Blue star leopard wrasse found dead stuck in rocks

[th365thli]

Hi all,

Unfortunately my 4 day old Blue star was found dead stuck head first in some rocks this morning. I had to use some long tweezers and some force to get it out.

Wanted to get some opinions on what could have happened. All other fish in the tank are healthy and eating voraciously. The leopard itself seemed pretty healthy in the days prior. When it went into the display tank, it did not hide for days as can happen. Actually came out the first day, and I fed it live brine. Later it ate frozen mysis without issue. It would peruse the rock and sandbed looking for critters. No external signs of illness, and while I can't be sure it didn't have parasites, it didn't look emancipated. In short, it was active and eating. It would dive in the sand during the afternoon but would always re-emerge so I took that as normal behavior. Yesterday it did not emerge. Today I found it dead wedged in the rocks.

Could it have wedged itself in some rock and got stuck? It's head was really in there, it took effort with the tweezers to pry him out. When I did get him out, no visible sign of illness or harm (besides the tweezers marks on its body.....sorry for being so macabre). Would welcome any opinions. Usually I hear these guys slowly decline and lay on the sand, usually from starvation. But it was active and eating the days prior.

65 gallon
Bubble Magus 3ex skimmer
fuge with chaeto only
LPS and softy mix, all corals doing fine
Red bubble tip anemone, looking healthy, I view this guy as the canary in the coal mine for water issues
1.025g
phosphate .05ppm
alkalinity 7-8 dkh

 

[dlsorensen]

Is it possible that when he went to bury himself for the evening that the rocks shifted and pinned him?

 

[th365thli]

I don't think so. The rocks don't move and that section is particularly solid and immovable. In fact I tried moving the rock and realized it would take a lot of force and restructuring of all the other rock so I resorted to pulling it out with tweezers

 

[th365thli]

Big reason why I'm asking is I'd like to have another one, it was the coolest fish. But if I'm doing something wrong I'd want to know before trying again

 

[Dburr1014]

Big reason why I'm asking is I'd like to have another one, it was the coolest fish. But if I'm doing something wrong I'd want to know before trying again

Sorry for the loss.

Perhaps was just a freak accident. New to the tank and took a wrong turn. Our got chased for a split second and got wedged.
IDK, sometimes the unexplained happens.

 

[th365thli]

Sorry for the loss.

Perhaps was just a freak accident. New to the tank and took a wrong turn. Our got chased for a split second and got wedged.
IDK, sometimes the unexplained happens.

Thanks. My tank is packed with fish but I monitor levels and do weekly water changes. I do have a six line, Carpenter, and black fin as well, but none were harassing the blue star. The black fin will sometimes chase the Carpenter for a second but the Carpenter gives no craps. It's the bravest/spunkiest fish in the tank. When other fish would hide from my hand or feeding pipette it'll come right up to it. I also feed heavy as I believe in heavy nutrient import/export.

I think mystery deaths are the most frustrating in the hobby.

 

[th365thli]

The real curiosity is how it got wedged so tight. Did it happen when trying to bury itself? Do I need a deeper sandbed? I do have egg crate beneath the sand to protect the glass. Could that contributed to it being stuck?

 

[Dburr1014]

The real curiosity is how it got wedged so tight. Did it happen when trying to bury itself? Do I need a deeper sandbed? I do have egg crate beneath the sand to protect the glass. Could that contributed to it being stuck?

A fish with a couple slaps of the tail can be very fast. Now imagine a fish chasing him for a quick second. (he was the "new guy" after all) make a turn and bam, wedged in a rock.
Sucks fire sure.
Do you have an acclimation box? I would definatly use it.

 

[th365thli]

A fish with a couple slaps of the tail can be very fast. Now imagine a fish chasing him for a quick second. (he was the "new guy" after all) make a turn and bam, wedged in a rock.
Sucks fire sure.
Do you have an acclimation box? I would definatly use it.

Definitely. I saw no signs of aggression or harassment from other fish, but stuff happens I guess

 

[Cthulukelele]

Yeah leopard wrasse can absolutely book it at full speed. Getting irreversiblly stuck and dying isn't out of the question or even striking a hard surface at speed fast enough to die on impact

 

[Dburr1014]

Definitely. I saw no signs of aggression or harassment from other fish, but stuff happens I guess

In all my years in keeping fish, I have never ever not seen a new addition that was at least chased once or twice to be known who was the boss and who is not the boss.
IME, IMO, HTH.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I always believed that the first 3 days will decide if a new fish lives or dies. They go through a lot before they finally get to our tanks, some fish just can't acclimate, even though they may try.

I've rarely lost a fish after 3 days, for me thats the magic day, and I believe your case falls into that category. I would chalk it up to unable to acclimate.

 

[th365thli]

I always believed that the first 3 days will decide if a new fish lives or dies. They go through a lot before they finally get to our tanks, some fish just can't acclimate, even though they may try.

I've rarely lost a fish after 3 days, for me thats the magic day, and I believe your case falls into that category. I would chalk it up to unable to acclimate.

Do you see signs of difficulty acclimating? Can it be sudden like in my case? I think the lack of signs is what is really bothering me

 

[Crustaceon]

It just happens sometimes. My guess is, if you kept this wrasse nice and healthy for four years, husbandry probably isn't the answer here. Get another one.

 

[th365thli]

It just happens sometimes. My guess is, if you kept this wrasse nice and healthy for four years, husbandry probably isn't the answer here. Get another one.

Ahh, 4 days, not 4 years. If it was 4 years I would've chalked it up to old age or just **** happens.

Maybe **** happens is still the case here. Maybe freak accident, maybe unseen difficulties acclimating. The 3 day rule @LordofCinder mentioned is pretty spot on in my experience. I've lost 4 fish in this hobby:

- Hi fin Banded Goby - This one is **** happens. Paired immediately with pistol shrimp. Active (or at least standing guard) and eating well. Found it on the floor even though my tank is covered in mesh. Either found some daylight or somehow got through the mesh as they are tiny. Lasted 2 days. Replaced with bigger yellow watchman goby.
- Flame Angel - This one is partially my fault partially the LFS. They were keeping it in a 1.015g hyposalinity tank. I should've asked, but I feel like if it's THAT off they should've warned me. Did not survive 45 minute acclimation. LFS was great though and heavily discounted the next one I got. Lasted 2 days. I thought it was velvet at first until I realized the sell tank condition.
- Filefish - Also mysterious and perhaps exception to the 3 day rule. Was eating great, active, swimming around, inquisitive. Found it stuck to my powerhead. Wonder if it got caught there. Lasted more than a week.
- Blue star leopard - topic of this post. Also mysterious. Lasted 3-4 days. Eating well and active before.

 

[Crustaceon]

Ahh, 4 days, not 4 years. If it was 4 years I would've chalked it up to old age or just **** happens.

Maybe **** happens is still the case here. Maybe freak accident, maybe unseen difficulties acclimating. The 3 day rule @LordofCinder mentioned is pretty spot on in my experience. I've lost 4 fish in this hobby:

- Hi fin Banded Goby - This one is **** happens. Paired immediately with pistol shrimp. Active (or at least standing guard) and eating well. Found it on the floor even though m tank is covered. Either found some daylight or somehow got through the mesh. Lasted 2 days
- Flame Angel - This one is partially my fault partially the LFS. They were keeping it in a 1.015g hyposalinity tank. I should've asked, but I feel like if it's THAT off they should've warned me. LFS was great though and heavily discounted the next one I got. Lasted 2 days
- Filefish - Also mysterious. Was eating great, active, swimming around, inquisitive. Found it stuck to my powerhead. Wonder if it got caught there. Lasted more than a week.
- Blue star leopard - topic of this post. Also mysterious. Lasted 3-4 days. Eating well and active before.

Ah, early mornings.. my bad. Ok, so my first question would be #1 How long have you had your tank up and running? #2 What is your acclimation procedure? #3 Did you do any maintenance on the tank between when you added the wrasse and when it kicked the bucket? #4 Are you dosing anything to your tank and if so, what? #5 Did you notice any aggressive behavior towards the wrasse after introduction?

 

[th365thli]

Ah, early mornings.. my bad. Ok, so my first question would be #1 How long have you had your tank up and running? #2 What is your acclimation procedure? #3 Did you do any maintenance on the tank between when you added the wrasse and when it kicked the bucket? #4 Are you dosing anything to your tank and if so, what? #5 Did you notice any aggressive behavior towards the wrasse after introduction?

1. Tank up and running for 3 months. Seems short, but I went through a very accelerated ugly phase. I chalk that up to frequent water changes and slowly adding fish/corals over time and using RODI. I went through diatoms, green hair, and most recently cyano. Phosphates been stable at .05 for two weeks now. Chaeto grew from a golf ball to covering my fuge. Now I maintain a light film of algae on the back and two sides of the tank, as food for the blenny and inverts. I keep the front clean. I also have the aforementioned chaeto. I believe in algae management, not eradication, as I think algae is an important part of the tank ecosystem. When I say maintain, I literally don't do anything except wipe the front every few days. The herbivores/inverts maintain the level of algae at the sides/back.

2. I did a 15 minute temperature acclimation and 30 minute water acclimation. Perhaps I should've quarantined? The LFS kept it in a bare sell tank and said ti was eating frozen and good to go. Perhaps that was a mistake. In my experience a bad acclimation goes south very quickly, like a day or less. I thought the leopard lasting 2-3 days meant it made it. I could be wrong here.

3. I did a water change in between. Standard procedure. No disturbing of sand bed. Could this have something to do? Because it was still active and eating after the water change.

4. I don't dose anything in my tank.

5. No aggressive behavior. Or maybe, as @Dburr1014 accurately corrected, _very little_ aggressive behavior. The largest fish are
- Scopas tang - a small one, 3 inches, will eventually move to my 150g if/when it outgrows my 65g. Surprisingly not aggressive at all. Initially blackfin wrasse was afraid of it, but Scopas doesn't care. If anything it's inquisitive, it will inspect other fish. Now the blackfin doesn't care and they swim together a lot.
- Coral beauty - 3-4 inches - will sometimes chase the flame but they get along otherwise. Risky adding flame and coral, but so far working out *knock on wood*. Will move one if situation degrades but both are perusing rock and eating most of the time. Coral beauty and Scopas swim together a lot (kinda like friends haha).
- Blackfin wrasse - 4 inches - Will sometimes chase the carpenter wrasse but as I said the carpenter gives no *****.
- Lawnmower blenny - 3-4 inches - Literally just eats and poops.

The scopas and wrasses showed curiosity when the leopard was added. Maybe some initial flashing. But I'm not exaggerating when I say there was very little aggression. I was particularly watching the blackfin and scopas closely, but if there was bad behavior I would've been truthful. It's not like when the coral beauty was added. The scopas tried to stab it when it got close (they're cool now). The only thing I noticed was the other fish were quicker to the food, but I feed heavy and I DEFINITELY saw the leopard eat frozen hikari mysis I thawed out.

Additionally, if there was harassment or acclimation difficulties, I would've thought the it would've stayed hidden for much longer. In my research, the most common behavior of new leopards is hiding in the sand bed for days. In my case, clearly it was comfortable out in the open and burrowing/reappearing. The fact it was legit stuck under a rock with half it's body sticking out makes me think it stuck itself either burrowing or running away. Like it was good in there, took me 5 minutes to get it out. But I'm definitely open to anything I missed and will try to provide as much detail as possible.

 

[th365thli]

Side note: I went through a VERY fast cycle (if at all) and accelerated boot up. It's a atypical for sure. My personal opinion is it's because I seeded with a LOT of live rock. True live rock that my LFS gets from the beaches of Florida. I think starting off with micro bio-diversity really helps. In that nutrient processing at multiple levels helps keep the tank stable. For example food -> fish eat -> various snails eat -> bristlestar eat -> bristleworm eat -> amphipod eat -> hermits/crabs eat -> etc.

The downside is you get some undesirables at times (and if you're unlucky, some real nasty stuff like bobbit worms). I also do weekly water changes. This helped with phosphate exportation. With cyano, I adjusted my flow and skimmer and did manual removal. Stuck with water changes. Gone in two weeks.

 

[Tamberav]

Fish can behave differently when you are near the tank. You need a camera to film the tank to catch it happening. Don't write off aggression just because you didn't see it.

I have many sand sleepers and only a little sand in the back so doubt that is an issue. I am in the process of switching the sand bed out to fix it but basically half my tank is bare bottom from sand being pushed around so they just go to the back to sleep.

 

[Crustaceon]

At this point, I would looking at the lfs as the possible cause even if they're supplying fish that eat and swim around. That's not entirely indicative of overall fish health and sometimes you'll get brand new fish that are more susceptible to shock after something as trivial as a water change if the temp or PH of the new water differs enough from your display's parameters. You just never know if they have some weird bacteria that medicated QT would have taken care of. Also, fish do act differently when we're not hovering around the display. I've added fish and watch them swim around perfectly fine. In the morning, that same fish would be in the top corner of the display with ripped fins.