Dead fish:

[shermanator]

My 55 gal DT leaked this week (thread elsewhere on what happened) and I ended up putting all of my LR and fish into two 20 gal tanks. One had been setup as a QT and housed a red sea mimic blenny and a purple tilefish.

I found the purple tilefish dead today and it looks like it has a bite taken out of it? He was doing great in QT (had been there 7 days prior to the DT leak), but was always hiding. Was eating, etc.

In the tank with the tilefish were three ORA black cardinal fish, a red sea mimic blenny, and a brittle star (fairly large, but has been peaceful that I have seen, brown), and a cleaner shrimp.

My QTs are cycled. No ammonia and no nitrites present this morning. SG is 1.025 this morning. I properly acclimated him upon arrival and seemed fine until I had to add other fish to the tank.

I attached some pictures. Does the wound look like a bite? Is it more likely that the cardinals did this or the brittle star or cleaner shrimp? I've been the cardinals chase my yellow assessor (when all were in the DT), but nothing this extreme.

Thanks for any thoughts on what might have happened.

[JoeVandal49]

doesnt look like a bite to me, just looks like a light color pattern around the anus. If thats what we are looking at talking about, but i dont know enough about the coloration of this species to say if it is normal patterning or not.

Someone will be a long shortly im sure.

[shermanator]

doesnt look like a bite to me, just looks like a light color pattern around the anus. If thats what we are looking at talking about, but i dont know enough about the coloration of this species to say if it is normal patterning or not.

Someone will be a long shortly im sure.

It didn't look like this before. The pictures don't look the greatest, but there is some flesh missing from the area (which yes, is right at the anus). And also what looks like a nibble (with skin missing) more down toward the tail (you can kind of see this in the second picture). Unfortunately I already flushed it, probably should have saved him for a better post mortem.

But I suppose this could have happened after the death (the bites) by the brittle star.

[JoeVandal49]

That was going to be my next comment. It is also very likely this happened after death and was not the cause of death.

The colorations seems to match the color under the eye and on the belly, so i was unsure if it was normal patterning.

SOmeone with more experience will be a long shortly.

[leewish]

The coroner will report it as a suspicious death.

I'm guessing it got stressed from everyone joining him in such a small tank and the. Someone taking a nibble.


That is my professional medical opinion but I'm not a doctor...I just stayed in a holiday inn.