Murder, or is something wrong?

[kevgib67]

Sorry for your Troubles. Since you are good friends with your lfs could you ask them to hold the fish for you for the period of time that you have had your problems? Could rule in or out a problem in your tank. I personally don’t purchase fish from my lfs when they first arrive and wait a couple of weeks to make sure I am purchasing healthy fish.

 

[threebuoys]

Well I believe only the Melenarus came straight out of the box- The others were in their tanks for a day or two. I always temp acclimate and drip acclimate. They also were in there for a month with no signs or symptoms and actively eating/swimming. No itching on rocks, etc etc. The foxface was actually surprisingly very active. Eating algae and swimming all day long.

So in your opinion, you think maybe someone in the tank is harrassing them to death basically?

I guess I always suspected the tang because I visually saw him being aggressive, but after the tank move he went from being the ***Hole of the tank to an angel.

If the new fish survived a week or more, I would assume the acclimation didn't cause the problem. Without pictures of the fish before death, it is difficult to rule out parasites, but I do lean more towards aggression being the likely problem based on the info at hand.

 

[MichaelReefer]

If the new fish survived a week or more, I would assume the acclimation didn't cause the problem. Without pictures of the fish before death, it is difficult to rule out parasites, but I do lean more towards aggression being the likely problem based on the info at hand.

That was my initial thought as well, because of the fact that they lasted a month. The only thing they skewed me off that was the lack of injury on them.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Bumping just for any other opinions or advice.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Bumping just for any other opinions or advice.

Sorry, just seeing this now. I don’t have any specific advice for you, sorry!
Over the years, I’ve found that in complex cases, with deaths over time, there is often no single cause, but rather, a variety of unsolved issues, with the only true commonality being the fish dying.
I doubt that it is some unknown water quality problem - your older fish would not be immune to that, and could even be more affected by virtue of having lived in the water longer.
One issue that is have seen cause chronic mortality in new fish while sparing the older ones are flukes - the older fish build up partial immunity, but the new fish get sick and die. However, flukes take time to kill and the fish will show symptoms such as cloudy eyes, tattered fins, ratty skin or rapid breathing prior to death.
Jay

 

[MichaelReefer]

Sorry, just seeing this now. I don’t have any specific advice for you, sorry!
Over the years, I’ve found that in complex cases, with deaths over time, there is often no single cause, but rather, a variety of unsolved issues, with the only true commonality being the fish dying.
I doubt that it is some unknown water quality problem - your older fish would not be immune to that, and could even be more affected by virtue of having lived in the water longer.
One issue that is have seen cause chronic mortality in new fish while sparing the older ones are flukes - the older fish build up partial immunity, but the new fish get sick and die. However, flukes take time to kill and the fish will show symptoms such as cloudy eyes, tattered fins, ratty skin or rapid breathing prior to death.
Jay

Yeah, I noticed no sign of that. They seemed completely healthy otherwise. If it was flukes, what kind of time does it take to see signs? Is it at rapid as this happened? Most had been in the tank for 3-4 weeks.

In your opinion do you agree with @threebuoys that it shows more as aggression as possibly the culprit?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Yeah, I noticed no sign of that. They seemed completely healthy otherwise. If it was flukes, what kind of time does it take to see signs? Is it at rapid as this happened? Most had been in the tank for 3-4 weeks.

In your opinion do you agree with @threebuoys that it shows more as aggression as possibly the culprit?

I misread your first post, sorry! I see that all three fish died within three days of being added to the tank. That could line up with some old fish not wanting new fish in the tank - and you might not see the aggression actually happen. However, you would likely see damage on the dead fish - missing scales, ripped fins.
It could also be different causes still - the mortality rate on new marine fish can be very high - in studies I’ve done mortality in groups of fish for the first 40 days can run on average 40 to 60% - with a range of 0 to 100% of course.
Jay

 

[MichaelReefer]

I misread your first post, sorry! I see that all three fish died within three days of being added to the tank. That could line up with some old fish not wanting new fish in the tank - and you might not see the aggression actually happen. However, you would likely see damage on the dead fish - missing scales, ripped fins.
It could also be different causes still - the mortality rate on new marine fish can be very high - in studies I’ve done mortality in groups of fish for the first 40 days can run on average 40 to 60% - with a range of 0 to 100% of course.
Jay

Clarification, they died within 3 days of each other- not 3 days from being added. They have all been in the tank for 3-4 weeks.