Cherub Pygmy Angel Sudden Death

[FishRFriends!=Food]

Hey all,

I'm absolutely devastated. Went to check on my tanks before going to bed last night, only to find the Cherub Pygmy Angel taking his last breaths. I'm at a loss for what happened as only a couple hours earlier he was swimming about as normal with no signs of distress ect. Please let me know what could have happened and if I should be worried for the other inhabitants.

Here's background knowledge on the tank:
Week 5, added the first inhabitant, 1 Firefish
Week 6, added 3 coral frags, Ruby Xenia, Favia, BiColor Torch, 4 snails
Week 7, 9/2, added the Cherub Angel and a blue spotted watchman goby.

There has been 0 aggression between any of the fish, besides a short bit from the watchman when he was first establishing a den. The first 2 nights the Angel and watchman shared their cave. Last night he had his own cave and was peaceful before the end.

The only changes to be noted are that I made a new rock structure to give each fish more space to hide at night. Dry marco rock with e marco 400 mortar. Rinsed in fresh saltwater before placing in the tank to reduce the amount of dust/debris. The fish was bought from a new LFS, which setup their tanks 8/29.

He wasnt taking much to the food I was feeding the other fish, frozen mysis and small pellets, but I could see him picking at algae all day so I didnt think this was too much of an issue. Ive included pictures of the fish below, along with of the tanks surface. I have a RFG return nozzle and a supplemental powerhead, so i dont think oxygen could be an issue.

SG 1.026
Temp 79-82
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrate
8.1 PH

Thank you in advance

 

[Sharkbait19]

Post mortem pics generally don’t tell much - do you have anything from before death? Did it act off at all? Any change in respiration rate or behavior? Nothing wrong with its appearance?
Was the fish quarantined?

 

[FishRFriends!=Food]

Post mortem pics generally don’t tell much - do you have anything from before death? Did it act off at all? Any change in respiration rate or behavior? Nothing wrong with its appearance?
Was the fish quarantined?

Hey shark bait, Ive got a couple pictures I can post. Nothing out of the ordinary, didnt look stressed, no heavy breathing or erratic swimming. I didnt see anything wrong with him.

Edit, was not quarantined. The LFS runs tanks at 1.0018 and heavy doses medication 24/7

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey shark bait, Ive got a couple pictures I can post. Nothing out of the ordinary, didnt look stressed, no heavy breathing or erratic swimming. I didnt see anything wrong with him.

Edit, was not quarantined. The LFS runs tanks at 1.0018 and heavy doses medication 24/7

Most Atlantic pygmy angels come from Haiti. Fish from that country are not handled very well and are sometimes caught with chemicals. This has been going on since the 1970's. That means that fish from there sometimes up and die for no apparent reason.

I wish that LFS would not run low salinity like that. It isn't low enough to treat any diseases (that needs to be at 1.009 to 1.012) but it DOES create havoc when you try to acclimate those fish to your display tank if it is at full salinity. They are just setting people up to fail with their fish. Acclimation only handles small rises in salinity. Here is an article I posted about that:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[FishRFriends!=Food]

Most Atlantic pygmy angels come from Haiti. Fish from that country are not handled very well and are sometimes caught with chemicals. This has been going on since the 1970's. That means that fish from there sometimes up and die for no apparent reason.

I wish that LFS would not run low salinity like that. It isn't low enough to treat any diseases (that needs to be at 1.009 to 1.012) but it DOES create havoc when you try to acclimate those fish to your display tank if it is at full salinity. They are just setting people up to fail with their fish. Acclimation only handles small rises in salinity. Here is an article I posted about that:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Hey Jay,

Thats terrible, are there any captive bred options that would allow me to source this fish in a much safer way? I'll give your article a read later today. I temp and water acclimated over 30-40mins. I could be qouting them incorrectly, they said hypo salinity.

Thanks,

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey Jay,

Thats terrible, are there any captive bred options that would allow me to source this fish in a much safer way? I'll give your article a read later today. I temp and water acclimated over 30-40mins. I could be qouting them incorrectly, they said hypo salinity.

Thanks,

There are no Atlantic pygmy angels being captive raised that I know of.

To bring a fish up from hyposalinity to full salinity really needs to be done in an intermediate tank, slowly raising the salinity over 4 days or so.

Jay

 

[FishRFriends!=Food]

There are no Atlantic pygmy angels being captive raised that I know of.

To bring a fish up from hyposalinity to full salinity really needs to be done in an intermediate tank, slowly raising the salinity over 4 days or so.

Jay

Hey Jay,

Could this sudden death days after being introduced be due to a short acclimation period, or was it just dumb luck? Im hesitate to add another fish without knowing the probable cause, not trying to cause more pain than has already happened.

Would the stress from a 4 day acclimation/quarantine not outway adding a fish to the main dt much sooner? I dont currently have a qt but I could for future additions get a small tank setup with minor structures.

Thanks, Jonathan

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey Jay,

Could this sudden death days after being introduced be due to a short acclimation period, or was it just dumb luck? Im hesitate to add another fish without knowing the probable cause, not trying to cause more pain than has already happened.

Would the stress from a 4 day acclimation/quarantine not outway adding a fish to the main dt much sooner? I dont currently have a qt but I could for future additions get a small tank setup with minor structures.

Thanks, Jonathan

Yes, usually an acclimation issue shows up in the first 24 to 48 hours, but it can be a contributing factor for other problems longer term.

Jay