Sharkbait19
10K Club member
Hi,
So yesterday, my royal gramma vanished. In the morning, he was out and about, eating very well, breathing fine, acting his usual self—and then poof. No body on the carpet, no prior signs of health decline. This would be the fourth time something like this has happened (though I’ve honestly lost count), in which a fish that is healthy, eating, and getting along with tankmates disappears out of the blue. At this point, I’ve tried everything. I’ve increased oxygenation, improved filtration, changed feeding habits, removed potentially aggressive fish, and even did a factory reset of the tank, in which I pulled all the sand out and searched for potential bobbits or mantis shrimp. And yet, it happened again. Is there any reason that I could be missing as to how a fish that is perfectly healthy can vanish without a trace? In the past, I’ve chalked it up as an aggression issue, but clearly, even with no more clownfish or angelfish, the problem persists without cause. It’s become so disheartening that I’m at a point where, despite doing everything right, I fully expect my fish to eventually disappear or die. Is there anything else I’m missing? While I’d love to continue with this trial-and-error method, it’s getting pretty expensive buying new fish every few months.
Current tankmates: longnose hawkfish, firefish, orange spotted blenny
Nitrate: 7.5 ppm
Phosphate: 1.0 (this is a persistent issue with my source water that always has me scratching my head. Could this be correlated with spontaneous fish deaths?)
Alkalinity: 6.8 (need to get back on track with alk dosing)
pH: 8.0
I also quarantine all new fish, hitting them with 30 days copper and full prazi treatment. When it came to the gramma, it was looking healthy even before treatment, so I strongly doubt any disease is at play (or at least any common or treatable illnesses). The deaths are also not sequential, but each occurred at isolated moments over the past year or so.
So yesterday, my royal gramma vanished. In the morning, he was out and about, eating very well, breathing fine, acting his usual self—and then poof. No body on the carpet, no prior signs of health decline. This would be the fourth time something like this has happened (though I’ve honestly lost count), in which a fish that is healthy, eating, and getting along with tankmates disappears out of the blue. At this point, I’ve tried everything. I’ve increased oxygenation, improved filtration, changed feeding habits, removed potentially aggressive fish, and even did a factory reset of the tank, in which I pulled all the sand out and searched for potential bobbits or mantis shrimp. And yet, it happened again. Is there any reason that I could be missing as to how a fish that is perfectly healthy can vanish without a trace? In the past, I’ve chalked it up as an aggression issue, but clearly, even with no more clownfish or angelfish, the problem persists without cause. It’s become so disheartening that I’m at a point where, despite doing everything right, I fully expect my fish to eventually disappear or die. Is there anything else I’m missing? While I’d love to continue with this trial-and-error method, it’s getting pretty expensive buying new fish every few months.
Current tankmates: longnose hawkfish, firefish, orange spotted blenny
Nitrate: 7.5 ppm
Phosphate: 1.0 (this is a persistent issue with my source water that always has me scratching my head. Could this be correlated with spontaneous fish deaths?)
Alkalinity: 6.8 (need to get back on track with alk dosing)
pH: 8.0
I also quarantine all new fish, hitting them with 30 days copper and full prazi treatment. When it came to the gramma, it was looking healthy even before treatment, so I strongly doubt any disease is at play (or at least any common or treatable illnesses). The deaths are also not sequential, but each occurred at isolated moments over the past year or so.
Last edited:
