Well, Nuts!

[Ed]

Lost my Niger Trigger today. :(

Everyone loses fish from time to time, but I've had this guy for more than two years and it really sucks losing him. Worse yet, I have no idea what killed him.

I Knew something was wrong this a.m. when he had wedged himself sideways between a rock and the internal overflow box. No visual signs of trauma, no ich, no fungus, just something not right. His breathing was slightly accelerated, but not absurdly fast and he was showing no other signs of stress. The other fish in the tank were all behaving normally. Water parameters were fine. I moved the rock he was wedged against to try and get a better look at him, but he just went further into hiding. When I found him later, he was dead and bloated. One red circular scrape 2-3 mm below the dorsal and no other wounds or sign of parasites.

I really hate losing fish.

-Ed

[christerrell2k3]

sorry to hear of your loss

[Instar]

Really sorry to hear about that. He must have been pretty big?
Maybe got ahold of a piece of spoiled food or something poisonous? Or rammed by a venomous fish?
Softies in that tank as in spaghetti leathers?

[Ed]

Thanks.

Larry,

He was probably 4 to 5 inches nose to tail. The picture of health until today.

Other fish in the tank include: Blue Throat Trigger, large Blue Surgeon, Powder Blue Surgeon, large Clarkii clown, 2 large Chromis, Blue Devil Damsel, 2 adult Engineer Gobies, and a Fairy Wrasse. All of them appear to be fine.

I do have a Sinularia. What are you thinking?

[CD]

Ed-
So sorry that you lost your Niger :(
They are such beautiful fish too...obviously it wasn't any of it's tankmates. What other kinds of corals do you have?

Wendy

[Ed]

Thanks Wendy,

As far as corals, mostly softies. Three Sarcos, A Lobo, A Sinularia, three Frogspawn, Zoos, Palythoa, Xenia, GSPs, encrusting Gorgonian, Blastomussa, Ricordia, open Brain, Rhodactis, etc.

[RobertG]

Wow Ed , that really bites. Sometimes things just cant be explained. I have lost many fish for no reasons before. None that I had over months, I would think something had to cause the scuff on him there.

I hope everything else goes well.

BTW, Thanks for trusting me with your sisters new Scion. I hope she is very satisfied.

[Ed]

Wow Ed , that really bites. Sometimes things just cant be explained. I have lost many fish for no reasons before. None that I had over months, I would think something had to cause the scuff on him there.

I hope everything else goes well.

Thanks Robert.

Don't know whether he gouged himself wedging in the rocks or if something else caused it. It was a shock to see him go from seemingly healthy to gone literally in a matter of hours.



BTW, Thanks for trusting me with your sisters new Scion. I hope she is very satisfied.

No problem. Knew you would do good work. ;)
My sister said it looked great.

[Polkster13]

Man that really bites. Sorry for your loss.

I see you are in Cedar Park. I live in Lago. If you ever need anything, just let me know.

[Instar]

Three Sarcos, A Lobo, A Sinularia, three Frogspawn, Zoos, Palythoa

Ed - of all those the Sinularia and palythoa can be very toxic. It takes water changes and carbon to get rid of the Sarco toxins as well as the sinularia and palytoxin. Sinularia can build up fast in a tank when it grows large. I would do some extra water purification to be safe. It would only take a little bit extra toxin to kill some of those fish. If the trigger bit a palythoa hard accidently while going for a meal, that could do it. there are also things that live in caves inside the live rock that are nocturnal. If you had one of those death trap type anemones in there, just a brush with it would kill a fish. There can be lots of reasons for fish loss like that. Grocery store foods may have preservatives and/or be spoiled, a bacterial infection or virus. One thing people go do is buy a bag of frozen sea foods at the sea food deli section that is a mix of stuff. That stuff gets frozen after its exceeded its life as fresh sea food. If one thing in there was to turn, it would spoil the whole mix. Something like that, sea food, shrimp, etc thats been thawed for too long will kill as will a dead clam or mussel if it was not noticed it was dead. All the foods must be reasonably fresh and/or live. In regard to the trigger I have no idea what you fed him. Larger shrimp can have a pretty good sharp head spine. I always recommend breaking that spine off for safety. At 5 inches, thats getting to be a real eating machine and pretty much can become a rascal in the tank. It may have just bitten somethig it shouldn't have while playing around. The one other thing that gets them seems to be if they feel cramped for swimming space. If and when that happens, they'll die on you in a short time. I'm thinking thats not likely in a 180 for a 5 inch trigger though. Sight unseen, my best guess is the most likely thing is a build up of toxin from a softie in your tank.

[Ed]

Thanks for the ideas Larry. Don't think it was the food, but you make a very good point about spoilage. I am careful about that. Already planned a water change today just to be safe. I run carbon most of the time because of the toxins you mentioned. My best guess was some sort of poisoning as well. That might better explain the rapid demise of this normally hardy fish.

[MikeP]

Sorry to hear about that Ed. My niger was one of my favorites - I lost mine to jumping believe it or not.

[Jenn]

Sorry to hear about this Ed.