What the heck just happened !!

Newb_reefer1 · Apr 21, 2014

Ugh so mad right now

2 days ago I bought a beautiful exquisite wrasse after an hour in drip acclimation I put it in the display along with a red head solar wrasse and a mcoskers flasher. It has looked ok for the last day and I thought Forsure he would be ok I did notice that it was breathing a little heavily before I left my house this morning but it was swimming around just fine, I leave to go to my relatives house and I come back and this poor guy passed away

I'm so sad he was so awesome and just seemed to die out of nowhere ? Anyone have any thoughts ? Checked params after the discovery of its body and everything is great ammonia 0 nitrate 0 nitrite 0 ph 8.0 I'm really stumped as to why this fish died it ate frozen this morning then it's dead the following night

hybridazn · Apr 21, 2014

Sometimes it just happens. I know that's a lame excuse but it's the truth. These fish are put thru a lot of stress being shipped around and put in different systems. Hopefully the place you bought it from will take care of you. Sorry for your loss. How are the others doing?

Mjpisanti · Apr 21, 2014

hybridazn said:
Sometimes it just happens. I know that's a lame excuse but it's the truth. These fish are put thru a lot of stress being shipped around and put in different systems. Hopefully the place you bought it from will take care of you. Sorry for your loss. How are the others doing?

agreed. If the fish was eating and looked healthy in the store its the best bet you're going to get. Its impossible to know how they'll do before you get them home and every fish is a gamble. I always ask now how long they've been in the store as well and i don't buy anything that's been there less than three days just because of the stress from moving so much. I also don't even consider fish with slightly torn fins or any kind of discoloration what so ever because i got tired of losing fish. Talk to your lfs where you got the fish and see if maybe theyll help you out at all but many stores will tell you that's the risk with fish and they're not responsible once the fish leaves the store. Also was there any chance that the fish was getting harassed that you noticed or may have not noticed at night or anything? Sometimes the fish will go after each other so inconsistently that you don't even think aggression is the problem.

MrDJeep123 · Apr 21, 2014

Sometimes it takes longer than an hour to acclimate. One thing I like to do is compare the salinity from LFS or online to the salinity of my tank. It helps me gauge how long to acclimate.

jackson6745 · Apr 21, 2014

MrDJeep123 said:
Sometimes it takes longer than an hour to acclimate. One thing I like to do is compare the salinity from LFS or online to the salinity of my tank. It helps me gauge how long to acclimate.

+1

I've acclimated as long as 3 hours from certain LFS with very low salinity. Still no guarantees though, but anything to reduce stress can't hurt.

Newb_reefer1 · Apr 21, 2014

Mjpisanti said:
agreed. If the fish was eating and looked healthy in the store its the best bet you're going to get. Its impossible to know how they'll do before you get them home and every fish is a gamble. I always ask now how long they've been in the store as well and i don't buy anything that's been there less than three days just because of the stress from moving so much. I also don't even consider fish with slightly torn fins or any kind of discoloration what so ever because i got tired of losing fish. Talk to your lfs where you got the fish and see if maybe theyll help you out at all but many stores will tell you that's the risk with fish and they're not responsible once the fish leaves the store. Also was there any chance that the fish was getting harassed that you noticed or may have not noticed at night or anything? Sometimes the fish will go after each other so inconsistently that you don't even think aggression is the problem.

Well that makes sense, it could probobly be my fault I might have jumped the gun on it as it was only in the store for 2 days... But I didn't want to miss out on it so I bought him

everyone else is doing good and they were at the store longer than the exquisite so I'm going to say that it was just stressed out and didn't make it , I did a 10g wc with water from the store then acclimated the fish to the tank and like I said earlier my little mcoskers bought from the same store same day looks full of life and happier than ever swimming about the water column RIP exquisite wrasse you will be missed
And no on the aggression I had 1 potters leopard wrasse in the tank before I introduced 3 new wrasse the exquisite seemed to be the boss of all of them chasing them around the tank a few times then all of a sudden he's just dead really sad he was such a beautiful fish