I had my 75 gallon tank setup in February. The most recent fish additions were a fathead anthias and a mandarin. That was almost 7 weeks ago. Less than a week ago the anthias perished. It seemed fine, out in the open and looked great just prior. I had to pickup a coral frag that got knocked off one morning and the anthias got scared. Timid fish. The anthias hid like that for the whole day. Didn't come out to eat. The next day it was dead. Only found part of him. No idea what caused the death.
I got nervous that something was up and became hyper critical of everything the rest of the fish did... The rest of the fish being two DaVinci clowns, a firefish, coral beauty, and flame angel. The two angels have been in the tank since initial cycle.
The day after the anthias perished, the mandarin wasn't eating. He just hung out in the caves. I watched him often, and got critical of slightly cloudy water. So i refreshed my GAC. After that he was eating again, and seemed back to normal.
Yesterday I saw the mandarin in the morning and fed the tank as usual. The evening came, and I didn't go looking for him.
This morning I went looking and only found part of the body. And on top of that, the smaller of the clowns looked terrible. Splotchy like he had been worked over with a baseball bat.
Just heard from the wife that he didn't make it though the day.
What could be going on?!
I ran quarantine on all except the mandarin. I had read that they are disease resistant and do extremely poorly in quarantine.
I also have in the tank a blood red fireshrimp, a dozen blue leg hermits, two conchs, a handful of snails, and a tuxedo urchin.
The only other thing I added was a piece of rock with some zoanthids on it. That was maybe a month ago.
Most recent tests showed 1.026 salinity, zero on nitrites and ammonia of course, and nitrates down around 2. Phosphates were 0.05 I believe.
Filtration is very simple. Just chaeto in a refugium and a protein skimmer.
Ideas?
I got nervous that something was up and became hyper critical of everything the rest of the fish did... The rest of the fish being two DaVinci clowns, a firefish, coral beauty, and flame angel. The two angels have been in the tank since initial cycle.
The day after the anthias perished, the mandarin wasn't eating. He just hung out in the caves. I watched him often, and got critical of slightly cloudy water. So i refreshed my GAC. After that he was eating again, and seemed back to normal.
Yesterday I saw the mandarin in the morning and fed the tank as usual. The evening came, and I didn't go looking for him.
This morning I went looking and only found part of the body. And on top of that, the smaller of the clowns looked terrible. Splotchy like he had been worked over with a baseball bat.
Just heard from the wife that he didn't make it though the day.
What could be going on?!
I ran quarantine on all except the mandarin. I had read that they are disease resistant and do extremely poorly in quarantine.
I also have in the tank a blood red fireshrimp, a dozen blue leg hermits, two conchs, a handful of snails, and a tuxedo urchin.
The only other thing I added was a piece of rock with some zoanthids on it. That was maybe a month ago.
Most recent tests showed 1.026 salinity, zero on nitrites and ammonia of course, and nitrates down around 2. Phosphates were 0.05 I believe.
Filtration is very simple. Just chaeto in a refugium and a protein skimmer.
Ideas?
