me a lot and I had to break rocks to get him. Anyway good luck.

 

[Mackey]

Maybe get an ICP test done first, I will tell a story that happened to me in the late 80s or early 90s. Back in the day we used to get live rock from the South Pacific. It came wrapped in wet news paper, and they recommend giving it a 20 minute fresh water dip. My rock was going into a 300 gallon tank I did the fresh water dip and put the rock in. Tank was running well I had a blue hippo tank that was about as big as my hand. It disappeared one day. Everything else was fine. Then I lost a clown fish. Well I talked to many people and I threw a shrimp in and watched at night. Sure enough I had a mantis shrimp pretty guy but he cost me a lot and I had to break rocks to get him. Anyway good luck.

I have thought about a possible bobbit worm, I have recently had the side of one of my chromis was attacked or something (fin ripped in half, large whole on side, don't worry it's almost healed). But the thing that goes against it is that I've been told that inverts are almost always the first to go with bobbits and I've had great success with them, also the rock is over 10 years old. But I might try to hang a shrimp and see what I can catch.

 

[machliwala]

Have you checked ammonia/nitirites/nitrates? It's possilbe that you are going through a mini cycle. Ammonia can cause fish to die quickly. Also, it's possible that for some reason there is not a lot of Oxygen in the water. do you have a skimmer/powerheads etc? Very unlikely that the fish were killed by invertebrates specially crabs. it's very easy for a healthy fish to escape the clutches of a crab (unless it's a very big one)

 

[SaltyLisaKay]

I have had 2 fish die within the same day. My tank is 10 years set and the fish have been in for a couple of years. Went through all water parameters… perfect! Skimmer skimming sump sumping wave maker waving. Big mystery as all fish were colorful, breathing fine and eating. Next day 2 dead (looked pristine) and my wrasse very pale. Checked as many boxes as I could… then Bingo! I had decided to pull my large resin coral decoration out of storage, rinse it and place it in the tank… 2 days before any deaths. So I took it out and Holy Moly does it smell of chemicals! Half tank water change and extra aeration and charcoal/chemi blue Much better now. So… if you have mystery deaths and perfect parameters.. check for resin decor!