I lost my first fish - - - any ideas as to why?

[tangman99]

I lost my first fish tonight after over a year of having my tank. I was feeding them and my Coral Beauty was no where to be seen. She is always in the upper corner waiting for the seaweed clip, but not tonight. I found her under the rocks dead. This really sucks. She was my wife's favorite and we are quite depressed about it.
There was absolutely no sign that anything was wrong. She was fine yesterday and this morning. There were no signs of illness. Her scales were bright, eyes were clear and no signs of any parasites.
I checked my water after I got her out and ammo:0 nitrite:0 nitrate:10 but the PH was between 8.4 and 8.6! I have no idea why and I have added buffer to get it back down. My PH is always 8.0 and has never been higher. What would make it rise like that? I have not done anything different lately. Does anyone think that this is what killed her or was it just one of those things? I've had her for over a year.
Sorry about making this longer than it has to be, but I really wonder what could have happened.
Tangman

 

[blueberryboomer]

Tangman, I'm really sorry for the loss of your Coral Beauty. I can't tell you why it happened, just wanted to say I was sorry...Lisa

 

[jamos6]

Hey tangman I know how u feel. I have only lost 2 damsels 1 died during cycle and the other got ate when I bought my lionfiss, BUT I went out of town fri and was coming back sat morning but had to stay until sunday nite. I usaully have someone feed my fish while Im gone but since I was suppose to come back sat I didnt well anyways when I got back my coral b. look funny and the more I looked her fins had been bitten bad I think the huma huma got hungry and nipped her fins. Well by yesterday afternoon I had to get rid of her cause she was swimming upside down and lying on her side. I was SO SAD cause it was 1 of my faves.
SORRY to about the death in the family.

 

[tangman99]

Thanks everyone for your sympathy. I feel better today, but still wonder what happened. It would be easier to understand if there were some sort of signs or if she had been attacked, but to just die in a matter of hours is strange.
I'm going to wait and watch the tank closely for a week or so to make sure nothing is wrong and replace her with an Imperator Angel I was going to buy anyway next week.
Tangman

 

[flydan]

Hey,
Sorry for the loss of your coral beauty.
I also have no idea why a fish would die so fast unless something else in the tank went after it.
As for your pH. I know that it cycles up and down during the day so if you don't test at the same time you may get different readings.
That's not much help but I thought I'd share the info.
Dan'l

 

[tangman99]

I had heard that it does depend on when you test the PH. I have always tested it during the afternoon so no lights have been on and no recent feedings have occurred and it is always 8.0. When I tested it last night, the lights had been on for about 2 hours and it was after a feeding. Maybe that is why it showed high as I have never tested under these same conditions before.
I also talked to one of my favorite buds at the lfs and he said that the PH was not high enough to kill my Coral Beauty and said that everything sounded fine and was pretty much stumped. He suggested that I run carbon a few days just in case and wait before I get my Imperator Angel to see how things go.
Tangman

 

[dasnake03]

Where did you get the coral beauty.It might have been caught in the phillipines,so it could have died from cyanide poisoning.Thats what happens with alot of them,one day they are fine,the next day they are dead.If you bought it from a lfs,ask them were their fish come from when you buy them.At the store I used to work at the coral beauties from the phillipines would always look good,but after we had them in the store for a week or so,they would just drop dead.

 

[tangman99]

dasnake,
I don't know where it was caught, but I had her for over a year so I don't think it was that. However, maybe she was caught that way and it just shortened her life considerably.
Tangman