3 Deaths and a Recovery

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7 May 2007
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Die Wilgers, Pretoria
I recently lost a 6-line wrasse, Regal Tang and Mandarin in two days (6-line body not found). I don't know the reason. I didn't change anything in the tank. I searched for my Tomato Clown female, as she was nowhere in sight, and I found her head-down (belly to the top), wedged between rocks, badly damaged, but still alive. I freed her and she proceeded to swim into "hiding places" between rocks, and was pretty disorientated.

I thought my breeding pair was no more :cry: She had some serious gashes on her skin, and some kind of "disease" on her head. Pic:

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So, I took her down to the sump, and kept an eye on her so that I could at least take out the body if she died. The next day she was much more orientated, and alert - she reacted to my movements. The next day she was even better, and she ate when I fed her. I gave her a freshwater dip for 12 minutes. Two more days of feeding and the "disease" starting to look better, and I placed her back into the main tank late yesterday, just before lights-out. She was very energetic when I tried to catch her, jumping out of the water to get away, etc. So, she was heavily breathing when I got her into the tank, but got better - at least she was not lethargic.

The male immediately swam towards her and turned sideways, greeting her. My Coral Beauty harassed her a bit, but I fed the tank and afterwards there didn't seem to be hostilities any more. This morning, the pair was together around their "home area" again, like before. How glad I was! Pic of the "disease" and scratches before I put her back in:

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I Still don't know why the other fish died, but all the other fish looks healthy ...

Any idea what the "disease" is?
 
good to hear of the recovery.. its heartwarming, have you tested water since? interested to know what happened... good nursing skills there dude...
 
Sorry to hear man, how long is your tank running now?
 
Tank has been running for 3 years, then a rescape a whole bunch of months ago. 700 liters, very light bioload, so I'm not expecting great changes quickly unless something from outside gets in ... only problem is some algae.
 
OK, so you have a nice mature tank ;), give a list of all the live stock so we can play detective and find out who could've killed your fish.
 
Yes, the tank was mature - enough critters for the 6-line and the mandarin (I even fattened up a second, malnourished, hope-to-be-female mandarin in there until "she" recovered so much that her "spike" grew back and my resident male didn't like another male in the tank and I sold the second one).

The only other inhabitants are the Tomato Clown male, Coral Beauty and 2 Firefish gobies. Also about 5 to 15 small hermits and snails. Some shrooms, 4 or 5 very small pieces of random corals. So, I don't suspect any 'predatory behaviour'.
 
Hi ABG - investigate "hole in the head" disease..... this might be something similar to that. Did that other fish that died also have similar markings?

Sorry to hear about your losses - and I am VERY glad that you were able to nurse your female tomato clown back to health.....
 
Nope, the other two fish didn't have any such markings. She's doing just fine, by the way, the ugly scars are healing up ... She better get back to full health, as Im going to be moving next month - more stress ...
 
Maybe she lost all her marbles because of this "hole in her head" and killed the other fish? ... or maybe her hubby was jealous, killed the other 2 and spanked her? :whistling:

I know that tomato's can be very aggressive ;)
 
Then again, maybe not :whistling: I doubt a clown will be able to keep up with a regal tang or sixline wrasse in order to kill them. The only occasional, slight signs of hostilities are between the clown and the coral beauty.
 
I had a hitchhiker crab previously, but took him out. No crabs except hermits in there now. I did only search for the six-line when "Dory" & Mandarin was found dead, so it could have had a day or two to disintegrate.

Anyway, "Mamma Nemo" is looking much better - she has an ugly scar which she'll be self-concious about during all reef meetings from now on, but hey, she's alive.
 
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