Unusual Die Off

[metalyx]

Hey folks. Swimmin's become hard from time to time and I'm wondering at this point if there's not something I'm missing. In my girlfriends 29gal biocube we've managed to maintain a mini-reef for quite some time now. Some of the stock include a green long tentacle anemone, green leather, orange plate, pulsating xenia, blue candy, pair of black and white occ clowns, yasha goby, yellow watchman, mandarin dragonet etc...

Every couple of months though we'll see an abnormal number of fish die off for no real (observable) reason. The most recent being the scooter blenny that's been with us now for two years. He's made it through the 14gal biocube, the freshwater wash to kill off ick, spiking levels into remarkably unsafe levels and so on. All of our levels are nominal right now and he's turned belly up this morning. This comes on the back of a blue striped sleeper goby and a blue spot dwarf sea hare.

In the past we've lost two blue spot jawfish that showed a fungal looking infection on their jaw and two weeks later they died. We had the same problem with a pearly jawfish and gave up there figuring it was a fish specific problem. The only other visible malady is on the dragonet this morning, a slight lighter spot just above the fin behind the gill.

This strikes me as we tend to loose 2-3 fish once every 3-4 months. I've had many an evening looking for something like a mantis shrimp to no avail. Our purple firefish has been in the tank (now the oldest resident) for nearly 18 months with no problems (minus prementioned ick treatment over a year ago). Our clowns are the biggest fish in the tank and the yasha bogy and pistol shrimp are the smalllest. There's about 40 lbs live rock and 30 sand with a skimmer hooked up.

My question to you then is this. What's happening every 3-4 months that only kills off certain fish? Water changes are once every two weeks and I'm just stumped. Thanks and swim on.

 

[metalyx]

bada bump

 

[skiptomyzoo]

Hey folks. Swimmin's become hard from time to time and I'm wondering at this point if there's not something I'm missing. In my girlfriends 29gal biocube we've managed to maintain a mini-reef for quite some time now. Some of the stock include a green long tentacle anemone, green leather, orange plate, pulsating xenia, blue candy, pair of black and white occ clowns, yasha goby, yellow watchman, mandarin dragonet etc...

Every couple of months though we'll see an abnormal number of fish die off for no real (observable) reason. The most recent being the scooter blenny that's been with us now for two years. He's made it through the 14gal biocube, the freshwater wash to kill off ick, spiking levels into remarkably unsafe levels and so on. All of our levels are nominal right now and he's turned belly up this morning. This comes on the back of a blue striped sleeper goby and a blue spot dwarf sea hare.

In the past we've lost two blue spot jawfish that showed a fungal looking infection on their jaw and two weeks later they died. We had the same problem with a pearly jawfish and gave up there figuring it was a fish specific problem. The only other visible malady is on the dragonet this morning, a slight lighter spot just above the fin behind the gill.

This strikes me as we tend to loose 2-3 fish once every 3-4 months. I've had many an evening looking for something like a mantis shrimp to no avail. Our purple firefish has been in the tank (now the oldest resident) for nearly 18 months with no problems (minus prementioned ick treatment over a year ago). Our clowns are the biggest fish in the tank and the yasha bogy and pistol shrimp are the smalllest. There's about 40 lbs live rock and 30 sand with a skimmer hooked up.

My question to you then is this. What's happening every 3-4 months that only kills off certain fish? Water changes are once every two weeks and I'm just stumped. Thanks and swim on.

I wonder if they are starving. The diets of the blenny and mandarin are the same, and in a small tank there may not be enough pods and such for both of them. The goby could be something similar, not enough sand to sift to get all it needs, if it refuses to accept prepared. The sea hare could have died from not being able to get enough algae, and not having suppliments to counter the lack of it. Also, jawfish like to burrow, and needs shells and some rubble pieces to help make it, was that provided for? I don't know much about the infections, but I know that it should be properly housed, to have success in the first place. Also, the fish that you mention are doing really well, (the clowns and firefish) not only are usually hardier as a whole, but they can also go to the top to get their food, so even if the ones (who now are dead), were to accept prepared, it might never make it to them, and even if the food makes it to the bottom, it would be snatched up by the yasha and the watchmen, as they arent nearly as picky with what they eat. I guess you could try adding mysis shrimp to the diet, to hopefully help somewhat, and maybe culture some pods as well.

 

[metalyx]

Everyone's certainly provided for, we've actually had to scale back food to keep waste from accumulating. In reference to the jawfish, we had three that did the same thing. The first did well for a time using small-medium crushed coral bits to build his cave and ate ferociously. What I'm guessing was a fungal infection set in on on the lower part of his jaw and within 48 hours had grown large enough to prohibit eating. With number two he only made it three days but began showing similar symptoms. The third we got back to the store for their quarantine system at the first onset and he did well for about a week.

In regards to feeding we are doing one cube of brine and one of mysis fed over about a 5 minute period. We compliment with rotofeast, oyster eggs and arcti-pods for the small mouthed fish, corals and filter feeders. For the slugs and snails we add a sheet of pressed algae about once a week. The clowns will pick at this from time to time as well.

This morning the light spot is no longer visible on the dragonet.