Flame Wrasse suddenly died.

[Madhav]

Currently going through a copepod bloom and flame wrasse which was eating frozen mysis shrimp, some of the live copepods and cyclops suddenly started hiding.
2 Tangs, 2 anthias and 2 clowns all are doing exceptionally well due to a million copepods on the glass.
Wrasse was doing the same till yesterday. Since today morning it was hiding a lot. By afternoon I tried a freshwater dip but still wasnt recovering and now its dead.

Any ideas as to what might be the cause?
Parameters :
Temp - 78
salinity - 1.028
ammonia-0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0
kh - 12

 

[T-J]

Alk is high, but that shouldn't kill that fish. Did it's body look like it had any parasites or other signs of disease? Also, nothing wrong with having a healthy supply of pods in a tank.

 

[Madhav]

No it had a red dot on its lip, the lfs said it was a bruise. Nothing else.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So - I'm trying to piece together the timeline here - the LFS said it had a bruise? That implies the fish was acquired relatively recently?

Copepods versus amphipods versus isopods? There are a couple of opportunistic "micropredator" copepods that will bite fish, especially those that rest on the bottom at night, like wrasses. My concern is that these are feeding on *something* in the tank to have a population explosion like that even with the fish eating them. I truly huge numbers, they can also take up oxygen as they respire.

Just curious - why do you run your specific gravity so high? I normally stay around 1.026 for reef tanks and 1.020 for FOWLR.

Jay

 

[Madhav]

So - I'm trying to piece together the timeline here - the LFS said it had a bruise? That implies the fish was acquired relatively recently?

Copepods versus amphipods versus isopods? There are a couple of opportunistic "micropredator" copepods that will bite fish, especially those that rest on the bottom at night, like wrasses. My concern is that these are feeding on *something* in the tank to have a population explosion like that even with the fish eating them. I truly huge numbers, they can also take up oxygen as they respire.

Just curious - why do you run your specific gravity so high? I normally stay around 1.026 for reef tanks and 1.020 for FOWLR.

Jay

Yes I did get it a week ago.
Mostly copepods. Small white and trigger movements. The fish was sleeping on the bottom. One fin did have a tear. Salinity running high since I want to keep the params as stable as possible and want to add corals once I get coralline.