Leopard Wrasse - sudden death

[rpkneumann]

Sad day.
Fine in the afternoon. Before night feeding floating on the ground dead.

Anybody with some wisdom what might have happened!


Environment.
135 ga sy, 30 ga sump, skimmer, roller filter, 5 inch sand bed.
Tank 4 months old
Ammonia: 0.1
Nitrates: 21.7
Phosphor: 0.17
Alkalinity: 10.4
Ph: 8.05
No corals yet
Leopard wrasse introduced nov 2

Other wrasses:
Fairy (nov 2)
Melarunus (dec 8)
Sharpnose (dec 8)

Others
Flame ANGEL
Lemonpeel
Scissor tail Dartfish
2 clowns
2 gobies
4 green chromis

What changed?
Salinity usually at 35. Moved up last week to 36 due to a water change with to high levels salinity.
I reduced salinity today by removing 4 gallons of water and replaced it with 4 gallons of RODI water to get salinity back in check. Now at 35 again.
Some of the fish more lively after Sal reduction. Must have stressed them for about 4 days,

Introduced melarunus and sharpnose a few days ago.
Nor aware of any other change.
Pictures of my friend. Can’t see anything wrong.

Lowered spiking salinity from 36 to 35

 

[Rp8]

Was there a bullying or territorial aggression? I’ve had Melarunus and he was an butt. Killed more than a few tank mates.
Especially since they were introduced so recently

 

[rpkneumann]

Not observing any billing from the Melarunus.
My lfs said that it’s rather thin and probably didn’t eat right.

 

[Tamberav]

Looks like it has a pinched head/skinny.

 

[rpkneumann]

I did notice she was skinny.
Something is going on in my tank,
More disaster:
Had another victim to sudden death. this time overnight.
The lemon peel did change behavior for the last 3 to 4 days always staying out of light. Not eating much.
Parameters have not changed.
Did not notice any daytime or nighttime aggressors. Pretty peaceful. bunch.

Any more ideas?
Did I go to fast introducing more fish?

.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Are you seeing any rapid breathing in the fish?
Can you post a video under white light of the remaining fish?

I don't see anything with your water quality that would cause acute fish death, even that 1 ppt rise in salinity is of no real consequence to the fish.

 

[rpkneumann]

I think all fish breath normally.
Just lost another one. One of a pair of Rabbitfish.

I'll used a y``ellow ilter on my iphoneVideo: Centre Pompideux December 2024
I think I'm going to hold off getting more fish until i see how the survivors are fairing.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I think all fish breath normally.
Just lost another one. One of a pair of Rabbitfish.

I'll used a y``ellow ilter on my iphoneVideo: Centre Pompideux December 2024
I think I'm going to hold off getting more fish until i see how the survivors are fairing.

The other rabbit fish in the video is looking “off”, but I can’t see clearly enough to say what’s going on. Possibly flukes.

 

[rpkneumann]

So far all the others are ok.
The dead rabbit fish for clearer view

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So far all the others are ok.
The dead rabbit fish for clearer view

Tough to see much of note in a dead fish out of water, but as I said, the one swimming in the tank looks "off". I think you should focus on it possibly being flukes.

 

[rpkneumann]

Jay,
thank you for your advice. I poked around in your other message threads to understand flukes.
None of the fish who died ever showed any of the symptoms described.

I filmed the surviving Rabbitfish (below) to better understand what you mean by "something is off".

The two rabbit fish got introduced after two fish had already died.
I'm puzzled.

Flukes sounds hard to treat. Does this mean quarantine all fish for 6+ weeks?
Personally and because of room space around the christmas time (large tree), i would like to treat whatever it is in my DT.
But, I also do have an old 32G Biocube.
Its not ready to use.
If I take rocks from my current DT to help seed it, will it not transfer anything which is bad from my DT?

Video:
Rabbit fish ok?

#fishdoctor

Rene

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Jay,
thank you for your advice. I poked around in your other message threads to understand flukes.
None of the fish who died ever showed any of the symptoms described.

I filmed the surviving Rabbitfish (below) to better understand what you mean by "something is off".

The two rabbit fish got introduced after two fish had already died.
I'm puzzled.

Flukes sounds hard to treat. Does this mean quarantine all fish for 6+ weeks?
Personally and because of room space around the christmas time (large tree), i would like to treat whatever it is in my DT.
But, I also do have an old 32G Biocube.
Its not ready to use.
If I take rocks from my current DT to help seed it, will it not transfer anything which is bad from my DT?

Video:
Rabbit fish ok?

#fishdoctor

Rene

The rabbitfish has cloudy fins, kind of pale coloration, and it is swimming with its mouth open....just doesn't look right.

You can treat for flukes in your display with praziquantel or prazipro. You won't have to move out any invertebrates or anything. If it isn't flukes, then you are just out the cost of the medication.

 

[rpkneumann]

Just ordered PraziPro.
Will let you know how it goes.
Hope this is not to late.

Not knowing how which specific type of rabbit fish this is (was sold as a stellagus?? - but have not id'ed the correct version) and how it would normally look like didn't help the situation. Lesson learned to id fish before i buy them.
I wish i would have seen that on the lemonpeel angle and the leopard wrasse before.

 

[rpkneumann]

Jay
Update:
Last Wednesday (12/18) I did the following:
- 30 Gallon water change (System has about 130 gallons total) Because of the meds warning to know the exact water volume, I did a more detailed calculation for the total volume based on my deep sand bed, 100 lbs of rock and an only 2/3 full sump.
- added air pump with airstone in sump. The meds seems to support production of microbubbles more, so i moved it into the sump.
- stopped skimmer ( taking the top canister off didn't stop constant massive overflow)
- stopped Dual reactor with Carbon and Purigen
- Took extra filter sock out (on standby drain pipe)
- added 1 fl oz of PraziPro (when i added the meds in the main tank, the fish all went into hiding on the lower part of the tank. They all came out wants to milky meds cloud was disbursed.

Now the only filter running is my Rollermat.

Fish are doing fine. Eating well, no more deaths ... knock on wood. Rabbit fish got a little more coloring back and keeps trying to be a wrasse's companion, since it lost its own.

I do this for 7 days?
Then rinse and repeat?
or back to normal operation?

I had used microbacter to reduce my nitrates a little before this adventure.
Should i stop that until medical treatment is done?

 

[Uncle99]

That wrasse is very challenging when it comes to feeding. Not unusual at all. Needs super mature sand bed.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Jay
Update:
Last Wednesday (12/18) I did the following:
- 30 Gallon water change (System has about 130 gallons total) Because of the meds warning to know the exact water volume, I did a more detailed calculation for the total volume based on my deep sand bed, 100 lbs of rock and an only 2/3 full sump.
- added air pump with airstone in sump. The meds seems to support production of microbubbles more, so i moved it into the sump.
- stopped skimmer ( taking the top canister off didn't stop constant massive overflow)
- stopped Dual reactor with Carbon and Purigen
- Took extra filter sock out (on standby drain pipe)
- added 1 fl oz of PraziPro (when i added the meds in the main tank, the fish all went into hiding on the lower part of the tank. They all came out wants to milky meds cloud was disbursed.

Now the only filter running is my Rollermat.

Fish are doing fine. Eating well, no more deaths ... knock on wood. Rabbit fish got a little more coloring back and keeps trying to be a wrasse's companion, since it lost its own.

I do this for 7 days?
Then rinse and repeat?
or back to normal operation?

I had used microbacter to reduce my nitrates a little before this adventure.
Should i stop that until medical treatment is done?

You should do a 25% water change and redose on day 8.

 

[rpkneumann]

thanks. Will do that.

 

[rpkneumann]

Happy New Year
Fish are doing great. All Eating. Looks like the Flukes are gone.
Did another 25% water change.

Values look good too, actually a bit better then before.
The only filter running the last 16 days was my roller filter. Didn't notice any increased usage.
Makes me wonder if all the extra filtration and chemicals actually improve things ?.

The multiple unplanned water changes made me run out of salt.
Because my salt was not availability. Tropic Marine often has availability issues and long lead times, used it for years but price went up and availability went down.
I was forced to buy salt recommended by my LFS. They use ASF Reef Evolution in their business and its half the price. Seems to work fine.
Warning: Doesn't like to be heated when mixing! (becomes cloudy).
To be fair, the instructions on the box say to mix at room temp. I did what i had always done with Tropic Marin. Mixed at my tank's temp. So I had calcium fall out?

Well, now i can't get my skimmer working. Was working ok before the forced break. Constantly overflows and produces a ton of microbubbles when i tune down the waterflow or the air restrict air flow.
No matter what settings I use it overflows within 10 secs . Its a Somatic 120. A bit large for my sump. (No head room to set it higher). Sits in 8.5" of water. Which is within spec.
Same water heights, same everything as before. Just doesn't want to be tuned in.
I'll put some picture and video together and ask in the forum for options.