Looking for causes of death in blue tang

[Alpha_and_Gec]

I've had this big boy for about a year now, never had any health issues with him. He suddenly died on me today whilst I was away in school, and examination shows a significant amount of mucus clogging his gills and oral cavity in addition to discoloured frontal portions. Does anyone have any idea what this is?

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

I've heard of cases for velvet affecting the gills but there is no evidence of any unusual growths on the fish, otherwise a quick google search turns up nothing regarding a dead fish with its gills full of mucus. I found a case of a wrasse having gill issues due to dinoflagellate toxins, so I'll look into both of those.

 

[i cant think]

I've had this big boy for about a year now, never had any health issues with him. He suddenly died on me today whilst I was away in school, and examination shows a significant amount of mucus clogging his gills and oral cavity in addition to discoloured frontal portions. Does anyone have any idea what this is?View attachment 3107353
View attachment 3107356
View attachment 3107357

So far it looks as though she may have had Hole in Head which I have had this kill fish previously.

Is all that discolouration from her dying or did she have that before death?

 

[gbroadbridge]

I've had this big boy for about a year now, never had any health issues with him. He suddenly died on me today whilst I was away in school, and examination shows a significant amount of mucus clogging his gills and oral cavity in addition to discoloured frontal portions. Does anyone have any idea what this is?View attachment 3107353
View attachment 3107356
View attachment 3107357

Have you checked Ammonia and Nitrate levels?

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

So far it looks as though she may have had Hole in Head which I have had this kill fish previously.

Is all that discolouration from her dying or did she have that before death?

The discolouration seems to originate either the day she died or postmortem, it used to look a tad white on the underbelly but it wasn't this severe. I used to be worried about all those holes in its face but it's apparently just an anatomical feature.

 

[i cant think]

The discolouration seems to originate either the day she died or postmortem, it used to look a tad white on the underbelly but it wasn't this severe. I used to be worried about all those holes in its face but it's apparently just an anatomical feature.

So only the small holes are anatomical features but there is a large hole that looks to be around the eye.
you can see the holes that aren’t anatomical in the circled areas.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Have you checked Ammonia and Nitrate levels?

40 - 80 ppm nitrate(normal, he's been living in this stuff for about a half - year now)
and 0 ppm ammonia

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

So only the small holes are anatomical features but there is a large hole that looks to be around the eye.
you can see the holes that aren’t anatomical in the circled areas.
View attachment 3107634

hmm yeah looking at the regions around the left orbit it does look fairly damaged, whether it's HLLE or postmortem. would this cause a significant increase in mucus production?

 

[resortez]

40 - 80 ppm nitrate(normal, he's been living in this stuff for about a half - year now)
and 0 ppm ammonia

No, 40-80 is not enough to cause death. Can you give us a rundown of your parameters, tank mates, system & husbandry practices????? Any sudden changes like a large water change, removal of any type of filtration media, power outages???? The more info we can receive about the system the closer we can get to deducing the cause.