ADreef
02/28/2006, 12:00 PM
Posting this to see if anyone has any ideas about this. I have a 29 gallon tank with live rock, a few corals (zenia, zoos, muchrooms, yellow polyps), the usual snails and hermits, and until yesterday, a bi-color blenny and a Kole tang.
The tank has been running for several years, and the fish had been in there for most of that time. The blenny has been looking pretty skinny for many many months, but has been acting healthy (eating well, etc.). The tang had always been active and a healthy eater. All of a sudden (like overnight), the tang was dead and the blenny was staying in his hole and breathing heavily. That was yesterday. Today the blenny was dead.
I pretty lazy about testing the water, but I do fairly regular water changes. Everything else in the tank looks OK - no change at all in the appearance of any of the corals, snails, or crabs. The only recent change I have made is that I added a peppermint shrimp and an emerald crab (a small one) about 9 days ago.
Is it possible for a crab or shrimp to carry something bad from the LFS into my tank - something that would all-of-a-sudden kill two healthy fish after a week? Maybe the skinny blenny was really in a weakened state that allowed him to catch something that he then transfered to the tang (except the tang was healthier and died first).
Those were the only two fish in the tank. I am tempted to buy a cheap damsel or something to put in there and see if it catches something.
As far as a hidden predator goes...I have wondered about that since I can't ever seem to keep peppermint shrimp (Aiptasia control) in there for very long. However, if there is something like that in there, it would have had to have been in there for a long time now - like two years or so. Other than the occasional shrimp, nothing else has mysteriously disappeared and no fish have ever shown any wounds from being attacked.
If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or related experiences to share I would love to hear them.
Thanks.
The tank has been running for several years, and the fish had been in there for most of that time. The blenny has been looking pretty skinny for many many months, but has been acting healthy (eating well, etc.). The tang had always been active and a healthy eater. All of a sudden (like overnight), the tang was dead and the blenny was staying in his hole and breathing heavily. That was yesterday. Today the blenny was dead.
I pretty lazy about testing the water, but I do fairly regular water changes. Everything else in the tank looks OK - no change at all in the appearance of any of the corals, snails, or crabs. The only recent change I have made is that I added a peppermint shrimp and an emerald crab (a small one) about 9 days ago.
Is it possible for a crab or shrimp to carry something bad from the LFS into my tank - something that would all-of-a-sudden kill two healthy fish after a week? Maybe the skinny blenny was really in a weakened state that allowed him to catch something that he then transfered to the tang (except the tang was healthier and died first).
Those were the only two fish in the tank. I am tempted to buy a cheap damsel or something to put in there and see if it catches something.
As far as a hidden predator goes...I have wondered about that since I can't ever seem to keep peppermint shrimp (Aiptasia control) in there for very long. However, if there is something like that in there, it would have had to have been in there for a long time now - like two years or so. Other than the occasional shrimp, nothing else has mysteriously disappeared and no fish have ever shown any wounds from being attacked.
If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or related experiences to share I would love to hear them.
Thanks.