bi-color angle died during TTM

[rBlair]

I saw a bi-color in the LFS early last week, had been in store for over a week and was eating and looked great. I bought it and left it there till Tuesday of this week.

Brought it home and put it into my TTM tub, no acclimation, matched sg and ph to water in bag (1.022). Thursday move it to the second tub, sg at 1.023. Looked fine Friday morning, ate, swimming normal. Friday night went to turn off the light and it was slowly swimming around with its head pointed up. No visual signs of illness, colors looked normal. I checked the water and ammonia was a little high, maybe .25, nitrites and nitrates 0.

tubs have small heater and air stone, 8 gal of water approx 5 inchs deep. using a float refractometer but I've had my water tested as LFS and their readings have been within .01 of mine

I had not started and treatments yet so it was in clean new water, dead this morning. Still looks normal.

Any suggestions on what I've done wrong? This is the second time I've lost fish in QT that were fine one day and dead the next.

thanks

 

[ThRoewer]

Ammonia, even if not at deadly levels, can weaken a fish and "burn" its gills and skin.
As a result parasites like velvet or brook can explode and overwhelm it quickly.
To me it sounds like what happened with your fish.

During TTM I would reduce feeding to a minimum to avoid ammonia issues.

I would also always start with a formalin bath to eliminate possibly present velvet, brook or uronema infections.

 

[mitchrapp]

Not sure your ammonia reading was correct. I don't think 1 bicolor can produce 0.25 ppm ammonia in 48 hours. I've done TTM on bicolor angels (and other fish as well) in 10 gal QTs and they never produce measurable ammonia within the 72 hour span. I don't dose prime either.

Bicolor angels are not very hardy. Many are caught with cyanide and are difficult to care for. When stressed, they start to hide and will starve themselves to death. Did you see it eating at the LFS when you picked it up or only when you purchased it? What have you been feeding it?

 

[rBlair]

ThRower - agreed I probably should have started with formalin but convinced myself that since it had been in the LFS for almost 2 weeks and looked strong it would be ok.

mitchrapp - I'm using an API kit, but it seems they may not be completely reliable

I didn't see it eat but it looked great, very active and colorful. I fed it small pieces of seaweed on a clip, come seaweed pellets, and marine pellets. Small amounts of one at a time. The seaweed I put in once a day. It did not eat well but I did see it eat some.

I'm just surprised how fast it happened. No discoloration and no outward signs.

 

[ThRoewer]

All protozoan parasites can be present even after weeks or months without showing. Most fish (at least of the ones that make it to us) may have acquired some level of immunity to the parasites the had or picked up on the way and may not show symptoms. I had Grammas showing ich after 10 weeks in QT.

A stressor large enough to weaken the immune system of the fish may cause an outbreak long after you thought to be safe.
That's why it is important to take every new fish as infected and treat it accordingly.

Many do this by now for ich with TTM but forget the more vicious parasites velvet, brook, uronema,...
Especially brook can take a fish out within hours as it can multiply on the fish quickly.
Velvet is dangerous because you may never see serious symptoms until it is too late.
Uronema is an opportunist that you ideally want to prevent from entering your DT.