Sudden unknown issue with fish

reefknight · Aug 1, 2013

Yesterday my female Lyretail anthias decided to go missing. Searched for her all day and couldn't discover where she had hidden herself. The night before she had eaten ravenously as she always does and has been with me for over a year. This morning I could not find my male Pylei wrasse, who owns the tank. As soon as the main lights come on he comes out, flashes his colors and chases my Bartlett's for a couple of minutes and then settles down and goes about his day. He has had this routine for quite sometime and has been with me over two years. Having as much rock as I do, its difficult to locate fish that decide to hide out in the rock islands. I began searching with a flashlight and discovered both hiding out. The both have themselves very well hidden in the very bottom of the left hand island and are breathing shallow but are responsive to light.

Tank parameters are;
Salinity - 35ppt
Alk - 8.8
Ca - 440
Mg- 1350
ph - 8.05 (Newer house and the ph has always been under 8.2 with no issues. Graph shows 7.96-8.05 on APEX)
NO3 / NO2 / NH4 - Undetectable
PO4 - 0.01

I did a treatment for red bugs last week using Interceptor, as per instructions and have done so in the past with out issue. At the same time I added a few cups of fresh sand to the sand bed. No ill effects until yesterday when the first one went into hiding. In an attempt today to help these two I did a 10% water change and added 2 cups of fresh carbon in a mesh bag, placed in one of the sump baffles. I have several other fish in the system and hate to have any others suffer. Magnificent Foxface, Longfin wrasse, Bartlett anthias trio, Fowler's tang, Darwin clown pair and a Mandarin dragonet. All fish are in perfect health with no issues, just as these were prior to their going into seclusion.

Thoughts or suggestions are greatly welcomed.

jcdeng · Aug 1, 2013

From what you posted I can think of a few probable causes:
1. did you check for ammonia? Interceptor can cause a spike due to the massive die off.
2. New sand, where did that come from? was it like a carbisea bag?
3. any recent additions to the tank? corals, marco, pods, etc.?

reefknight · Aug 1, 2013

Good questions, should have thought those through when I was posting the problem.

Checked NH4, undetectable as per a Salifert kit. As were NO2 & NO3. No noticeable die off of any fuana except red bugs and a single hermit crab that I missed. Though I did see another one that survived. I noticed that my pods seem to have lived through the treatment, to a greater or lesser degree.

The sand was from a refugium that I removed from my sump a couple of months ago. I rinsed the sand in fresh water several times, till it ran clear. Then let it soak in RO/DI water with Prime to remove any chlorine. About 5lbs was added to the 185gal display.

A couple of new corals were added from a very trusted source. They were dipped in TLF Revive, then a salt water rinse then added to the display.

jcdeng · Aug 2, 2013

I would check your fish for any signs of ich or velvet on the body, problem is, most fish when they get sick, hides and then just dies in the hole and your CUC will tare it apart. Reason I suspect ich or velvet is because of the new corals, no matter how good your dipping procedure is, you can't get rid of the ich eggs if they were latched on the coral. You put the coral into tank, boom you got ich.

reefknight · Aug 2, 2013

No signs of ich or illness on any of the fish and all the others are acting fine. The Pylei is out and about today and eating. He's not moving around and being his normal dominating self, but its a good sign. He's swimming a little sluggish and not making to many quick reactions in the tank as he normally would. No sign of the Lyretail today though, fearing the worst for her.

I have re ran all the tests this morning and again all are well within parameters.

evolved · Aug 2, 2013

This is a tough one, and I don't have many ideas beyond the possibility one of your tank inhabitants bullied them into hiding. Which might seem unlikely, but I don't have much else.

reefknight · Aug 3, 2013

evolved said:
This is a tough one, and I don't have many ideas beyond the possibility one of your tank inhabitants bullied them into hiding. Which might seem unlikely, but I don't have much else.

Yeah, especially considering the Pylei is pretty much the bully of the tank. The only other aggressive fish in the tank is the female clown, he was shying away from her yesterday.

Update today; the Pylei is out and acting a little more like himself and I have spotted the Lyretail. She is hiding in the rear of the display, resting on a rock. Breathing is a little less than what would be considered normal, color is fine, no fin deterioration and her eyes are clear. Her body is free of marks and shows no bloating, bruising or blood marks. So this one now has me officially puzzled as to what has occurred. I have ran tests again and all are within their normal parameters.

I am considering low level of dissolved O2 as a culprit. Due to the red bug treatment I had turned my return pump all the way up. Last Wednesday, I throttled it back down after the treatment was over. After I noticed the change in their behavior and completing that water change I turned the pump back to full throttle. It's the only other common denominator that I can deduce at this time. Unfortunately I don't have a test kit for it, nor do I know of anyone locally that does. So testing for it at this time is not an option.