Weird Death?

[redx113]

I'm semi new this kind of thing, but for starters, i have a 37 gallon eclipse system. plenty of live rock, and do frequent water changes.. water levels are all tested and are good. i have a tomato clown, a ocellaris clown, 2 watchman goby's, a chocolate chip starfish, a peppermint shrimp, some random cleanup crew stuff, and just added a Royal gramma. a couple days after adding the gramma, i come home to find it dead, and the peppermint shrimp is eating / dragging its corpse across the whole tank in and out of the rocks, anyone know what could have been the cause of death?

 

[jpc763]

You will need to post the specific water parameters and the method that you used to add the Royal Gramma. Specifically, how did you acclimate the RG? Did you Quarantine it first? Was it eating? Did you see it eat at the LFS?
Sorry about your loss.

 

[srfisher17]

Sometimes fish just don't acclimate and die. Not as often as it used to happen; but sadly, it still does. I doubt that you'll ever really know why; unless some of the answers to jpc763's questions reveal something.

 

[turtlegirl933]

did you quaritine it? How did you accimate it? What were the exact tank peremeters? Was it dehaving oddly before its death?

 

[paintballer768]

The peppermint was probably just trying to move the body to a safe place so it can have a meal

 

[anonome]

Originally Posted by srfisher17
Sometimes fish just don't acclimate and die. Not as often as it used to happen; but sadly, it still does. I doubt that you'll ever really know why; unless some of the answers to jpc763's questions reveal something.
I have to agree with srfisher17, sometimes no matter what we do to try to do to make a fish live, it still just dies. If you acclimated it right, and your perameters are good......still haven't seen the numbers....it is indeed a sad day when you see your new fish die. Sometimes the fact that it was taken from the ocean, put in a holding tank, then moved to the lfs tank, then to yours it is too much for the fish to handle too soon. Please post your perameters so we can see if something may be off.

 

[redx113]

Sorry i've been quite busy and forgot to check back... but the water paremeter are as follows, if you need more information let me know.
PH - 8.3
temp - 79 degrees
ammonia - 0
nitrites - 0
nitrates - <10
salinity - 1.023
i saw the fish eat at the lfs before i bought it, and the next day i fed my fish and he was eating, the only thing that i would of concidered weird would be that the fish would hide behind a live rock, turn his head towards the back of my tank *a mirrored back*, open his mouth, then turn it back to normal and hide again, and repeat the process for awhile. other than that he was swimming fine, eating normal for the two or so days i had him. any more help would be appreciated

 

[jojo_b]

I dunno if you've mentioned this in a different thread, but how old is your tank?
And I echo the previous question of acclimation methods.

 

[anonome]

Well, your perameters look good, but I would on the next top-off use some saltwater to raise your salinity to the normal of 1.025. Still don't know what could have happened except that maybe you didn't acclimate it long enough? I'm at a loss but still want to to be encouraging. I would try another gramma again, and try to acclimate it longer. It doesn't hurt to ask the lfs what they keep their tanks at. Many keep it way below normal level, usually around 1.020, to ward off disease. This could have been the cause, but not sure. Try it again, and keep us posted. Good luck.

 

[stumpyfish]

Originally Posted by redx113
the only thing that i would of concidered weird would be that the fish would hide behind a live rock, turn his head towards the back of my tank *a mirrored back*, open his mouth, then turn it back to normal and hide again, and repeat the process for awhile.
My royal gramma does this from time to time. With the mirrored back and the venue change...depending on your acclimation, I'd be tempted to think stress might be the culprit here. I always do the drip acclimation and then introduce the fish into the tank and leave the lights off for the first 24 hours, havent lost one yet that way(knock on wood)

 

[redx113]

well thank you i'll be sure to do that, i just recently got a long tentacle anenome because of my two clown fish. The first small tank i had, i tried putting an anenome in it and it died within a week or so becuase of horrible water conditions, small tank + lots of fish = ammonia / nitrites / dead everything lol. but now with the bigger tank its working out very nicely, i just changed the entire eclipse hood on my eclipse 37 gallon the other day. i took off hood, put in a new filter new lighting and a power head, waiting for protein skimmer to come from ***********. so far anenome looks very healthy. thanks for the help guys, im pretty sure the acclimation was the cause because all of my other stuff i do the normal procedures, but i let my girlfriend "acclimate" this fish while i left for work...