Possible illness in my tank

[Naiad]

I have another thread going about the loss of my fish and the possibility of a predator. I wanted to start this thread to discuss the possibility of an illness at work.

Fish that have died: yellow wrasse, 2 leopard wrasse, flasher wrasse, and CBB.

All the wrasse were owned for over 2 years. The CBB was brand new but went through a qt process.

All fish were eating and generally acting normal. There was a bit of agression between the two leopards prior to death. I thought maybe the female was turning male for some unknown reason. The last 2 days before his death the CBB hung out at the top corner of the tank out of the flow of the mp40s. I thought the purple tang was being a bully. The CBB would still come eat so I was not as concerned as I guess I should have been. Other than that all fish acted fine, went to bed and were found dead by morning.

I have lost no more fish since the CBB. It has been 5 days. I have been actively trapping during this period. All remaining fish seem fine. I noticed my hippo tang scratch once.

 

[melypr1985]

Having an illness in the tank is possible, but after reading the other thread and seeing the one fish with the huge chunk taken out of it I'm thinking predator. It's also worth reminding that you could have several things in play here and they just happen to all show themselves at once. You could have a bully and a predator which gave any parasite in the tank the chance to take down a fish or two.
Since you have removed several baddies during this process it would be good to just sit and watch the rest of the fish for a couple days (take pee breaks and dont forget to eat lol) just to see if there are any symptoms of parasites or any aggression. If you dont see either of these and a fish turns up eaten again, then we can just focus on predators again. Process of elimination.

 

[Tahoe61]

Trying to catch up here.

So all deaths have occurred at night? Were the bodies intact upon discovery?

 

[Naiad]

I only found one body. The others disappeared. I've found bones here and there.

This was the only one I found with meat left.

 

[Tahoe61]

Do you have a Serpent Star?

 

[Naiad]

Yes all deaths were at night. Fish eat diner, we all go to bed and fish gone by breakfast

 

[Naiad]

I have a two. A tiger and burgundy. They are trained to eat from tongs and are well fed. I made the mistake of not feeding one once before.

 

[Tahoe61]

The Tiger is a Banded? If that is the case it would be the usual suspect regardless of how much you feed it. Once they get lucky enough to catch a sleeping fish, preying on fish becomes a learned behavior. You'll only know for sure if you remove the Brittle Star . I can not tell you how many hobbyist I have encountered that were adamant that the Brittle Star was not the culprit only to remove the Brittle Star and have no further instances of mysterious fish death at night.
The other usual suspects are a Mantis, or a Bobbit worm. Fish dying only with lights out leads me to believe it is a predator. The only other cause might be low oxygenation levels at night but that is not usually the most common cause.

 

[Naiad]

Having an illness in the tank is possible, but after reading the other thread and seeing the one fish with the huge chunk taken out of it I'm thinking predator. It's also worth reminding that you could have several things in play here and they just happen to all show themselves at once. You could have a bully and a predator which gave any parasite in the tank the chance to take down a fish or two.
Since you have removed several baddies during this process it would be good to just sit and watch the rest of the fish for a couple days (take pee breaks and dont forget to eat lol) just to see if there are any symptoms of parasites or any aggression. If you dont see either of these and a fish turns up eaten again, then we can just focus on predators again. Process of elimination.

Yes I just want to throw around ideas in case I do need to adress illness. I am continuing to set traps and watch everything. My tangs are thriving so that seems to rule out a few things imo that should hit them hardest.

 

[Naiad]

The Tiger is a Banded? If that is the case it would be the usual suspect regardless of how much you feed it. Once they get lucky enough to catch a sleeping fish, preying on fish becomes a learned behavior. You'll only know for sure if you remove the Brittle Star . I can not tell you how many hobbyist I have encountered that were adamant that the Brittle Star was not the culprit only to remove the Brittle Star and have no further instances of mysterious fish death at night.
The other usual suspects are a Mantis, or a Bobbit worm. Fish dying only with lights out leads me to believe it is a predator. The only other cause might be low oxygenation levels at night but the is not usually the most common cause.

Yes he is banded. I have already removed a mantis and gorilla crab. I am also in the process of removing all the red mithrax just in case one went on a kill spree. I had a banded years ago eat a wrasse. My fault. Once I trained him to eat off the tongs I never lost another fish to him. Mine are so fat and lazy they barely move lol. You are right though if I didn't know the behavior of these stars they would be on the list.

 

[runzwithscissors]

Bobbitt I would believe. Same type bite out of my mystery wrasse. Executed the worm that night.
I believe he also made my blue spotted jawfish disappear. Never found his corpse. Took my blade scraper I use for the glass and chopped him in half when he appeared that night. I did stop feeding for a couple of days to entice the worm to come out at night searching for food.