Warning: This post is longer than it needs to be, but I'm very upset right now, and just need to tell the story. Skip to the bottom if you don't want to read about me. And just want to help me understand what happened to the fish.
So, you may notice if you look at my post history that I haven't really been on Reefcentral in about a year. Things have been really busy, and I've just been "maintaining" my tank. I got pretty frustrated with some issues I had, and got really lazy about maintenance/testing/etc. The fish that are currently in my tank have done well (only 1 death, and it died the same time as my anemone, so I think something happened there), but the tank is definitely not at its bio-capacity.
A couple of months ago, my wife asked when I was going to get more fish, and I decided it was about time I got my act together. I did a very good cleaning on the tank, did some maintenance that was past due, and ran a test series (at that point it had been about 2 months since a water change and a month since I ran any tests). Shame on me but, out of pure luck, everything tested fairly well. A little high on nitrate (as my tank has always been) and a little low on calcium, but otherwise pretty good. So, I decided to order some fish. I did a good waterchange, and got on the internet.
I went with a Pearlscale Butterfly and a Foxface Rabbitfish and ordered them from BlueZooAquatics (have always had really good luck with them). I set up my standard quarantine with water from my main tank, and got a bottle of Tetra Safestart Plus from my local store (I have always used Tim's, but this was available). The day before the fish arrived, I added the Safestart. The quarantine had been set up about 4 days.
Fish looked really healthy upon first inspection, and were fairly lively. The Foxface gave me a scare when it turned grey that first night and was under one of the PVC pipes completely still, but I startled it and he ran. Apparently, that is normal for a Foxface. I fed them the next day, and they tasted it, but didn't seem to love the food (frozen mysis and some pellet food). This has happened with all of my past fish in quarantine, so I didn't think much of it. In further feedings, they seemed to eat a bit, but not as much as I would have liked.
Fast forward just about 30 days. They were doing fairly well as far as I could tell, though the foxface still hid a lot.
I found the foxface dead on day 31. One of my 2-year olds, who had taken to calling him "Bunny" cried. Naturally, that made me feel pretty awful. At the time I made the assumption that he had either had a disease or starved to death, but I decided to reset the clock on the quarantine anyway, just to be safe.
2 days later, I found the butterfly dead in the afternoon. I had just checked on him a few hours before, and he was in one of the PVC pipes looking ok and his fins were moving well. When the kids get home from daycare, it is going to be an ugly scene. "White" won't be there to greet them (hey, they are 2...that is as creative as it gets).
I had an ammonia badge on the tank, and it was still yellow, so I didn't think that was it. I did the basic tests and found that nitrites (1.0) and nitrates (15) were a bit high, but nothing that should kill fish. Ammonia was about 0.2, which I don't think should be a problem either. I had planned on doing a water change this weekend, since the badge was just starting to turn green.
I examined the Butterfly a bit closer, and the only thing I could find was some "bruising" around its front fins. See the pic:
So, bottom line, I don't know what killed these fish. How do you tell if a fish has starved? What are the marks by the fins? Am I wrong about the water? Were those readings something that would kill a fish?
Appreciate any help.
So, you may notice if you look at my post history that I haven't really been on Reefcentral in about a year. Things have been really busy, and I've just been "maintaining" my tank. I got pretty frustrated with some issues I had, and got really lazy about maintenance/testing/etc. The fish that are currently in my tank have done well (only 1 death, and it died the same time as my anemone, so I think something happened there), but the tank is definitely not at its bio-capacity.
A couple of months ago, my wife asked when I was going to get more fish, and I decided it was about time I got my act together. I did a very good cleaning on the tank, did some maintenance that was past due, and ran a test series (at that point it had been about 2 months since a water change and a month since I ran any tests). Shame on me but, out of pure luck, everything tested fairly well. A little high on nitrate (as my tank has always been) and a little low on calcium, but otherwise pretty good. So, I decided to order some fish. I did a good waterchange, and got on the internet.
I went with a Pearlscale Butterfly and a Foxface Rabbitfish and ordered them from BlueZooAquatics (have always had really good luck with them). I set up my standard quarantine with water from my main tank, and got a bottle of Tetra Safestart Plus from my local store (I have always used Tim's, but this was available). The day before the fish arrived, I added the Safestart. The quarantine had been set up about 4 days.
Fish looked really healthy upon first inspection, and were fairly lively. The Foxface gave me a scare when it turned grey that first night and was under one of the PVC pipes completely still, but I startled it and he ran. Apparently, that is normal for a Foxface. I fed them the next day, and they tasted it, but didn't seem to love the food (frozen mysis and some pellet food). This has happened with all of my past fish in quarantine, so I didn't think much of it. In further feedings, they seemed to eat a bit, but not as much as I would have liked.
Fast forward just about 30 days. They were doing fairly well as far as I could tell, though the foxface still hid a lot.
I found the foxface dead on day 31. One of my 2-year olds, who had taken to calling him "Bunny" cried. Naturally, that made me feel pretty awful. At the time I made the assumption that he had either had a disease or starved to death, but I decided to reset the clock on the quarantine anyway, just to be safe.
2 days later, I found the butterfly dead in the afternoon. I had just checked on him a few hours before, and he was in one of the PVC pipes looking ok and his fins were moving well. When the kids get home from daycare, it is going to be an ugly scene. "White" won't be there to greet them (hey, they are 2...that is as creative as it gets).
I had an ammonia badge on the tank, and it was still yellow, so I didn't think that was it. I did the basic tests and found that nitrites (1.0) and nitrates (15) were a bit high, but nothing that should kill fish. Ammonia was about 0.2, which I don't think should be a problem either. I had planned on doing a water change this weekend, since the badge was just starting to turn green.
I examined the Butterfly a bit closer, and the only thing I could find was some "bruising" around its front fins. See the pic:
So, bottom line, I don't know what killed these fish. How do you tell if a fish has starved? What are the marks by the fins? Am I wrong about the water? Were those readings something that would kill a fish?
Appreciate any help.
