Bad luck

[justrock79]

So I came home from work today to find our Royal Gramma dead.
It was very sudden, had been eating fine and seemed to swim and behave ok. We had it only for about 3 weeks.
It was housed with a sixline wrasse and a yellow watchman/pistol shrimp pair, plus the usual cleanup crew in a 40 gallon breeder. All of which are fine and no one's showing unusual signs.
There were no white spots, blotches or discoloration on the Gramma. But its tail was mostly gone and fins chewed up a bit.
Also, it was found just next to the YWG/pistol shrimp home.

Anybody have an idea what might've happened? Was it just aggression?
The YWG is super protective of their home and the wrasse (usually not a problem) did pick on it a bit, but not overly atleast when we're around.

 

[Nataleeia]

So I came home from work today to find our Royal Gramma dead.
It was very sudden, had been eating fine and seemed to swim and behave ok. We had it only for about 3 weeks.
It was housed with a sixline wrasse and a yellow watchman/pistol shrimp pair, plus the usual cleanup crew in a 40 gallon breeder. All of which are fine and no one's showing unusual signs.
There were no white spots, blotches or discoloration on the Gramma. But its tail was mostly gone and fins chewed up a bit.
Also, it was found just next to the YWG/pistol shrimp home.

Anybody have an idea what might've happened? Was it just aggression?
The YWG is super protective of their home and the wrasse (usually not a problem) did pick on it a bit, but not overly atleast when we're

Sorry to hear this, do you have any pics of the tank? What are your parameters?

 

[justrock79]

Sorry to hear this, do you have any pics of the tank? What are your parameters?

Not sure about all the parameters. Did a water change recently tho, but the salinity didn't change enough to do anything drastic and everything else has been fine.

The wrasse did seem to gradually pick on it more and more now that I think about it.

 

[Nataleeia]

Sounds like a territory thing to me, I had a royal gramma which just hid in the rocks constantly, I also had a yellow watchman and I witnessed them almost having a standoff although their territories were opposite ends of the tank. My tank is only a 115 litre (uk) so maybe different situation. See if any experts can figure anything out, keep an eye on your other fish for a few days too.

 

[justrock79]

Sounds like a territory thing to me, I had a royal gramma which just hid in the rocks constantly, I also had a yellow watchman and I witnessed them almost having a standoff although their territories were opposite ends of the tank. My tank is only a 115 litre (uk) so maybe different situation. See if any experts can figure anything out, keep an eye on your other fish for a few days too.

The wrasse and watchman goby get along very well, almost like best friends. Ironically we got them at the same time from the same place, have had them about 9 months now.

 

[Nataleeia]

The wrasse and watchman goby get along very well, almost like best friends. Ironically we got them at the same time from the same place, have had them about 9 months now.

Well I hope things work out and it was just an unfortunate event. We lost everything in our tank due to velvet a month ago, currently having issues with stability but we’ll get there.

 

[Stephen8169301]

I’ve read six line wrasse should be the last fish to add to the tank because of aggression issues sorry to hear for your loss of fishy

 

[justrock79]

Well I hope things work out and it was just an unfortunate event. We lost everything in our tank due to velvet a month ago, currently having issues with stability but we’ll get there.

I'm really sorry to hear about the velvet, I understand the frustration and pain! Our wrasse and watchman/pistol were the only survivors from velvet and ich a little while ago. We went longer than "necessary" with the fallow period to avoid another outbreak, hopefully this isn't another round. But no real indication yet for one.

 

[justrock79]

I’ve read six line wrasse should be the last fish to add to the tank because of aggression issues sorry to hear for your loss of fishy

It kinda really depends on the individual fish, our wrasse, until recently, has been a model citizen and fine with tank mates. For some reason it didn't like the royal Gramma, but it's been almost "best friends" with a yellow watchman goby for about 9 months