Is this Cyanide Poisoning?

[dennis romano]

I have had a few mysterious fish deaths recently. They possibly sound like cyanide poisoning but welcome any other ideas. The first two occurred in a twenty-five year old reef tank. I added a striped pipefish and an orange spotted filefish from an online vendor. After two days, both fish were eating like champs, frozen brine shrimp, pods and frozen mysis. Day forty, both ate in the morning, were indifferent in the evening and were dead the next morning. There were no spots, lesions or film. The other loss was basically the same scenario. The fish was a C. rafflesi in a year old 125 FOWLR. I bought the fish from a different online vendor. It ate immediately and ate everything. Again, around day forty, it ate well on a frozen clam in the morning, swam around in the evening with no interest in food, and gone the next morning. Again, no visible signs of disease. I have lost no other fish, just these three. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have had a few mysterious fish deaths recently. They possibly sound like cyanide poisoning but welcome any other ideas. The first two occurred in a twenty-five year old reef tank. I added a striped pipefish and an orange spotted filefish from an online vendor. After two days, both fish were eating like champs, frozen brine shrimp, pods and frozen mysis. Day forty, both ate in the morning, were indifferent in the evening and were dead the next morning. There were no spots, lesions or film. The other loss was basically the same scenario. The fish was a C. rafflesi in a year old 125 FOWLR. I bought the fish from a different online vendor. It ate immediately and ate everything. Again, around day forty, it ate well on a frozen clam in the morning, swam around in the evening with no interest in food, and gone the next morning. Again, no visible signs of disease. I have lost no other fish, just these three. Anybody have any ideas?

No rapid breathing seen?
Cyanide poisoning usually shows up sooner than 40 days, 45 is usually considered the upper time limit.
Jay

 

[dennis romano]

No rapid breathing seen?
Cyanide poisoning usually shows up sooner than 40 days, 45 is usually considered the upper time limit.
Jay

No rapid breathing. All three fish just seemed a little lethargic the day before. They were swimming but a little slower. No laying on the substrate. No flashing around the tank. No scraping on the rockwork.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

No rapid breathing. All three fish just seemed a little lethargic the day before. They were swimming but a little slower. No laying on the substrate. No flashing around the tank. No scraping on the rockwork.

Well, all three of those species could be collected with cyanide in some regions. Other fish in the tank were fine? That rules out major epizootic infections.
Jay

 

[dennis romano]

Well, all three of those species could be collected with cyanide in some regions. Other fish in the tank were fine? That rules out major epizootic infections.
Jay

No other deaths at all. The reef tank inhabitants are a pair of blue stripe pipefish, banggai cardinal and yellow assessor. The FOWLR tank has several other butterflies and a Rock Beauty. As of this morning, they were fighting over mysis.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

No other deaths at all. The reef tank inhabitants are a pair of blue stripe pipefish, banggai cardinal and yellow assessor. The FOWLR tank has several other butterflies and a Rock Beauty. As of this morning, they were fighting over mysis.

So - Banggai, assessors and rock beauties are not caught with cyanide (pipefish maybe).

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

When I have thought I had fish with cyanide poisoning, they seemed to slowly decline - as compared to looking great - and then sudden death. Have you considered sending an ICP test and are your other parameters 'ok'?

The reason I ask is that it is possible (unlikely) - that there is some issue in your tank that your other fish have been accustomed/acclimated to - which then affected only the new fish. BTW - I have seen this with some parasites as well - with all deference to @Jay Hemdal - whereby the existing fish have immunity to xxx - and the new arrivals do not make it over time.

Hope this helps

 

[dennis romano]

When I have thought I had fish with cyanide poisoning, they seemed to slowly decline - as compared to looking great - and then sudden death. Have you considered sending an ICP test and are your other parameters 'ok'?

The reason I ask is that it is possible (unlikely) - that there is some issue in your tank that your other fish have been accustomed/acclimated to - which then affected only the new fish. BTW - I have seen this with some parasites as well - with all deference to @Jay Hemdal - whereby the existing fish have immunity to xxx - and the new arrivals do not make it over time.

Hope this helps

I agree with you 100%. The banggai and yellow assessor are years old and have survived two velvet wipeouts. The FOWLR is only about a year old, and the fish are relatively new. So, I feel that they have not had time to build immunity. What is confounding is that all fish were eating extremely well. Lets face it, banded pipefish and orange spotted files are not the easiest fish to get to eat, yet they held their own at feeding time.