AARGH.. So mad...

[leedsrhinojohn]

don't think its stress either, when you think of what its been through just to get your qt tank and it survived.
99.9% sure its not a predator either, my money is still on a major difference of a water param.

 

[tgrick]

Not sure. Would he still have if after 2 rounds of prazi-pro 5 days apart? During TTM I dosed Prazi. I also moved to QT tank after TTM for another 25-30 days. He showed no signs of distress and was eating like a champ. Just trying to understand .

Thanks for all the feedback!!

Personally, after all the thinking and ideas, I'm not sure it is predator either. I think it was more stress from being handled too much during the transfer to the DT as @Tamberav mentioned above. I had to chase him down in the QT and release him into a holding to far to move to DT. Then I had to grab him from the holding jar to release into DT. Maybe they're just a little delicate like that?

I did not know about the Prazi…so no, not flukes. Not likely anyway.

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

Nitrates and nitrites are not toxic in saltwater unless at extremely high concentrations so that’s unlikely an issue.

I agree but if the qt say for example is 5ppm nitrate and the dt is 50ppm nitrate the shock can kill fish, that's why the other fish are not affected as they are used to it. I always my qt at the same params as my dt as best I could

 

[tgrick]

It's possible he got trapped and could not breathe...then the scavengers pulled him out??? It's hard to say what happened...it was all so quick.

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

It's hard to say what happened...it was all so quick.

we will never know what happened, all we can do is guess at what could have happened and dismiss what couldn't have happened. Animals die all of a sudden all the time for no apparent reason including humans the difference is that humans don't get eaten by a cuc when we die.

 

[2000se]

It's possible he got trapped and could not breathe...then the scavengers pulled him out??? It's hard to say what happened...it was all so quick.

Do fish do dumb things like getting stuck in holes and such? Or wedging themselves between rocks not realizing they can't get out?
I swear I think that is what happened. He swam to the bottom, bee-lined it straight into rocks, wedged himself in to hide, it just happened that there was a nickel sized gorilla/stone crab under the rock. He attacked him, he was done.

From a water quality standpoint - I don't feel the water params were that far off ( I guess not) Salinaty and temp no. Maybe a 1 point in Sal and .5 degree temp but that would be the measurement tools accuracy as well.

Water quality I had just completed (30 days earlier) a 12 or 13 day TTM using display tank water for the transfers. That means that I was doing a water change to the the DT every 3 days with 4 gallons of water. My tank is a 60ish gallon. So I realistically changed over 16 gallons from DT. Before I added him the QT tank I did a 50% water change (20 gallon, so 10 gallons). Would water quality still be way far off after all of that?

I love that you guys are so willing to help out. This is great. I don't feel anymore I guessing at this by myself.

 

[MombasaLionfish]

My sister had a dartfish for a week the it went missing she found it in the rocks. A few hours later the dartfish swam into the rock again. Later it came out with a huge gash in its side and died shortly after.

 

[Tamberav]

No one is going to convince me 1 degree is going to kill your wrasse in a hot minute. Salinity was matched and it's not pH as there should not be a big difference since this isn't a freshly shipped fish. And unless your DT is a hot digusting mess....

Fish are not going to die from those differences...they will die from being handled a lot though. Some fish are more sensitive than others.

 

[2000se]

I think we narrowed it down to a combination of handling too much and maybe fright hiding in the rocks then perishing quickly from the handling. Again thank you all for contributing! We'll be trying this again shortly.