hey everyone. my wrasse died last night i am trying to figure out why. i had her for about 3 months. i have been trying to catch her to remove anyway but still want to find out why. she was fat and alway hunting finding lots of pod and mysids. the tank has been going for a year. only change i made is upgrading my skimmer to the asm g-3 and changed my lighting to 6x80watt T5's. the lighting change did start a algae bloom and creat many nitro bubbles on my rock and sand, as expected. during the last month the bloom went away and the bubbles have reduced big time, but still some left. all water levels are good. the only thing i have not checked is the dissolved oxygen. my setup is as follows; 120ish gal tank. a 45gal sump with a 20gal sec for the refugium growing macro with a mud filter. a seperate 10gal sump for my skimmer. the return for both is via a sedra 1200gph pump. in the main tank flow is about 30X turnover. using a tunze streamer pump rated at 1850gph set to alternate from 1850gph to 1000gph useing the controller. and 4 900 maxijets powerheads 3 of which are on a wavemaker. anyway i noticed her gills where blue. so i am thinking the nitro bubbles might have shifted the O2 concentration to the point my wrasse suffercated. so does my thinking sound right or could this be something else.
wrasse mystery death????
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steve-s
Well-known member
Sorry for the loss...
I guess the best place to start would be the water parameters and chemistry. It would also help to know what species of wrasse, what was regularly fed and did it eat prepared stuff, any recent additions of anykind and what tank mates there are. What was the condition of the wrasse when you removed it and was it ever QT'd?
I realize you mention it was fat, but that will not always mean from eating.. :doubt:
DO is usually not a great concern most of the time but I guess you shouldn't rule it out. You have a good amount of turnover so unless the algae was in great abundance, I would not expect the DO to have dropped dramatically. What was the average temp & salinity?
Cheers
Steve
I guess the best place to start would be the water parameters and chemistry. It would also help to know what species of wrasse, what was regularly fed and did it eat prepared stuff, any recent additions of anykind and what tank mates there are. What was the condition of the wrasse when you removed it and was it ever QT'd?
I realize you mention it was fat, but that will not always mean from eating.. :doubt:
DO is usually not a great concern most of the time but I guess you shouldn't rule it out. You have a good amount of turnover so unless the algae was in great abundance, I would not expect the DO to have dropped dramatically. What was the average temp & salinity?
Cheers
Steve
it was a filimented wrasse female. water parm:
temp ranges 80 peaked day time and 78 peak low at night.
NO3=0.20
ph. stable at 8.2-8.3
ALK=3.35
Ca+=405
sal=34
phos=0.0
silicate=0.0
NH3/NH4=0.0
NO2=0.0
the wrasse was the only fish in the tank. other tankmates are mixed snails cerith, margarita, nerite, trochus and a cleaner shrimp. was feeding her prime reef, fourmula 1 and 2, squid, cyclo, krill sometimes i soak her food in garlic.
the only thing i noticed was her gills were blue. i am thinking perhaps she got gill fluke from low O2, guess i can eleminate that if get off my butt and go buy a test kit.
i have not been feeding for the last two weeks though. but have lots and lots of pods and mysids in my tank. been trying to get her to go into a trap.
temp ranges 80 peaked day time and 78 peak low at night.
NO3=0.20
ph. stable at 8.2-8.3
ALK=3.35
Ca+=405
sal=34
phos=0.0
silicate=0.0
NH3/NH4=0.0
NO2=0.0
the wrasse was the only fish in the tank. other tankmates are mixed snails cerith, margarita, nerite, trochus and a cleaner shrimp. was feeding her prime reef, fourmula 1 and 2, squid, cyclo, krill sometimes i soak her food in garlic.
the only thing i noticed was her gills were blue. i am thinking perhaps she got gill fluke from low O2, guess i can eleminate that if get off my butt and go buy a test kit.
i have not been feeding for the last two weeks though. but have lots and lots of pods and mysids in my tank. been trying to get her to go into a trap.
Last edited:
steve-s
Well-known member
Low O2 isn't going to cause gill flukes, it's no different than any other parasite. Either it's there or it's not. 
Are you absolutely sure the gills where blue and not just a trick of the light? Any surface gulping, excessive gilling, swimming in front of powerheads, pacing the glass, lethargy and so on?
Lack of feeding even though you say there are plenty of natural foods still leaves something to be concerned about. This type of species needs frequent feedings even with a healthy zooplankton population. At any time have you noticed anything irregular about the color/consistancey of the feces? Did the fish's gut look bulged/round on a regular basis?
Any anomylous colors/rash's on the skin or fins?
Cheers
Steve
Are you absolutely sure the gills where blue and not just a trick of the light? Any surface gulping, excessive gilling, swimming in front of powerheads, pacing the glass, lethargy and so on?
Lack of feeding even though you say there are plenty of natural foods still leaves something to be concerned about. This type of species needs frequent feedings even with a healthy zooplankton population. At any time have you noticed anything irregular about the color/consistancey of the feces? Did the fish's gut look bulged/round on a regular basis?
Any anomylous colors/rash's on the skin or fins?
Cheers
Steve
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