Weird thing found after fish death

[Jarred Darque]

OK, I posted a thread in the nano forum a week or so ago, I had a nitrate spike that killed 1 of my o. clowns. I was able to lower the nitrate some with dailt water changes, but teh second clown start looking ill this morning. I hadnt seen him in a couple of hours, so I tore apart the tank to look for him.

I went through every single peice of live rock, didnt find him, he wasnt in the tank. I grabbed a flashlight, started looking deep into the holesinthe live rock. I found him, dead.

BUT, covering all of him except his head was an invert of some type. I was mostly purple with a textured appearance to it, and when I say it was over the clown, I mean, that it looked like a film or something that was growing on the clown, it was attatched at teh back of the clwon, and the the bottom and top of the fish, attatched to the rock, it was apparantly eating/digesting the fish somehow...very confusing, and sorry I cannot get a pick.

Any ideas of some type of sponge looking invert thing that can bascially 'swallow' a small fish?


On edit. After I foundit, I put all teh rock, and this piece, back in the tank. ( he was in a very deep hole in the rock) then I got the stuff to take him out, pulled the rock back out, and the purple thing was gone, no longer covering the clown

I dug the clown out, and he has been dissovled so much he is almost liquified, the only thing remiang in the head and a littlebit of the body beind it, which I guess was next The only distuinguishable thing left of the fish is the color and the empty eyesockets

BTW this piece of rock was a haven for hitchikers. It came with a few orange ball anenomes, about 6 sponges (at least) thre are about a dozen on this one 5 lb piece now, a anemone crab, and some other unidentifed inverts.

 

[Sadielynn]

I would say it was another hitch hiker I would remove that rock and QT that piece of rock to see what it was . Ball anenomes if the right size and the fish small could eat it ... I would say there is something in there that you cant see eating and injuring your fish... While QT the LR I would say drop some food like shrimp or mysis in to see if you can lure out what it is in there . Also use caution and tongs if possible so that if it is a mantis or such in there your hands remain safe ....

 

[Steven Pro]

OK, I posted a thread in the nano forum a week or so ago, I had a nitrate spike that killed 1 of my o. clowns. I was able to lower the nitrate some with dailt water changes, but teh second clown start looking ill this morning. I hadnt seen him in a couple of hours, so I tore apart the tank to look for him.

Nitrate concentrations have to be exceptionally high to cause mortalities. I know of one study that experienced 50% mortality in Beau Gregory damsels once the nitrate concentration reached 2,400 mg/l. I know of a second study that showed that ocellaris clownfish had a slower growth rate when exposed to 100 mg/l nitrate, but that did not kill them. I would look for other causes.

I found him, dead.

BUT, covering all of him except his head was an invert of some type. I was mostly purple with a textured appearance to it, and when I say it was over the clown, I mean, that it looked like a film or something that was growing on the clown, it was attatched at teh back of the clwon, and the the bottom and top of the fish, attatched to the rock, it was apparantly eating/digesting the fish somehow...very confusing, and sorry I cannot get a pick.

Any ideas of some type of sponge looking invert thing that can bascially 'swallow' a small fish?

On edit. After I foundit, I put all teh rock, and this piece, back in the tank. ( he was in a very deep hole in the rock) then I got the stuff to take him out, pulled the rock back out, and the purple thing was gone, no longer covering the clown

I dug the clown out, and he has been dissovled so much he is almost liquified, the only thing remiang in the head and a littlebit of the body beind it, which I guess was next The only distuinguishable thing left of the fish is the color and the empty eyesockets

BTW this piece of rock was a haven for hitchikers. It came with a few orange ball anenomes, about 6 sponges (at least) thre are about a dozen on this one 5 lb piece now, a anemone crab, and some other unidentifed inverts.

There are a wide variety of things (bacteria, fungus, protozoans, crustaceans, etc.) that attack dead fish, but I doubt what you saw cause the death.

 

[Jarred Darque]

I dont think wha tI saw was the cuase of death (BTW< my nitrates where over 50ppm when I lost the first o. clown, like I sid, I had a major spike, 50ppm is off the charts)

The 'thing' was a decent size, it was at least 1.5 inches across, so it was some form of higher life form, multicell organism, and from the looks of it, mobile as well.

I dont know that QTing would do anything, but I will try that.

When I say this thing was tryin to swallow it, or that is what it looked like,
Not the type where an anemone or mushroom grabs food and brings it to its mout, this looked more like laying the fish on the counter, than covering it with some colored saran wrap

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

... (BTW< my nitrates where over 50ppm when I lost the first o. clown, like I sid, I had a major spike, 50ppm is off the charts)

No... it's not. Are you sure you're not taking about nitrItes? While 50ppm nitrAtes isn't healthy, it won't kill fish.

I dont know that QTing would do anything, but I will try that.

It will at least get it out of your main tank, and I think that was the point trying to be made. Sounds like it was just an opportunistic "thing" drawn to rotting flesh, and like you said wasn't the cause of death.

Edit: I remember your nano post now... you had something like 0.15ppm ammonia also - that was probably your cause of death, not the nitrates.

 

[Jarred Darque]

nitrAtes NO3, it was OVER 50ppm. I could not tell how high, seeing as how it was off the chart.

The ammonia was due to the food I had just fed, I have tested it many times since, and never red any ammonia, have tested it right after feeding and always .1-.15 for about 30 minutes

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sorry... I understand what you mean now. I didn't realize there were nitrate tests out there that maxed out at 50ppm. AP tests max out at 160 if you're looking for something with a little higher range.

 

[Jarred Darque]

I can get mine to go higher, but it is done by diluting the tank water with distilled in a 1:4 tank/distilled ration, this brings it up to testing 250ppm, but I didnt have any distilled water.

 

[Agnate80700]

Jarred, what brand test are you using? Im curious as my tests chart maxes at 120ppm

And for what its worth, my room mate had a maroon clown in a 29gal tank for 3 months including 2 other fish deaths+full decay without any water change or addition, nor skimming or live rock, and it is still alive and well (hes now in my well cared for tank.) I cant even begin to imagine the insane ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings that poor little critter had to live through.

 

[Jarred Darque]

I will check when I get back home, I am on vacation atm, hmm let me look online, I can recognize the package, is blue Saltwater MAster Tst Kit, dont know the brand name though. I think Red Sea is the brand

 

[Jarred Darque]

BTW< the mysterious creature was a sea slug of some form, when I dissembled the tank I found one...a small one...not the one I saw and brought it to the LFS, this thing was a survivor. by the time I got around to disassembling the tank, after turning off all filters, PHs, etc, the salinity was over 1.35, nitrates over a couple hundred and this guy was still alive...pretty amazing.