Mysterious, Yet Oddly Selective Fish Death

[Hugh Mann]

A bit of a double post, but I can't figure out how to delete a previous thread.

Anyways, in my last one I explained my dead Tomini Tang, no visible cause of death. Was eating nori and frozen. It did have some odd white spots on it days before it died that I couldn't figure out, but nothing spread to my other fish. It was alive and well at 11pm last night and dead by 8:45am. No time for tests before work, I dose prime in case of an ammonia spike.

I go home at lunch to try and diagnose any issues, and discover my lemonpeel angel is also dead, in a cave not 2 inches from where the tang was. No apparent cause of death, still had all of its scales, looked just like a perfectly healthy fish aside for the fact that it was dead. It was eating nori and frozen as well.

Both of these fish were added a month ago along with a Flame Hawkfish and Cleaner Wrasse, to go with the Dwarf Fuzzy lionfish, Marine Betta and Greyfaced Eel that were already in, and were happily swimming and eating. What really gets me is nothing else was affected, my snails are still alive, my hermit crabs are still alive and the other fish look just fine, except the colours in the Lionfish are a bit dull but he has been on a hunger strike a few days. Maybe related?

55 Gallon Tank (Yes I am upgrading soon)
Salinity 1.023
Temp 76-77F
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 40-80. This is pretty standard for my tank as I have a ton of Predators and have been trying to lower it.
Test Kits are API Ammonia with the liquids and API test strips for the rest. Not exactly accurate, but will be getting better testing supplies.

Basically, what can kill two fish, possibly at the same time/place while leaving everything else in the tank untouched?

 

[NexisG]

I don’t really know anything about lion fish but since you’ve gotten no responses I thought I’d give you my ideas. A possibility could be growing stress on the lion fish from the relatively new fish. This could also be the cause of the lion fish going on hunger strike and why it’s only those two fish. This also explains why it was so sudden and why they looked healthy before death. Have you seen the tomini or lemon peel harrowing the lion at all or the lion going after them? Lemon peels are notorious jerks and I’ve heard of tominis sometimes being that way as well.

 

[Hugh Mann]

I don’t really know anything about lion fish but since you’ve gotten no responses I thought I’d give you my ideas. A possibility could be growing stress on the lion fish from the relatively new fish. This could also be the cause of the lion fish going on hunger strike and why it’s only those two fish. This also explains why it was so sudden and why they looked healthy before death. Have you seen the tomini or lemon peel harrowing the lion at all or the lion going after them? Lemon peels are notorious jerks and I’ve heard of tominis sometimes being that way as well.

Thank you, any suggestions are a good help. To my knowledge, I never saw either of them bother the lion. The lemonpeel harassed the eel and Tomini for the most part, left everything else alone. I never saw the Tomini bother anything, it actually spent most of its time hiding from the lemonpeel.

Only thing I've ever seen the lion bother is the Hawkfish, which is a bit smaller than both the dead fish, and that's alive and well.

 

[NexisG]

Thank you, any suggestions are a good help. To my knowledge, I never saw either of them bother the lion. The lemonpeel harassed the eel and Tomini for the most part, left everything else alone. I never saw the Tomini bother anything, it actually spent most of its time hiding from the lemonpeel.

Only thing I've ever seen the lion bother is the Hawkfish, which is a bit smaller than both the dead fish, and that's alive and well.

This could be the lemon peels demise with the eel, did he have any physical damage or were they both in perfect condition? Could have also been internal parasites. Did they have any white stringy poop or pinched stomachs?

 

[Hugh Mann]

This could be the lemon peels demise with the eel, did he have any physical damage or were they both in perfect condition? Could have also been internal parasites. Did they have any white stringy poop or pinched stomachs?

The lemonpeel was in perfect condition. The Tang was missing a lot of scales, but because it was in the open, it may have been picked over by my hermits, can't say for certain. It did have some unusual white spots on its side for a while before it died.

I once saw the lemonpeel with a string of brown poop, but I heard that can be caused by overfeeding. Tang definitely did not have a pinched stomach, and I can't say about the lemonpeel as that's where I grabbed it with tongs to get it out of the cave where it died.

 

[NexisG]

The lemonpeel was in perfect condition. The Tang was missing a lot of scales, but because it was in the open, it may have been picked over by my hermits, can't say for certain. It did have some unusual white spots on its side for a while before it died.

I once saw the lemonpeel with a string of brown poop, but I heard that can be caused by overfeeding. Tang definitely did not have a pinched stomach, and I can't say about the lemonpeel as that's where I grabbed it with tongs to get it out of the cave where it died.

Then it’s definitely not parasites or aggression if their fat and looked happy. The poop has to be white for parasites so your good there. The only thing I can think off for white spots like that off the top of my head is bacterial infections. Problem is those are usually red spots. Besides that I’m out of ideas, good luck with the tank though I hope others here can give you better advice.

 

[Hugh Mann]

Then it’s definitely not parasites or aggression if their fat and looked happy. The poop has to be white for parasites so your good there. The only thing I can think off for white spots like that off the top of my head is bacterial infections. Problem is those are usually red spots. Besides that I’m out of ideas, good luck with the tank though I hope others here can give you better advice.

Anything helps, I appreciate it. Thank you. Finding out what's not the cause helps narrow it down. So far everything else seems happy and healthy and the perameters are in check. The mystery continues...

 

[Flippers4pups]

My gut feeling is the eel.

 

[Hugh Mann]

So, more of my fish are now showing signs that it could be gill flukes. I do not, and cannot get medication quickly. I read that freshwater dips can temporarily treat flukes, but may not help gill flukes. Any help with that or other quick solutions?

I also live in Canada, so most fish medications are unavailable to me.