Mysterious deaths

TerryG · Dec 12, 2022

Every fish I add the last 3 weeks mysteriously dies. There’s no signs of parasite or disease on the fish at the time of death. So I had an orange shoulder tang and all of a sudden he has a deep slash on him and he was found breathing heavy in the corner, sadly died hours later. I had him for 2 months and he was a beautiful fish and I never witnessed any bullying. He went in the same time with his powder blue mate. Then I got a cleaner wrasse mysteriously dead inn3 days with a huge chunk missing out of him. I then get a convict tang dies within a week but was being bullied by powder blue but nothing extreme. Go to the lfs feeling down and decide to get a clown tang and another convict tang thinking the first one died because it wasn’t eating. Fast forward 2 days I wake up clown tang ok bottom breathing heavy, no signs of bullying, convict is fine at this point and eating.. come home from work both found dead mysteriously.. what on earth is happening? I’m acclimating the same as I always have, fish are eating and fine at the lfs and parameters are in the clear (I’ll attach a pic)..

Tank inhabitants are:

powder blue Tang added 3 months ago
Pacific sailfin Tang added a year ago
Thompson a tang added 2 weeks ago
Lined bristletooth added 2 weeks ago
Blue tang added 3 months ago
Maroon clowns pair added 4 months ago
Fox face rabbit fish added 1 year ago
Fijian damsel added 1 year ago
Niger trigger added 3 months ago
Also have an urchin and various snails and somewhere some peppermint shrimp. I also added a zebra moray eel 2 days ago when I added the clown tang and second convict tang. Tank is 640 litre

Dbichler · Dec 12, 2022

Sounds to me like you have a homicidal powder blue tang. If you are seeing aggression while watching it is only worse when your not.

Ravsta · Dec 12, 2022

This is really odd. The fact that all your older fish are fine and anything added in the last 3 weeks is dying. I'm wondering if it's something to do with your LFS? Do you quarantine the fish when you get them home or do they go straight into the display tank?

LiamPM · Dec 12, 2022

Difficult to really give any valuable suggestions - With no physical signs of disease id personally be looking at water quality - oxygen or wether your tank can handle the large bioload it has (640 litres is not exactly large for such a large stocking list) or more likely aggression - The only physical signs you have on the deceased are those of aggression so it kind of points right to that.

Its not really a large tank - But you have some large and boisterous species already.

Dbichler · Dec 12, 2022

Ravsta said:
This is really odd. The fact that all your older fish are fine and anything added in the last 3 weeks is dying. I'm wondering if it's something to do with your LFS? Do you quarantine the fish when you get them home or do they go straight into the display tank?

Not odd at all in my opinion it fits bullying to a T. The tang is used to old tank mates not new ones. Picks in the easy target.

Ravsta · Dec 12, 2022

Dbichler said:
Not odd at all in my opinion it fits bullying to a T. The tang is used to old tank mates not new ones. Picks in the easy taI

Dbichler said:
Not odd at all in my opinion it fits bullying to a T. The tang is used to old tank mates not new ones. Picks in the easy target.

I clearly missed the bit where someone mentioned bullying lol. Yep I would agree. Tangs can be a challenge with other tankmates.

Jay Hemdal · Dec 12, 2022

TerryG said:
Every fish I add the last 3 weeks mysteriously dies. There’s no signs of parasite or disease on the fish at the time of death. So I had an orange shoulder tang and all of a sudden he has a deep slash on him and he was found breathing heavy in the corner, sadly died hours later. I had him for 2 months and he was a beautiful fish and I never witnessed any bullying. He went in the same time with his powder blue mate. Then I got a cleaner wrasse mysteriously dead inn3 days with a huge chunk missing out of him. I then get a convict tang dies within a week but was being bullied by powder blue but nothing extreme. Go to the lfs feeling down and decide to get a clown tang and another convict tang thinking the first one died because it wasn’t eating. Fast forward 2 days I wake up clown tang ok bottom breathing heavy, no signs of bullying, convict is fine at this point and eating.. come home from work both found dead mysteriously.. what on earth is happening? I’m acclimating the same as I always have, fish are eating and fine at the lfs and parameters are in the clear (I’ll attach a pic)..

Tank inhabitants are:

powder blue Tang added 3 months ago
Pacific sailfin Tang added a year ago
Thompson a tang added 2 weeks ago
Lined bristletooth added 2 weeks ago
Blue tang added 3 months ago
Maroon clowns pair added 4 months ago
Fox face rabbit fish added 1 year ago
Fijian damsel added 1 year ago
Niger trigger added 3 months ago
Also have an urchin and various snails and somewhere some peppermint shrimp. I also added a zebra moray eel 2 days ago when I added the clown tang and second convict tang. Tank is 640 litre

Trying to determine cause of death in multiple fish over time is tricky. Although you describe them all together, there more likely are multiple causes of death in the fish.

Since some fish have lived through the entire time period, you can rule out major protozoan diseases like ich and velvet that would pretty much decimate all of the fish in the tank.

Flukes can kill only certain species, but those fish take a long time to die and you would see symptoms in advance.

In the end, I agree with the other posts, most of these losses are likely due to tankmate aggression, with possibly some acclimation issues, or problems with individual fish when you bought them.

Jay

OrionN · Dec 12, 2022

The Trigger likely took a chunk out of the wrasse. Too many aggressive tangs in the tank that is only about 150 gal. How big is the PBT? Thay is likely the cause of death of your larger fish.

TerryG · Dec 12, 2022

Dbichler said:
Sounds to me like you have a homicidal powder blue tang. If you are seeing aggression while watching it is only worse when your not.

The orange shoulder was added the same time as the powder blue and they always seemed ok together, that’s why I’m stunned

TerryG · Dec 12, 2022

Ravsta said:
This is really odd. The fact that all your older fish are fine and anything added in the last 3 weeks is dying. I'm wondering if it's something to do with your LFS? Do you quarantine the fish when you get them home or do they go straight into the display tank?

I buy all my fish from
The Lfs where he quarantines then prior to selling. I just bring them home and drip acclimate them

TerryG · Dec 12, 2022

LiamPM said:
Difficult to really give any valuable suggestions - With no physical signs of disease id personally be looking at water quality - oxygen or wether your tank can handle the large bioload it has (640 litres is not exactly large for such a large stocking list) or more likely aggression - The only physical signs you have on the deceased are those of aggression so it kind of points right to that.

Its not really a large tank - But you have some large and boisterous species already.

All my tangs are small or juvenile because I’m upgrading to 300 gallon next year

Cthulukelele · Dec 12, 2022

Powder blue adults are notorious demons and it's likely sashimi-ing new additions

bushdoc · Dec 12, 2022

TerryG said:
Every fish I add the last 3 weeks mysteriously dies. There’s no signs of parasite or disease on the fish at the time of death. So I had an orange shoulder tang and all of a sudden he has a deep slash on him and he was found breathing heavy in the corner, sadly died hours later. I had him for 2 months and he was a beautiful fish and I never witnessed any bullying. He went in the same time with his powder blue mate. Then I got a cleaner wrasse mysteriously dead inn3 days with a huge chunk missing out of him. I then get a convict tang dies within a week but was being bullied by powder blue but nothing extreme. Go to the lfs feeling down and decide to get a clown tang and another convict tang thinking the first one died because it wasn’t eating. Fast forward 2 days I wake up clown tang ok bottom breathing heavy, no signs of bullying, convict is fine at this point and eating.. come home from work both found dead mysteriously.. what on earth is happening? I’m acclimating the same as I always have, fish are eating and fine at the lfs and parameters are in the clear (I’ll attach a pic)..

Tank inhabitants are:

powder blue Tang added 3 months ago
Pacific sailfin Tang added a year ago
Thompson a tang added 2 weeks ago
Lined bristletooth added 2 weeks ago
Blue tang added 3 months ago
Maroon clowns pair added 4 months ago
Fox face rabbit fish added 1 year ago
Fijian damsel added 1 year ago
Niger trigger added 3 months ago
Also have an urchin and various snails and somewhere some peppermint shrimp. I also added a zebra moray eel 2 days ago when I added the clown tang and second convict tang. Tank is 640 litre

I am not sure if bullying of other fish by one Tang is the reason ot demise of your tank inhabitants, but I cannot introduce any more Tangs or similar looking fish to my reef as Powder Brown tortures them slowly to death. He accepts fish which looks different, like long-nose hawkfish or damselfish and of course inhabitants which were introduced before him.

TerryG · Dec 12, 2022

Wh

bushdoc said:
I am not sure if bullying of other fish by one Tang is the reason ot demise of your tank inhabitants, but I cannot introduce any more Tangs or similar looking fish to my reef as Powder Brown tortures them slowly to death. He accepts fish which looks different, like long-nose hawkfish or damselfish and of course inhabitants which were introduced before him.

I can understand that though but I added a thompsons tang and lined bristletooth no problem and orange shoulder was added same time

maybe the powder blue is becoming an adult

TerryG · Dec 12, 2022

Dbichler said:
Not odd at all in my opinion it fits bullying to a T. The tang is used to old tank mates not new ones. Picks in the easy target.

Which tang do you think it is? Powder blue or sailfin? If anything I would say my sailfin is more aggressive

TerryG · Dec 12, 2022

OrionN said:
The Trigger likely took a chunk out of the wrasse. Too many aggressive tangs in the tank that is only about 150 gal. How big is the PBT? Thay is likely the cause of death of your larger fish.

Powder blue is only a small one

Dbichler · Dec 12, 2022

TerryG said:
Which tang do you think it is? Powder blue or sailfin? If anything I would say my sailfin is more aggressive

Honestly there’s no way for me to tell. You would have to setup up a camera and watch later. My biggest jerk is my huma huma more so than any of my tangs. Aggression is usually due to space constraints.

Cthulukelele · Dec 12, 2022

Dbichler said:
Honestly there’s no way for me to tell. You would have to setup up a camera and watch later. My biggest jerk is my huma huma more so than any of my tangs. Aggression is usually due to space constraints.

Yeah this. That's a tank full of fish that are potential culprits especially in a tank that's relatively small for a lot of them

Rmckoy · Dec 12, 2022

TerryG said:
Every fish I add the last 3 weeks mysteriously dies. There’s no signs of parasite or disease on the fish at the time of death. So I had an orange shoulder tang and all of a sudden he has a deep slash on him and he was found breathing heavy in the corner, sadly died hours later. I had him for 2 months and he was a beautiful fish and I never witnessed any bullying. He went in the same time with his powder blue mate. Then I got a cleaner wrasse mysteriously dead inn3 days with a huge chunk missing out of him. I then get a convict tang dies within a week but was being bullied by powder blue but nothing extreme. Go to the lfs feeling down and decide to get a clown tang and another convict tang thinking the first one died because it wasn’t eating. Fast forward 2 days I wake up clown tang ok bottom breathing heavy, no signs of bullying, convict is fine at this point and eating.. come home from work both found dead mysteriously.. what on earth is happening? I’m acclimating the same as I always have, fish are eating and fine at the lfs and parameters are in the clear (I’ll attach a pic)..

Tank inhabitants are:

powder blue Tang added 3 months ago
Pacific sailfin Tang added a year ago
Thompson a tang added 2 weeks ago
Lined bristletooth added 2 weeks ago
Blue tang added 3 months ago
Maroon clowns pair added 4 months ago
Fox face rabbit fish added 1 year ago
Fijian damsel added 1 year ago
Niger trigger added 3 months ago
Also have an urchin and various snails and somewhere some peppermint shrimp. I also added a zebra moray eel 2 days ago when I added the clown tang and second convict tang. Tank is 640 litre