Cause of Death?

[Stu_Daddy03]

I have/had a yellow tang that recently passed. He stopped eating and wasn’t as active then one day I couldn’t find him. After searching for him I found him on his side, eyes not cloudy but he wasn’t moving. I placed him in a hospital tabs with high oxygen low light and gave him some paracleanse after googling what the issue might be. He had no visible symptoms as far as I Know other than not eating getting really thin and then the day he died he was hiding. I’m a new reef keeper but have had fresh fish before. I’d love to prevent this from happening in the future - you guys have any insights on what might have cause this?

120 gal mixed reef 9 (now 8) fish
Clean water (all parameters solid) when he died - I did have a cyno/dino outbreak in my take a week prior possibly due to low phosphates which hit zero or close to zero (hanna) for a few days before I could get it back up around .05-.1. I noticed all my algae eating snails died as a result of the outbreak. My guess is the tang had one too many bits of algae with toxins from the Dino and that impacted his internal organs causing him not to eat and spiraled down from there.

 

[Euphyllia97]

Maybe there has been a huge parameter swing. Inverts dying due to an ammonia spike or ammonia spike due to inverts dying…

How is the oxygenation of the tank? Did you quarantine the fish when you got it? Was it losing weight when it was eating? (Might have had internal parasites weakening him)

 

[Stu_Daddy03]

Maybe there has been a huge parameter swing. Inverts dying due to an ammonia spike or ammonia spike due to inverts dying…

How is the oxygenation of the tank? Did you quarantine the fish when you got it? Was it losing weight when it was eating? (Might have had internal parasites weakening him)

I think he started not eating right before I started the Dr Tim’s protocol to treat Dino’s with refresh and waste away. While running this plan it’s calls for turning off my UV and Skimmer during the day. All other fish and inverts (star fish and narssus snails) were fine. During the Dino outbreak and during the Dr Tim’s and now after. No ammonia spikes at all - all other water parameters fine and no giant swings. He had been in the tank for about two months already with no symptoms.

 

[Euphyllia97]

I think he started not eating right before I started the Dr Tim’s protocol to treat Dino’s with refresh and waste away. While running this plan it’s calls for turning off my UV and Skimmer during the day. All other fish and inverts (star fish and narssus snails) were fine. During the Dino outbreak and during the Dr Tim’s and now after. No ammonia spikes at all - all other water parameters fine and no giant swings. He had been in the tank for about two months already with no symptoms.

Hmmm highly doubt that turning off UV and skimmer would cause a fish which was otherwise looking healthy to die. My guess (but it is just a guess) is that your fish probably came in already with what has caused it to die. I’m thinking of possible disease, parasite ,internal infection… He might have had multiple issues which are not always that easy to spot like gill flukes. It would be nice to know what treatments you have put the fish through to try and rule out some possibilities. Have you ever treated prazipro, antibiotics, copper ,… or did you put it in the tank immediately from the LFS?

 

[Stu_Daddy03]

I think he started not eating right before I started the Dr Tim’s protocol to treat Dino’s with refresh and waste away. While running this plan it’s calls for turning off my UV and Skimmer during the day. All other fish and inverts (star fish and narssus snails) were fine. During the Dino outbreak and during the Dr Tim’s and now after. No ammonia spikes at all - all other water parameters fine and no giant swings. He had been in the tank for about two months already with no symptoms.

Hmmm highly doubt that turning off UV and skimmer would cause a fish which was otherwise looking healthy to die. My guess (but it is just a guess) is that your fish probably came in already with what has caused it to die. I’m thinking of possible disease, parasite ,internal infection… He might have had multiple issues which are not always that easy to spot like gill flukes. It would be nice to know what treatments you have put the fish through to try and rule out some possibilities. Have you ever treated prazipro, antibiotics, copper ,… or did you put it in the tank immediately from the LFS?

He had been in this tank for about 1.5 months no issues. I put him in an ich dip for about 30 mins when I got him from the LSF (very reputable). Do you think he could have had a reaction to consuming some toxic Dino’s? He was a huge grazer. Was grazing on the same stuff my snails (trochus) did but they died first. I read that Dino’s kill snails due to toxins. He was fine up until the tank sat with Dino’s for probably a week or so before I hit it with Dr Tim’s regimen.

 

[Stu_Daddy03]

 

[Stu_Daddy03]

Disregard that last picture. The previous shots though are what my tank looks like now vs the Dino’s up close and my tang about one to two days before he died in the blue shots and then where he’s yellow he’s post mortem.