Black Tang unexplained death

[carlo_oz]

Hello everyone,


Am at a loss right now. Am sad to see my fish of 4-5 years gone but, I can’t figure out WHY? Am posting on here to see if anyone can help me out with this bizarre death. I will post pictures of the fish to see if you guys and girls can help me see something am missing. Here are my parameters as of now. Also the fish showed no sight of anything on Wednesday 13 or Thursday 14. I noticed him swimming like if he was drunk on Friday 15 in the afternoon by lights out he was bumping (swimming) into everything in the reef. You can see the hits/ scratches in the pictures below. Saturday 16 I woke up to see him dead.

Friday night when I saw he was swimming drunk I took him out did a RODI dip. Yes, the temp was matched and ph as well to the tank water. I did not see anything fall of him at all
And the dip was only 5 minutes. After that I put him in a holding tank with water that I pulled from the reef tank ( not newly mixed saltwater)

From the time I first noticed something was wrong to his dead it was less the 24 hrs.


(Parameters)

Alk is 8– 8.25
Cal is 461
Mag is 1356
Ph is 8.10– 8.35
Temp is 77– 78.9
Salt is 1.25
Orp is 257– 267
Nitrate is 19.8 ppm always running high
Phosphate is .12ppm always running high

Everything has been like this for years noting has spiked or dropped in the last 8-11 months.

(Diet)

Nori square (3x3) is feed everyday sometimes I do miss a day but not regularly.

PE Mysis
Spirulina Brine Shrimp
Coral gumbo
Mega marine
Rotifers
Fish eggs
Blood worms
Brine shrimp

All of the above is feed to the fish in different variations, picking three per day to feed. Therefore, the diet is always changing every day for them.

The tank is 3x2x2 and has the flowing fish.
(((No new fish have been added)))
Gem tang 4”
Leopard wrasse 3”
Pintail wrasse 3 1/2”
Flame wrasse 2”
Diamond tail wrasse 1 1/2”
Exquisite wrasse 3”
2 black storm clown fish 2”

Give or take a half inch on some fish. Also in another tank that’s connected to the same aquarium via a sump. I have the following fish.

Achilles Tang
Yellow Tang
Clown Tang
Desjardini Tang
Whitetail bristle tooth Tank
Marine Beta

All fish are showing no signs of disease. On the contrary, they are out swimming, eating everything like pigs, and every now and then flaring up to show who’s boss (rare but happens)

All help and suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance below. I’ll post some pictures of the black Tank that died and also the other fish I have mentioned.

Thanks,
Carlos B.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello everyone,


Am at a loss right now. Am sad to see my fish of 4-5 years gone but, I can’t figure out WHY? Am posting on here to see if anyone can help me out with this bizarre death. I will post pictures of the fish to see if you guys and girls can help me see something am missing. Here are my parameters as of now. Also the fish showed no sight of anything on Wednesday 13 or Thursday 14. I noticed him swimming like if he was drunk on Friday 15 in the afternoon by lights out he was bumping (swimming) into everything in the reef. You can see the hits/ scratches in the pictures below. Saturday 16 I woke up to see him dead.

Friday night when I saw he was swimming drunk I took him out did a RODI dip. Yes, the temp was matched and ph as well to the tank water. I did not see anything fall of him at all
And the dip was only 5 minutes. After that I put him in a holding tank with water that I pulled from the reef tank ( not newly mixed saltwater)

From the time I first noticed something was wrong to his dead it was less the 24 hrs.


(Parameters)

Alk is 8– 8.25
Cal is 461
Mag is 1356
Ph is 8.10– 8.35
Temp is 77– 78.9
Salt is 1.25
Orp is 257– 267
Nitrate is 19.8 ppm always running high
Phosphate is .12ppm always running high

Everything has been like this for years noting has spiked or dropped in the last 8-11 months.

(Diet)

Nori square (3x3) is feed everyday sometimes I do miss a day but not regularly.

PE Mysis
Spirulina Brine Shrimp
Coral gumbo
Mega marine
Rotifers
Fish eggs
Blood worms
Brine shrimp

All of the above is feed to the fish in different variations, picking three per day to feed. Therefore, the diet is always changing every day for them.

The tank is 3x2x2 and has the flowing fish.
(((No new fish have been added)))
Gem tang 4”
Leopard wrasse 3”
Pintail wrasse 3 1/2”
Flame wrasse 2”
Diamond tail wrasse 1 1/2”
Exquisite wrasse 3”
2 black storm clown fish 2”

Give or take a half inch on some fish. Also in another tank that’s connected to the same aquarium via a sump. I have the following fish.

Achilles Tang
Yellow Tang
Clown Tang
Desjardini Tang
Whitetail bristle tooth Tank
Marine Beta

All fish are showing no signs of disease. On the contrary, they are out swimming, eating everything like pigs, and every now and then flaring up to show who’s boss (rare but happens)

All help and suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance below. I’ll post some pictures of the black Tank that died and also the other fish I have mentioned.

Thanks,
Carlos B.

Sorry to see that.

Was that white belly patch visible before death, or was that an artifact after-the-fact? The caudal fin has some minor abrasions, was it like that prior to death?

You can rule out water quality issues if the corals/inverts are all fine.

I'm not sure what I'm looking at in the last two photos - the tank seems really shallow. Is there good aeration?

 

[carlo_oz]

Also all fish have been together in the same tank for 6-8 years. The black and gem tangs were the only ones together in that tank. As far as tangs go and have been together for about 4 years. Black tang being the dominant fish. Never showed any signs or nonstop aggression. Even when the black tang was swinging like he was drunk the gem tang would move out of his way.

 

[carlo_oz]

Sorry to see that.

Was that white belly patch visible before death, or was that an artifact after-the-fact? The caudal fin has some minor abrasions, was it like that prior to death?

You can rule out water quality issues if the corals/inverts are all fine.

I'm not sure what I'm looking at in the last two photos - the tank seems really shallow. Is there good aeration?

All the white marks came after death. Belly and fins were all a beautiful and shine black. All of the scratches (body and fins) are from him swimming into all the rocks and SPS coral. It was like he was blind and could not see where he was going therefore, rubbing against all the SPS coral.

The last two pictures are more than anything to show the good health of all the other fish that are within that system. Yes, there is great aeration in that tank. The black tang was not in that tank he was in another tank. Both tanks are connected, sharing the same water via a sump, so I’m guessing if it was some sort of disease, all the fish would have it.

All corals are doing great and all inverts are all alive and active.

 

[dennis romano]

Many years ago, I read a paper describing how fish can have a stroke. It is not common, but does happen. One of the symptoms was a sudden onset of irregular swimming as if the fish was drunk. Another symptom was near or total blindness. Death was rapid. If you do a search on the topic, there may be more symptoms.

 

[FishTruck]

I have seen this in fish that I have kept for many years, and guess that it is heart attack, stroke, or some other mundane cause of demise.... without the fish looking old or decrepit first.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

All the white marks came after death. Belly and fins were all a beautiful and shine black. All of the scratches (body and fins) are from him swimming into all the rocks and SPS coral. It was like he was blind and could not see where he was going therefore, rubbing against all the SPS coral.

The last two pictures are more than anything to show the good health of all the other fish that are within that system. Yes, there is great aeration in that tank. The black tang was not in that tank he was in another tank. Both tanks are connected, sharing the same water via a sump, so I’m guessing if it was some sort of disease, all the fish would have it.

All corals are doing great and all inverts are all alive and active.

O.K., this may have been a "one off" - something unique to this fish, and not contagious to the others. This is pretty rare, but it does happen. I can't really say what that could have been though.

 

[carlo_oz]

Many years ago, I read a paper describing how fish can have a stroke. It is not common, but does happen. One of the symptoms was a sudden onset of irregular swimming as if the fish was drunk. Another symptom was near or total blindness. Death was rapid. If you do a search on the topic, there may be more symptoms.

I came to this conclusion as well after staying up all night yesterday reading on posible causes of death. I couldn’t find any other logical reason other than some sort of stroke or vitals malfunction. I’ll definitely look into it a bit more and see what other similarities I can find. Thanks for your input I appreciate it. I just didn’t know enough and thought this conclusion could be a bit far off. Now I see that this could be it and the cause of death.

 

[carlo_oz]

I have seen this in fish that I have kept for many years, and guess that it is heart attack, stroke, or some other mundane cause of demise.... without the fish looking old or decrepit first.

Am sure this won’t be the last case of this in the hobie. I wonder if there is anything we can do as hobbyist to better understand this. Maybe someone that has done a study into this or some sort of research. If I had the extra funds it would be interesting to do some sort of autopsy to really see what happened. Am sure a lot of us would benefit for it. Then again it’s probably already been done and am not looking in the right places to read the research.

 

[carlo_oz]

O.K., this may have been a "one off" - something unique to this fish, and not contagious to the others. This is pretty rare, but it does happen. I can't really say what that could have been though.

Definitely a one off case, just sucks it had to be the black tang. It was definitely one of my favorites fish and had been with me thru some ups and downs.

All fish/ inverts are still looking great and no signs of any kind of disease or slowing down. I’ll post an update on the rest of the fish in a week or so. This way I know for sure it’s a one off type of case.

 

[carlo_oz]

Quick update!


It’s been a week since losing the Black Tank. I have not lost any other fish nor have I seen any sign of disease in my reef Tank. All the fish are healthy and in excellent condition.


I have come to the conclusion that this was something that was internally wrong with this particular Fish. I am not 100% sure what failed within him but, I know that it was not because of the disease or a pathogen introduced into my water.


Once again, I want to say thank you to everybody who commented on what they thought it could be.

Thanks,
Carlos B.

 

[MikeW9788]

I recently lost my yellow tang that has been with me for 15 years and three moves. He was here one day and gone the next. He was a beautiful fish that looked as beautiful dead as he did when he was alive. That was a few months ago and his two tang tankmates, a sailfin and a hippo are both healthy and gorgeous. There have been no additions in this tank in about five years and I have never had any disease that I can see. In fact I'm am afraid of bringing in a disease which is why I hesitate to add anything. I'm planing another yellow tang which I will add from biota and probably a white tail and a powder brown which I am considering from either marine collectors or Dr reef. Going to add all 3 at the same time to spread aggression but my two are well behaved and when the yellow was here they got along great. I guess sometimes these things happen and we can't explain it. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it but in my case he never even had any symptoms at all. When my wife said the yellow tang is dead I was shocked. I guess we had a good run but I still feel he could have been here longer. Still have my clownfish from the same day I brought that tang.