Royal Gramma Strange Death

My Wife's Gramma tried to drill himself into our DSB
She was watching the tank, all was fine.
Then it went to the top of the tank and dove straight down into the sand bed digging like crazy.

She dug it out but it's mouth was wide open and fish was packed with sand.
We had him for a couple of weeks. Any Ideas on what happened.

I've been fighting Nitrate and slight Phosphate problem, could that be the cause. Nothing else is acting weird.

Thanks

 

That's strange.

So, the fish was frantically trying to bury itself into the sand so much that it ended up choking on it?

What are the nitrate levels? Nitrates at high levels can certainly lead to problems with the fish.

Sorry about your loss...seems like a freak incident.

 

Yep, Nitrates are real high 80 ppm +
I finished my refugium a week ago, added some sea grass & red something from LFS, they don't have much on Macros.
Also and did water change but it hasn't come down much yet.
I ordered some chaeto off ebay. so I'll wait a few weeks and see if Macros start eating the nitrates before I go shopping for replacements

100 gal main up about 8 months / 20 gal refug. running about a week.

 

Hmmm After 8 months the nitrate levels shouldnt be that high. Tough to say whats causing it. Maybe over feeding, somthing dead in the tank. Are you using bio-balls? Those can somtimes cause excess nitrates in a tank.

 

That is a strange way for a gramma to go. I had one for almost 3 years that suddenly passed away last week, no idea why.

 

I can't keep them alive for anything! They are quite shy and skiddish and are jumpers... A beautiful fish for a reef tank and not as aggressive as Pseudochromis' but they never survive for me in my 125!
Sorry for the death of your...

 

Condolonces- but you are doinig the right thing not adding anymore fish until your nitrates are 0!