My Favorite Fish Died

[discretekarma]

Today I was doing a little maintenance on my tank and saw what looked like a tail on the bottom of the sand bed covered by hermit crabs. I thought it was my Cardinal since that's where he hangs out at but I found him still alive. I looked all over and realized my Clown Tang was missing. I knew it couldn't be him since this fish seemed much smaller. I looked again for my Clown Tang to no avail...he was gone. It must be him. I started the process of removing the rocks that keeps me from getting him out. When I finally had a clear view, I realized that he was so far wedged under the rock that only his tail was sticking out and I could not even get him out with a net. I had to lift the rock up to free his body that was now covered in hermit crabs.

 

My question is why would he have rammed himself under a rock or how the H-E-double hocky sticks did he get so far wedged under the rock? I had noticed yesterday that him and the Hippo Tang were rubbing themselves on rocks, but neither seemed to have any abrasions from this behavior or visible signs of illness. This morning the Hippo Tang seems to have one small white dot on his eye and is still rubbing against rocks. Besides that there are no other alarming problems obvious to me, and the levels are good.

 

Does anyone know what may have happen to my Clown Tang? Should I be doing something regarding the Hippo Tang? Has anyone had any similar things happen to them? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Here is a picture of the Hippo Tang on the side with the white eye.

 

[discretekarma]

I might add that I feed frozen food to my tank but haven't changed there food in a long time. I read that frozen found could make them rub the rocks for some reason.

Edited December 9, 2007 by discretekarma

[Connor]

could it have been some kind of internall illness. Or is it possible that anything was spilled in your tank.

 

Sorry about your loss its always sad when you lose a good fish

 

Connor

[discretekarma]

I'm sure nothing spilled in the tank and no other fish is ill but it may have been an internal illness. I'm not sure how to tell. I know the fish was alive yesterday and today he was completely white (acceot for his face) and half way decomposed/eaten. Luckily nothing spiked. I've been checking it all day and did a 10% water change.

 

Thanks Connor for your ideas.

[Grav]

That is too bad. Scratching is never a good thing and always justifies a close look. Given that they are tangs, of course my 1st concern is Ich.

 

Hard to diagnose with a short description. Can you tell more about the tank? Fish?

[discretekarma]

This post will give a lot of information about the chemistry of the tank. I'm not sure what other information about the fish would help. No changes have been made to the tank in a while. We do have an arrow crab but I think if he was the culprit that he would have been around picking at the dead body which he wasn't. This link has all the info about my tank and all the levels and setup are still the same.

 

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=17958

 

Parameters as of today are:

PH 8.4

Nitrates 0

Ammonia 0

Temp 79

SG 1.025

Calcium 400

Alk 10

 

Are there any more levels or details that would help?

 

 

 

That is too bad. Scratching is never a good thing and always justifies a close look. Given that they are tangs, of course my 1st concern is Ich.

 

Hard to diagnose with a short description. Can you tell more about the tank? Fish?

Edited December 9, 2007 by discretekarma

[Rascal]

I might add that I feed frozen food to my tank but haven't changed there food in a long time. I read that frozen found could make them rub the rocks for some reason.

[/quote

 

Sounds like ich to me too. Do you also feed some nori for the tangs? Sometimes rubbing a little freshly crushed garlic on the seaweed prior to putting in the tank can give the tangs a little help in fighting it off.

[discretekarma]

Is it possible that it was ich with no physical signs on that fish other then rubbing on the rocks for one day? I looked over the fish daily.

 

 

I only feed the main tank frozen mixed blocks and seaweed strips that I clip to the glass. The blocks come wtih four different types and I put all the blocks in a water bottle with tank water that I keep in the fridge and squirt in the tank every day.

 

Is the garlic something special from a fish store or regular garlic?

 

Should I start this treatment and/or maybe something else to protect the Blue Hippo and Yellow Tang that are still alive?

 

Thanks so much for everyones help.

Edited December 9, 2007 by discretekarma

[Rascal]

Is it possible that it was ich with no physical signs on that fish other then rubbing on the rocks for one day? I looked over the fish daily.

I only feed the main tank frozen mixed blocks and seaweed strips that I clip to the glass. The blocks come wtih four different types and I put all the blocks in a water bottle with tank water that I keep in the fridge and squirt in the tank every day.

 

Is the garlic something special from a fish store or regular garlic?

 

Should I start this treatment and/or maybe something else to protect the Blue Hippo and Yellow Tang that are still alive?

 

Thanks so much for everyones help.

 

You're right. I doubt ich killed your Clown tang. You would have seen a bunch of white spots for a while before ich got bad enough to kill a fish. I was just thinking of the Hippo - white spot and scratching. A little bit of garlic never hurts (I'm Italian, so I'm a little biased), but it's not a cure-all either. It's kind of like chicken soup and orange juice when you've got a cold. I just use regular garlic, in a garlic press.

 

I wouldn't do anything else other than TLC for the rest of your fish right now. Sometimes fish just die for no apparent reason. If you lose another, or start observing increasing signs of ill health, then it might be time for more drastic measures.

['Ric]

If you don't already have one, add a UV sterilizer to your set up, at least 36W or more. Less wattage doesn't expose the bad things to enough UV to kill them.

 

The white spots from ick can be very tiny. Also, the infection could be in their gills, which is the way ick finally kills fish.

[davelin315]

Could just be difficulties with the clown tang itself. They are difficult to keep, in my experience, and even though you bought this one from someone else that was successful with it, it doesn't mean that it will do well in your tank. Other than that, the white eye could be an injury from a fight, perhaps they squared off.

[discretekarma]

That makes sence. Since it's right before Christms and not the best time to buy a UV or anything drastic, I think I am going to just keep a close eye on everything and then I'll make changes if anything happens. Thanks so much for everyones feedback.

 

 

 

Could just be difficulties with the clown tang itself. They are difficult to keep, in my experience, and even though you bought this one from someone else that was successful with it, it doesn't mean that it will do well in your tank. Other than that, the white eye could be an injury from a fight, perhaps they squared off.