What happened?!?!?!?

[flame_angel11]

I woke up this morning and I found my Flame Angel dead
I don't know what happened.

It was perfectly fine yesterday, swimming around, eating, grazing on the algae, ect ect.

The only thing that I can think of, is yesterday I bought an iodine supplement for my coral and put the first dosege in, would this have done it? It is a 'red sea' supplement by the way.

The other fish (1 dusky wrasse, and 2 ocellaris clownfish) seem fine.
The corals are mostly softies.

I will have some test results up shortly.

Thankyou.

[leebca]

WELCOME TO REEFLAND!

Sorry to hear the news. The cause of a 'sudden death' is sometimes a mystery despite efforts to figure out what happened. You're on the right track, however.

Test water for everything you can, including the iodine. Test your source water for contamination, also. Review any changes you've made recently; any additions to aquarium you've made (tank mate issues) recently; etc.

In general, iodine is a poison. But if added according to the directions on the bottle, it should not pose a problem to fishes. You want to make additions (like iodine) only if you are measuring it and find that some is needed.

We may be able to help find possible causes, but the real cause may never be found. To begin the investigation, we'd need a lot of information. It's up to you -- the more thorough and complete the information, the more likely a stress may be found. Still even after the most thorough of responses, there is never any assurance that you'll ever know.

Some information in detail to share with us includes:
How old is your tank? When did it originally cycle?
What is the size of your aquarium? Does this include the volume from the sump and any refugium?
Do you use carbon, skimmer, mechanical or other chemical filtration?.
List all specimens & sizes in the tank (fish, inverts, corals, clams, snails, crabs, shrimp, etc.).
Do you use a quarantine tank and procedure?
Foods you use and feeding schedules.
How long have you had this fish? If the fish was recently acquired (4 weeks), two more questions: Did you treat it or give it a dip before it went into the aquarium? How did you acclimate it – what procedure?
Do you use any vitamins? Fat additives? Any elemental or other additives? Please list all.
Chemistries – please give actual current numbers (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Iodine, and Phosphate at least. Plus others you have done lately). Have these numbers been changing lately?
Water parameters – please give actual numbers (pH and your pH range, salinity or sp. gr. & range, temperature range)
Do you see any of the following in your system: hair algae; micro algae; cyanobacteria growths (red slime algae); dinoflagellate (zooxanthellae) growths; brown algae; diatom growth; slimes; off-colored patches on rock or substrate that are not coralline; etc.?
Water changes (how much and how often).
What is your source water? (Tap water, RO water, DI water, RO/DI, distilled, etc.)
List what you added or taken out of your aquarium system (living, decorations, and equipment) during the past 6 weeks (or 6 weeks before you saw this in your fish)..
Maintenance schedule. What have you done lately? Any maintenance overdue?

[flame_angel11]

The tank is about 1 year old, it started cycling this time last year.
The aquarium is 75 x 35 x 45 cm. No sump or refugium.
I use carbon, was using a DIY skimmer at the time (I took it out as it wasn't really doing anything) and I am using mechanical filtration ('Atman 881' internal filter and a UGF)
The flame angel was about 5cm, there is a dusky wrasse (6cm) and 2 ocellaris clownifish (3cm). A few soft corals (toadstool leather coral, button polyps) 1 brain coral. A few small crabs, bristle worms, varouis pods that came with live rock and coral.
No quantine tank.
Feed krill pellets every other day, nori once a week, occasionaly bloodworms, coral liquid feed once a week. The flame angel also eats a lot of algae (being a grazer and all...)
I have had the fish for 6 months.
Only addatives is the 'red sea' liquid coral/filter feeders food. As I already stated, I put the forst doesage of the 'Red Sea' idione supplement.
Arrr, heaps of my test kits have run out, but heres what I've got:
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate- very low(maybe 1 or 2 ppm)
ph-8.2
Haven' been changing lately, ph might have dropped a tiny bit, did a water change last night.
Salinity- 1.026 (roughly)
Temperature: 25-28 C (when its really hot)
In my system: (I'm not too sure) hair algae, cyanobacteria growths, zooxanthellae? (on corals?), and some slime and a few off coloured patches.
Water changes: 20-30% every 3-4 weeks
Water source: tap water
I put in a fake anemone, then took it out a couple of weeks later.
Maintenance: Clean algae of front glass (I left the sides and back for my grazers), clean sponge in filter when changing water (i didn't last time because there was a lot of bristleworms, pods and other little critters living on it, should I have?), check parameters, temp, sg, ect., feeding...
No maintenance over due (that I can think of.....)
Thanks, hope this pretty much covers it...

[leebca]

Very comprehensive response.

I'd say there is an indication of organic build up in the system.

Cleaning out the sponge is generally a good idea. With the population of invertebrates in/on the sponge it shows water a bit rich in organics (along with the nuisance algae). You might want to get a store bought skimmer and use it.

Crabs may be suspect of attacking fishes now and then. The foods you're feeding or not optimal for the fish and I would classify it as a nutrient deficient diet. Over time you can expect the fish to weaken. Some fish get to the point where they begin nibbling on things they wouldn't in the wild. With a nutrient deficient diet, there is an increased chance the fish would 'sample different things' in the tank. It may have come across something that poisoned it.

I see no environmental/tank conditions which might account for any particular stress on the fish. Sometimes, the fish can't ultimately handle captivity. This is about all I can think of. When you check the iodine content, that will resolve that question.

[flame_angel11]

Hmm, ok, well thanks.
What do you reccomend to make their diet better?

[leebca]

Guidelines for feeding fishes are found here:
Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition

Generally, the process is to determine if you have a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore fish. Then breaking it down from there, their normal foods in the sea. Then providing a wide variety of the same during their captive life, PLUS fat and vitamin supplements. It's all in the above post.

Pellet foods usually contain wheat or flour products used to bind the pellet. If you read the ingredients, you'll see what's in the pellets. The question is, do marine fish eat wheat in the wild? Same with bloodworms. No marine fish has ever seen a bloodworm in its life until put into an aquarium. Bloodworms are a midge larvae from freshwater and they do not contain the right kinds of nutrients a marine fish needs to live a healthy life.

Our fishes will often eat whatever we put into the aquarium, but that doesn't mean it is the right food. The fishes need what they have evolved to eat, not what humans have decided is easy to feed them. ;;