Can Aiptasia sting kill a small fish?

[james-lee]

So something weird just happened. Was looking around the tank with the phone flashlight for the heck’s and I saw one of my yellow lemon Damselfishes swimming in terror in the right top corner of the tank (it’s usual sleeping spot) so I backed away from that slot as not to startle it anymore. Came back to that spot a again a few minutes later and I find him laying on its side on top my leather coral. Wth happened? Water parameters are all good other than dkh of 11.5 (just checked yesterday afternoon). I do have a some Aiptasia that came with the leather but in all my years I don’t remember seeing an Aiptasia killing a fish. Also I’ve had this fish for about 2 years now. Any ideas? I mean he couldn’t have gotten so startled he bumped his head in a rock and killed himself could he?

 

[james-lee]

Fml yup he dead now. You know the one thing I hate about this hobby is the unknown deaths. Simply for the fact that if I can’t identify the cause I can’t rectify the issue and potentially save my other fish. I’ll check my pH right now as that’s the only thing I can think of that would swing at night.

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

Could have been a disease... or a heart attack based on the stress you described.

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[james-lee]

Could have been a disease... or a heart attack based on the stress you described.

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Hey Ev’e long time man! Well if that’s the case I need to fight the temptation of looking at the tank at night.

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

Good to see you're back and not too far from me.

There was an issue already, probably health related with the fish. What ever the issue was it put a lot of stress on the fish. Aptasia cannot take down a healthy fish. The can sting but not kill unless the fish is weakened due to an illness. At least that has been my experience.

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[james-lee]

Yeah I was trying to be funny with my last post lol. Well I did end up getting ich somewhere (all my original tank inhabitants were ich free) so probably that’s it. I did finally pick up the jbj 28 from my ex so I’ll be using that as a quarantine/treatment tank. Just never lost any other type of fish tonich other than a few tangs back in the day. Hey let me know if you have any corals to sell since you are way closer now lol.