Fairy Wrasse deaths after using Waste Away: Thoughts?

malacoda · Mar 16, 2020

Here's the situation:

I'm battling dinos. (Primarily coolia I believe.)

In addition to having maintained PO4 at ~.015 and NO3 at ~15 for the past few weeks, and installing a UV unit a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try using Waste-Away to help knock them back a bit as well.

So, a few days ago, just after lights out, per the instructions, I added a 1/2 dose of Waste-Away.

As an extra measure of precaution I also left both my UV and skimmer turned ON. (You're supposed to turn both off for 4 hours unless the water clouds up indicating a bacterial bloom, in which case the instructions recommend turning them on asap. But the UV is helping quite a bit to keep the dinos in check ... and even just a few hours of it off gives the dinos the edge, so I decide to leave them on even though it would reduce the efficacy of the Waste-Away bacteria.)

When I went to bed two hours later the water in the tank was clear as ususal and everything seemed fine.

The next morning my Lunate wrasse was dead, my Lubbock's wrasse was struggling, and my Exquisite wrasse was MIA. 24 hours later the Lubbock's gave up the ghost. And 7 days later there is still no sign of the Exquisite ... so I think it's safe to say it is also KIA and was consumed by the CUC.

All other fish -- leopard wrasse, fang blennies, anthias and gobies -- showed no signs of stress, appearance or change in behavior whatsoever.

Just curious if anyone has any thoughts on what may have happened and why ONLY my fairy wrasses were affected ... especially to the point of death?

(I have a suspicion of my own but am looking for unbiased thoughts/ideas from others to see if it has any merit...)

DirtDiggler2823 · Mar 25, 2020

Any updates on this?

VR28man · Mar 31, 2020

Hypotheses only:
- something in waste away annoys fairy wrasses
- fairy wrasses are very sensitive to oxygen depletion caused as one factor of using waste-away.

saltyhog · Mar 31, 2020

The only mechanism for harming fish that I can immediately think of would be oxygen depletion but I wouldn't think wrasses would be that much more sensitive to it than fish like anthias.

One thing I did note when I used Waste Away is that it caused my PO4 to plummet and all of my SPS and a few fleshy LPS were stressed to out right killed after using it for a while.

malacoda · Apr 3, 2020

All other fish are still doing just fine. And I did, of course, STOP any further dosing of Waste Away.

@VR28man, @saltyhog, your suspicions mirror my own.

Despite that fact that I only did 1/2 the recommended dose, left both my UV and skimmer on, saw no clouding of the water whatsoever, and that a Salifert O2 test showed normal oxygen levels the next morning, the ONLY think I can think of is oxygen depletion.

My best guess ... and it is only a guess ... is that the mucous coat they sleep might make it very difficult for fairies to breathe with even the slightest drop in oxygen.

No other livestock showed any hint of stress at all (anthias, fang blennies, leopard wrasse, shrimp gobies, corals, inverts, etc. all fine).

VR28man · Apr 3, 2020

malacoda said:
[snip]

@VR28man, @saltyhog, your suspicions mirror my own.

[snip]

My best guess ... and it is only a guess ... is that the mucous coat they sleep might make it very difficult for fairies to breathe with even the slightest drop in oxygen.

Hmm, in the wild they are pretty spastic creatures that often swim around rubble areas (i.e. places of coral rubble, ergo very high flow). This suspicion is very interesting, actually: that they're super specialized for such conditions and would not do well in more turbid conditions.........

Doglips56 · Apr 26, 2020

malacoda said:
All other fish are still doing just fine. And I did, of course, STOP any further dosing of Waste Away.

@VR28man, @saltyhog, your suspicions mirror my own.

Despite that fact that I only did 1/2 the recommended dose, left both my UV and skimmer on, saw no clouding of the water whatsoever, and that a Salifert O2 test showed normal oxygen levels the next morning, the ONLY think I can think of is oxygen depletion.

My best guess ... and it is only a guess ... is that the mucous coat they sleep might make it very difficult for fairies to breathe with even the slightest drop in oxygen.

No other livestock showed any hint of stress at all (anthias, fang blennies, leopard wrasse, shrimp gobies, corals, inverts, etc. all fine).

I lost a 100% healthy Naso tang after 1/2 dose of waste away and also seriously angered some corals. That 1/2 dose took my NO3 and PO4 to zero in a few hours. General consensus Oxygen deprivation. No other fish, including regal tang were stressed.