Why did my bluestripes die?

[ThePurple12]

Hey R2R. This morning both of my new pipefish were found dead on the sandbed. They had been lying motionless on the rocks for the past few days.

I noticed, when I took the bodies out of the tank, that they each had at least two white spots near their heads. They were too big to be ich.

The tank is 30 gallons with a power filter and two weak pumps. It has some soft corals, Caulerpa prolifera, and dragon's breath macroalgae. The temperature was 79, but yesterday I moved it down to 74 in case vibrio was causing them to be lethargic.

There are plenty of pods in the tank, and I fed them bbs every other day. They were male and female, so aggression wasn't the issue.

Does anyone know what caused their death?

 

[Coralreefer1]

How long have you had them? 74 degrees is too cold for them I would assume. We’re they eating since you bought them? What other fish do you have? We’re they healthy at the store?

 

[ThePurple12]

They definitely ate bbs, and I saw them pick at the rocks for food before they have lethargic. They were healthy the first several days after I got them from Reefs4less.com.

 

[ThePurple12]

Anyone?

 

[rayjay]

Pretty hard to give an answer to that without having a lab do testing on the dead.