My fish keep dying.

I thought that was the brittle serpents.. he's not a brittle star. I just really don't think its him.. He lives in the cave with my fire shrimp and they have no problems.. I would think he could eat him if he could get the blenny.

 

Voltage will travel through the water in your plumbing from your sump to your display tank. Also, lighting will cause stray voltage, even though no part of it is in the water. (weird I know, don't ask how, I'm not an electrician)

Do the fish seems to die sporadically or all at one time? Do they seem to die after a water change? During the middle of the night? During the middle of the day?

It's kinda like a murder mystery. Any little piece of info will help. If your parameters really are what you say they are then I'm even more convinced of something like stray voltage.

 

I could go get it tested at he LFS maybe my test kits are old or something.. I don't really know, they should be fine.. I haven't had anything die at all until about two weeks ago.. I added the yellow coris wrasse and a cleaner shrimp which was weird because I never saw him again after I added him then maybe... a week and a half or so later they coris wrasse died when i woke up in the morning he was still alive but barley then within ten minutes he died... I added the blenny on the 15th and yesterday when I got home he wasn't in sight.. today. still havent seen him pretty sure he's gone.

 

I would seriously check for stray voltage, even if only to rule out the possibility.

Having the LFS double check your parameters wouldn't be a bad idea, but take any advice they give you with a grain of salt. I'd be a rich guy if I had a nickel for every time the LFS gave me erroneous info.

 

Chilling all day doesn't mean much. They are known to stalk fish at night. I'd remove the serpent and see if you have anymore deaths. Also, follow through on checking all parameters, stray voltage, and correcting them if need be.

Old old is your tank?

How much LR?

Filtration used?

 

I can not tell how many times, people emphatically deny that it's the serpent start that is responsible for at least a few deaths, only to put the serpent start in the sump and the mysterious death rate take a sharp decline.

You can feed the serpent star until the cow come home, but at night he will start to forge for food regardless. Once they get a sleeping fish, it becomes a learned behavior. They can also chase fish and increase the risk of jumping.

It may not be the case in your tank, but worth looking into and rehousing the serpent to the sump for a couple months.

Only after I removed mine did I see a decrease in mysterious fish loss and deaths.

 

I first thought of him, but in my head I guess I ruled it out because the coris wrasse was still alive and dying when I found him, and he was on the other side of the tank, BUT he did sleep on the side where the serpent is.. I just thought the brittle were the pure evil ones. I have PLENTY of Live rock.. and the blenny slept in it little cave up on top of a rock like a little tunnel so thats why I didn't think he got him but I really don't have any other explanations...

Looks like I will be putting him into the sump.. was yours a brittle serpent star?? regardless of it was him or not I will just put him in the sump to stop taking chances. If my clown goby eats eaten I will die a little inside.. and he's a smaller fish so better safe than sorry. That makes sense that they would continue getting fish at night once they do it once.. bummer I liked him !

 

I have had issues with orange serpent stars, green serpent stars, and banded serpent stars, do basically I do not trust them any longer.

They are a curiosity for the first couple years because of the great coloration, feisty nature with which they eat. Once they start to get large and climbing all over the corals at night, eating sleeping fish they are just not as cool as you once thought.

They are on the list that everyone one want to try, right along with abalone, cat sharks, large hermits, horse shoe crabs..... on and on and on.

At least you have a sump to ban him to and still see him and feed him.

 

True, he is in there now... along with many hermits.. I hate hermit crabs they are just annoying. I will try to find him a better home most likely but he should be okay in the sump.. I didn't see him all that much anyway just his little legs. They are officially off my list now. I reallllly liked that little tailspot blenny.