Unresolved Orange Tail Damsel mysterious death

Hi everyone..

i am referring to the damsel from this thread http://www.3reef.com/forums/asap/orang-tail-damsel-missing-77811.html

I went outstation yesterday and my cousin was taking care of the tank for me. Before i left, i noticed the damsel hiding at his cave , looking lethargic and his fins were not flapping. Breathing looked kinda laboured but i'm not sure if it's over 82 respiration per minute. I'm pretty sure he was swimming around the day before.

Today, i came back and saw a big crab munching on what's left of my dead fish. just a quater inch of white meat left. I've had the fish for 2 months and it's always been very healthy. The fish is over 2.5 inches which i believe is the maximum size for it.. My question is, How did the fish die? I've never seen it showing any signs of disease. Could it be old age? or cyanide poisoning?

p.s I believe it died yesterday night.

Here's a picture of my damsel.. RIP

 

if it was full size when u got him then he may have been an adult for a long time and just expired...thats why i always try to buy my fish smaller, so i know they have a full life ahead of them. If all ur params were good, then i would say probably old age.

 

I think I agree. your params look really good so I think it was just a health issue with that specific fish! It happens to the best of us my friend, at least it was a damsel and not a more expensive fish. I have lost many fish without explanation. I once bought a blue hippo tang paid like 90.00 for it and lost it in about a week. I was new to the hobby so I didn't know any better about bacteria and the nitrogen cycle. I threw him in a brand new uncycled tank. he lasted a little over a week. cause of death? Today I'd probably blame it on the fact the the tank wasn't established but it well could have been that the fish wasn't healthy... today I QT all new specimens for little over 3-4 weeks b4 I put them in my main tank.. Good luck on ur future endeavours

 

same thing happened to me, I had a flame angel for almost two years, never had a disease, lived a healthy life, then one day I came home from school and he wasn't swimming around, I couldn't find him. Then I found a hermit crab munching on him. It was a mysterious death, still don't know what happened to him.

 

Sorry to hear you lost him. It's always hard. I think it was just something that happened to that fish, because your tank seems healthy. Don't let it get you down!

 

Yeah, i had a yellow tail dissapear without a trace! Was only maybe a week old, didn't have any crabs in the tank yet (brand new) and he just vanished. I even took out all my rock looking for him and never found him. Maybe aliens abducted him!
Then about 3 weeks ago i lost a Domino damsel we let my daughter pick out; been in the tank for about 5-6 weeks, was getting along with everyone and then just poof. Found him 1/2 eatin one night. Seemed to be doin good but oh well...