New Wrasses dying within 24 hours from what appears to be lack of oxygen?

[Freddie83]

Hello Everyone, this has me absolutely stumped and I hope I can get some ideas.

I have a fully stocked 210g (7ft long) mixed reef tank with very healthy fish and corals.
Salinity: 35.08
Alk: 9.03
Cal: 442
Nitrate: 25
Phosphate: .05
(tested with ATI API)

Any fish I've added in the past few months has done extremely well; HOWEVER, any wrasse will die in less than 24 hours from what appears to be oxygen asphyxiation, it's always the same story, they find a spot to hide in, breathe hard until they collapse dead with their mouth fully open. Again, this has not happened to any other new fish, only wrasses.

My fish livestock is as follows:
Naso Tang 8"
Purple Tang 4"
Vlamingi Tang 5"
Yellow Tang 5"
Quoyi Parrotfish 7"
McCorker's flasher wrasse 3"
Melanarus wrasse 5"
Copper banded butterfly 4"
4x clownfish
4 purple tilefish
4 Anthias
2x Midas Blennies

I've very closely observed the new wrasses and bullying did not appear to be an issue at all, maybe the occasional follow from the flasher wrasse but nothing serious.

The new wrasses I've added have all been 4" or larger.

Any ideas to what may be killing my wrasses? Do they have much higher oxygen requirements than other fish??

Thank you in advance.

 

[i cant think]

Hello Everyone, this has me absolutely stumped and I hope I can get some ideas.

I have a fully stocked 210g (7ft long) mixed reef tank with very healthy fish and corals.
Salinity: 35.08
Alk: 9.03
Cal: 442
Nitrate: 25
Phosphate: .05
(tested with ATI API)

Any fish I've added in the past few months has done extremely well; HOWEVER, any wrasse will die in less than 24 hours from what appears to be oxygen asphyxiation, it's always the same story, they find a spot to hide in, breathe hard until they collapse dead with their mouth fully open. Again, this has not happened to any other new fish, only wrasses.

My fish livestock is as follows:
Naso Tang 8"
Purple Tang 4"
Vlamingi Tang 5"
Yellow Tang 5"
Quoyi Parrotfish 7"
McCorker's flasher wrasse 3"
Melanarus wrasse 5"
Copper banded butterfly 4"
4x clownfish
4 purple tilefish
4 Anthias
2x Midas Blennies

I've very closely observed the new wrasses and bullying did not appear to be an issue at all, maybe the occasional follow from the flasher wrasse but nothing serious.

The new wrasses I've added have all been 4" or larger.

Any ideas to what may be killing my wrasses? Do they have much higher oxygen requirements than other fish??

Thank you in advance.

Your parrotfish may be a culprit but it’s hard to certainly say without a photo of one of them and what species they are.

 

[Freddie83]

Your parrotfish may be a culprit but it’s hard to certainly say without a photo of one of them and what species they are.

Parrotfish doesn't bother anything and it's the sweetest things ever, the Vlamingi tang will actually chase him off from time to time.
Species of wrasse is Lineatus.

 

[nkyreef]

I've had issues with three wrasses I've tried to add. All of them had flukes. Prazipro was used but I could never get them to eat. A freshwater dip was used on the last one but I was unsuccessful. All wrasses I've had issues with in the past has been because of flukes.

 

[Freddie83]

Image of last death:
I watched this one die while breathing rapidly.

 

[i cant think]

Image of last death:
I watched this one die while breathing rapidly.

Looking at this you’ve had all male wrasses and I assume you’ve been shipping them.
Male wrasses (Especially large specimens that are 4”+) generally ship terribly. You want to add young juveniles or females to have the best shopping success.

The other issue with large males is they’re already at the end of their life span and likely won’t live past 2 years in captivity.

 

[Freddie83]

Looking at this you’ve had all male wrasses and I assume you’ve been shipping them.
Male wrasses (Especially large specimens that are 4”+) generally ship terribly. You want to add young juveniles or females to have the best shopping success.

The other issue with large males is they’re already at the end of their life span and likely won’t live past 2 years in captivity.

Interesting, they've come from different shops but they've all have died the same way. I think it's something in my tank. I'm waiting for a dissolved oxygen test kit to see if it's a lack of oxygen in my water.

 

[Crabby48]

What o can’t think said but yet healthy fish properly ship ship good. Sounds like aggression. Most of the time you won’t see it and fish stress from us

 

[nkyreef]

Image of last death:
I watched this one die while breathing rapidly.

You can still do a freshwater (RO) dip after the fish has died. If it is flukes they'll start releasing within a minute or so. It's easier to see them in a dark colored bowl.

 

[brandon429]

-I have a fully stocked 210g (7ft long) mixed reef tank with very healthy fish and corals.

that alone rules out oxygen issues.


you are adding in unprepped fish? no disease preps, from pet store fish?

 

[Freddie83]

-I have a fully stocked 210g (7ft long) mixed reef tank with very healthy fish and corals.

that alone rules out oxygen issues.


you are adding in unprepped fish? no disease preps, from pet store fish?

The stores I buy from claim to perform their own short term quarantine. I do not quarantine outside of that.
As far as parasites (ich, velvet, etc.) I haven't had an issue from these stores. The fish typically come in healthy.

 

[brandon429]

Rule out oxygen 100% in this case for sure.

 

[brandon429]

I give a pet store/ promise we qt / factoring in aerosol transmitting disease anyway a 20% max chance of working

If you did it at home. 80% chance of working to control vectors

Do not rule out disease as the direct cause for sure. You'd have to be fallowing all corals, rocks, snails too to keep up the control chain

Bullying may be in play

Pet stores are humidity nightmares, transferring disease via the air in many cases per the disease forum, plus their goal is to move fish out to stay in business not careful disease prevention, just presenting where the $ pressure is. They may indeed have all corners set depending on details we can't know

 

[Freddie83]

I give a pet store/ promise we qt / factoring in aerosol transmitting disease anyway a 20% max chance of working

If you did it at home. 80% chance of working to control vectors

Do not rule out disease as the direct cause for sure. You'd have to be fallowing all corals, rocks, snails too to keep up the control chain

Bullying may be in play

Pet stores are humidity nightmares, transferring disease via the air in many cases per the disease forum, plus their goal is to move fish out to stay in business not careful disease prevention, just presenting where the $ pressure is

Bullying is what I'm starting to think too, I guess from the other wrasses? I'll tell you though, I watched this last one very closely and didn't notice any bullying at all. died mid afternoon about 20 minutes after I had last checked on it.

 

[SaltyT]

I agree with @Crabby48 that it could be from bullying you have a few fish in your tank that can harass newcomers (i.e. purple tang, melanurus, midas blennies). Most aggression happens when you're not in the room, fish behave differently when they can see us because they're busy watching us instead of engaging in their usual social interactions with each other. Acclimation boxes are very helpful when introducing a sensitive fish like a fairy wrasse to its tank mates.

There's also the possibility that the acclimation process itself could be the issue. Did these fairy wrasses come from tanks that have lower salinity than yours? Bringing a wrasse up to a higher salinity too fast can cause osmotic shock which can kill them that quickly.

 

[Freddie83]

I agree with @Crabby48 that it could be from bullying you have a few fish in your tank that can harass newcomers (i.e. purple tang, melanurus, midas blennies). Most aggression happens when you're not in the room, fish behave differently when they can see us because they're busy watching us instead of engaging in their usual social interactions with each other. Acclimation boxes are very helpful when introducing a sensitive fish like a fairy wrasse to its tank mates.

There's also the possibility that the acclimation process itself could be the issue. Did these fairy wrasses come from tanks that have lower salinity than yours? Bringing a wrasse up to a higher salinity too fast can cause osmotic shock which can kill them that quickly.

Both ideas make great sense.
I thought about utilizing an acclimation box for a few days but I figured it would stress the fish even more. I might try that in the near future. I'll make sure to test salinity as well from the shipping bag.

 

[bxclent]

35.08 Salinity ???

 

[bxclent]

Ne er mind I had specific gravity in my brain!

 

[JoJosReef]

Rule out oxygen 100% in this case for sure.

In large tanks oxygen depletion is less likely?