Blue Dot Jawfish died

[Nemo_A]

Hi guys!
I have a 125g Saltwater tank. I’ve only had it running for a few months and none of my fish had died for a while until today. My blue dot jawfish had been acting funny for a couple of days and his scales looked weird. Unfortunately, my aquarium maintenance guy and LFS said that he should be ok. He ended up swimming around the tank today and eventually dying. I’m kind of scared of my other fish dying off again. Right now, my magnificent do face has spots on him and a couple of the newer fish are showing signs of ich but I’ve been treating that and they’re all eating fine. My emperor angelfish was missing two small pieces on the end of his fin but they grew back already. I did notice my tomini tang missing a piece out of his fin and now my sailfin tang is missing a piece as well. I don’t know if it’s a disease or just the tangs getting into it with each other. I did try to find out how my BDJ died and came across Brooklynella being a possibility. I’ll add pics of my tangs tomorrow but let me know what you guys think could’ve caused my BDJ to die. Thanks!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

It is pretty rare to be able to make a cause of death determination from a picture of a dead fish, and this one isn't any exception. The jawfish looks thin, that implies some period of not feeding well. It is also missing the scales along the back 2/3 of its body, I can't account for that...the part of the fish should be been protected by virtue of its living in a burrow. This damage could have been after it died, but before you pulled it.

There is a disease the this species gets, I'm not sure people know what the actual cause is, but it has its own name - try searching on "BSJ Disease". Ultimately, this species is not very resilient during shipping. They also don't thrive at tropical water temperatures (I keep them at 72 to 74 degrees F.)

You need to go into damage control mode now, in order to make sure the rest of the fish are protected. You say you've identified ich in the tank and you are treating it? What are you using?

Jay

 

[Nemo_A]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

It is pretty rare to be able to make a cause of death determination from a picture of a dead fish, and this one isn't any exception. The jawfish looks thin, that implies some period of not feeding well. It is also missing the scales along the back 2/3 of its body, I can't account for that...the part of the fish should be been protected by virtue of its living in a burrow. This damage could have been after it died, but before you pulled it.

There is a disease the this species gets, I'm not sure people know what the actual cause is, but it has its own name - try searching on "BSJ Disease". Ultimately, this species is not very resilient during shipping. They also don't thrive at tropical water temperatures (I keep them at 72 to 74 degrees F.)

You need to go into damage control mode now, in order to make sure the rest of the fish are protected. You say you've identified ich in the tank and you are treating it? What are you using?

Jay

Thanks for the reply! So idk if this is common, but he actually wasn’t that thin before he died. Literally right before he died he didn’t even look that thin, and although he was acting weird, he still was eating. His scales initially were looking patchy but the LFS and my aquarium guy didn’t think they were concerning, even though it looked unusual to me. His body almost looked completely white before he died. =(
I bought him from the LFS and he seemed to be doing well up until ~two weeks ago when his body started getting splotchy.
I was first treating with “IchAttack” and just started my first dose of “Ruby reef kick-ich pro” two days ago. No signs of any fish being stressed or not eating. I haven’t got a good picture of my magnificent fox face yet but I’ve attached one of my sailfin tang and the piece of fin he has missing.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It could be the thinness I think I see is just from the way the photo was taken, or it had been dead longer than I thought and the tissues shrunk?

The sailfin tang seems to show a pretty solid bite from its fin. As long as additional bites don't take place, that should heal with no issues.

Jay

 

[Nemo_A]

It could be the thinness I think I see is just from the way the photo was taken, or it had been dead longer than I thought and the tissues shrunk?

The sailfin tang seems to show a pretty solid bite from its fin. As long as additional bites don't take place, that should heal with no issues.

Jay

I know this may sound unrealistic, but he wasn’t dead for too long but he did look suddenly thin when he died to where I thought his organs may have been hanging out of his mouth or something, but they weren’t. I do have a few different tangs so I guess attacking each other every now and then is normal? How do you deter a bite VS fin rot?
added pics of mag foxface

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I know this may sound unrealistic, but he wasn’t dead for too long but he did look suddenly thin when he died to where I thought his organs may have been hanging out of his mouth or something, but they weren’t. I do have a few different tangs so I guess attacking each other every now and then is normal? How do you deter a bite VS fin rot?
added pics of mag foxface

Fin rot (an infection from fin damage) won't have clear, sharp edges like that. The eroded section will grow larger without any additional bites from the other fish. The sailfin doesn't seem to show any infection.

The foxface seems to have something else going on - those white spots are not normal stress coloration. I can't tell you exactly what that could be - it could be ich, or it could be skin flukes.

Jay



Jay

 

[Tamberav]

Thanks for the reply! So idk if this is common, but he actually wasn’t that thin before he died. Literally right before he died he didn’t even look that thin, and although he was acting weird, he still was eating. His scales initially were looking patchy but the LFS and my aquarium guy didn’t think they were concerning, even though it looked unusual to me. His body almost looked completely white before he died. =(
I bought him from the LFS and he seemed to be doing well up until ~two weeks ago when his body started getting splotchy.
I was first treating with “IchAttack” and just started my first dose of “Ruby reef kick-ich pro” two days ago. No signs of any fish being stressed or not eating. I haven’t got a good picture of my magnificent fox face yet but I’ve attached one of my sailfin tang and the piece of fin he has missing.

This is a good read by Bob Fenner. Most notably that this species in the wild comes from 50's-60's temps and rarely low 70's. They are prone to what people call 'Blue Spot Jawfish Disease' which is the patchy white you are talking about. It would not be very far fetched to say the reason they are more prone to disease is because they are being kept at tropical temps.

The Blue-Spotted Jawfish | Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine

Given plenty of hiding spaces, the beautiful blue-spotted jawfish will thrive in your large saltwater aquarium!

www.tfhmagazine.com

 

[Nemo_A]

This is a good read by Bob Fenner. Most notably that this species in the wild comes from 50's-60's temps and rarely low 70's. They are prone to what people call 'Blue Spot Jawfish Disease' which is the patchy white you are talking about. It would not be very far fetched to say the reason they are more prone to disease is because they are being kept at tropical temps.

The Blue-Spotted Jawfish | Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine

Given plenty of hiding spaces, the beautiful blue-spotted jawfish will thrive in your large saltwater aquarium!

www.tfhmagazine.com

Thank you for the advice. Now I feel bad and that my jawfish didn’t have good enough living parameters. He seemed to be doing well during those few months but I guess not.

 

[coralreefer123]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

It is pretty rare to be able to make a cause of death determination from a picture of a dead fish, and this one isn't any exception. The jawfish looks thin, that implies some period of not feeding well. It is also missing the scales along the back 2/3 of its body, I can't account for that...the part of the fish should be been protected by virtue of its living in a burrow. This damage could have been after it died, but before you pulled it.

There is a disease the this species gets, I'm not sure people know what the actual cause is, but it has its own name - try searching on "BSJ Disease". Ultimately, this species is not very resilient during shipping. They also don't thrive at tropical water temperatures (I keep them at 72 to 74 degrees F.)

You need to go into damage control mode now, in order to make sure the rest of the fish are protected. You say you've identified ich in the tank and you are treating it? What are you using?

Jay

@Jay Hemdal sent you a PM

 

[jamchi16]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

It is pretty rare to be able to make a cause of death determination from a picture of a dead fish, and this one isn't any exception. The jawfish looks thin, that implies some period of not feeding well. It is also missing the scales along the back 2/3 of its body, I can't account for that...the part of the fish should be been protected by virtue of its living in a burrow. This damage could have been after it died, but before you pulled it.

There is a disease the this species gets, I'm not sure people know what the actual cause is, but it has its own name - try searching on "BSJ Disease". Ultimately, this species is not very resilient during shipping. They also don't thrive at tropical water temperatures (I keep them at 72 to 74 degrees F.)

You need to go into damage control mode now, in order to make sure the rest of the fish are protected. You say you've identified ich in the tank and you are treating it? What are you using?

Jay

New BDJ keeper here, was wondering if you kept coral with your BDJs at that 72-74 temperature. If so, did you have any losses? I have my BDJ in a tank with some LPS/softies and my plan was to drop the temp from 78 down to 75 degrees over the next 2 weeks. Should I drop it further to 74? I want to minimize coral damage though.

 

[Dbichler]

Not disease related but you had a high bioload for a new tank 2 foxfaces 2 tangs and an emperor angel in a 125 that’s probably the cause of a lot of stress bringing on whatever disease your fish are effected by.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

New BDJ keeper here, was wondering if you kept coral with your BDJs at that 72-74 temperature. If so, did you have any losses? I have my BDJ in a tank with some LPS/softies and my plan was to drop the temp from 78 down to 75 degrees over the next 2 weeks. Should I drop it further to 74? I want to minimize coral damage though.

No - this was a fish-only tank.

Jay