Killer bluethroat trigger?

Njdevils1220 · Mar 20, 2019

Hello all! I have a strange epidemic going on in my tank that I can not figure out..

About three months ago I lost my swallowtail angel, a week or two later my flame back wrasse, and a week or so later my Desjardini tang. The fish all were in great health, color, and activity and ate like pigs. Their corpses did not look damaged or diseased either. I tested my water, all parameters were good.

About a week after the Desjardini passed I got a copperband butterfly who was QT'd and eating like a pig on frozen food and nori.

About three weeks ago if that I decided to get a blue throat trigger and four chromis. The day after adding the fish three of the chromis were gone. A week after I added two lyretail anthias. The next day I found one of the Anthias with a chunk missing from him.

This morning I found the butterfly battered and dead, about 4-5 inches away from him was the blue throat trigger dead, he looked fine, looked as if he got stuck possibly pursuing the butterfly. I tested my water again. All is perfect, ammonia is zero. Nitrates below 10. Po4 under .024ppm. All corals look great.

I have never heard of a blue throat doing this but a trigger is still a trigger? Any thoughts and opinions on what could be going on in my reef? I thought about maybe a gorilla crab but I watch my tank a lot and move rocks around a lot and have never seen one. I also doubt a gorilla crab would be able to take down fish of this size other than the chromis or anthias.

tkiry1 · Mar 20, 2019

Geez man.. I have fish only but a blue throat should not do that... I have one so passive... That is horrible though..

Hemmdog · Mar 20, 2019

Sorry to hear that! I haven’t experienced aggression out of my blue throat fwiw

MIKE NY · Mar 21, 2019

I had a similar experience with my Bluethroat. It became more aggressive as it matured and all small fish were on the menu.

shred5 · Mar 21, 2019

My blue throat went after my chromis but that was it.
They were super tiny though.
They will go after small fish but other than that they are pretty peaceful...

nereefpat · Mar 21, 2019

I think something else is going on here...disease maybe? Angels, tangs, and wrasses should not be in danger from a blue throat trigger.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h · Mar 21, 2019

Most of the advice on fish temperaments are generalities. They generally hold, but there's always going to be uber aggressive or uber passive individuals that buck the trend.

That said, I doubt very much a trigger would die because it got stuck in a rock; that's one of their key defensive tactics. Nevermind that you'd probably observe if there was aggression going on. Definitely lean more towards some disease or infection that is killing the fish. The wounds in the bodies may have just been opportunistic feeding after they were dead...

Have photos of any of the fish? Even just the bodies might be helpful...

Njdevils1220 · Mar 21, 2019

S-t-r-e-t-c-h said:
Most of the advice on fish temperaments are generalities. They generally hold, but there's always going to be uber aggressive or uber passive individuals that buck the trend.

That said, I doubt very much a trigger would die because it got stuck in a rock; that's one of their key defensive tactics. Nevermind that you'd probably observe if there was aggression going on. Definitely lean more towards some disease or infection that is killing the fish. The wounds in the bodies may have just been opportunistic feeding after they were dead...

Have photos of any of the fish? Even just the bodies might be helpful...

Unfortunately no I didn’t save the bodies for autopsy. All corpses since the trigger has been in the tank have had damage from either being attacked or scavenged by crabs.

I considered the possibility of a gorilla crab but what’s the chances of one being able to take down fish the size of the butterfly, trigger, Desjardini tang, and swallowtail? Also the fact they didn’t look ripped up deters me from the idea of a gorilla crab as the culprit.

I considered disease but no signs of ich or velvet. I know velvet can sometimes have no signs but this has been going on for over a few months and I’d imagine at least some of the fish would show signs of velvet.

I have been removing my sandbed a little at a time but I’ve been dosing a few capfuls of Prime to combat any potential ammonia being the issue but again water parameters all test solid.

Eva Rose · Mar 21, 2019

I wonder if it still could be velvet... that is a lot of fish in a short time, even though it has been over months... Sometimes fish get diseased fish look “battered” because they are hiding from light/frantically swimming etc. and get injured bolting into a hole.
Sorry about all your losses. Why don’t you take some pics of the fish you have left. Even if they look disease free. Let the reef squad take a look. It will also help you as comparison in a few days or weeks. You can look to see if fish have gotten paler, have a change in body texture etc. Hope things change for the better.

Njdevils1220 · Mar 21, 2019

Eva Rose said:
I wonder if it still could be velvet... that is a lot of fish in a short time, even though it has been over months... Sometimes fish get diseased fish look “battered” because they are hiding from light/frantically swimming etc. and get injured bolting into a hole.
Sorry about all your losses. Why don’t you take some pics of the fish you have left. Even if they look disease free. Let the reef squad take a look. It will also help you as comparison in a few days or weeks. You can look to see if fish have gotten paler, have a change in body texture etc. Hope things change for the better.

I will try and snap some photos of the remaining members. They never were hiding from light or anything they all acted 100% normal.

Eva Rose · Mar 21, 2019

Njdevils1220 said:
I will try and snap some photos of the remaining members. They never were hiding from light or anything they all acted 100% normal.

I know that is stressful. Good luck