Dead foxface, confused reefer

[DrBoxedWine]

So I had a One Spot Foxface in Quarantine for 3 weeks and he was doing great. Eating really well and becoming less timid when i came into the room. So, Friday, after 3 weeks, i put him in the display tank. I didn't do an acclimation with him, and this is the only thing i can think of that might have done him in. I just carefully netted him out of the QT, and quickly ran to the living room and carefully added him into the DT. He didn't even miss a beat, just immediately began calmly picking at the rocks. I thought it was odd, because he was terrified when i first brought him home and barely came out the first few days. Also, the QT tank had no lighting except for ambient room lighting, and the DT has a pair of hydras on it and is way brighter. Then, the next morning, he was back to being super timid, hiding flat against the rocks or by a powerhead. He kept doing that but was swimming more and more listlessly. Yesterday, he settled into a crevice in the rocks and never came out again. I got home from work this evening and he was dead, sucked up against a powerhead. I only have 2 clowns, a flamehawk and a firefish in the 75g tank.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Was not acclimating him to the new tank a bigger mistake than i realize? The tank params are similar.

QT:
AK - 8.7
Nitrates 5

DT:
Ak - 10
Nitrates 20

Both tanks are about 80 degrees.

 

[Mcgeezer]

You need to provide much more info then just alkalinity and nitrate.

What's your nitrite or ammonia levels? How old is your tank? Is your tank properly cycled? Salinity?

You should always drip acclimate all fish and invertebrates when adding them to a new environment so they can adjust to the salinity.

I'm going to venture out on a limb and say your tank is brand new, am I correct? If so, you need to give it a significant amount of time to stabilize before adding large fish that can shock the system with their bio load from waste.

Your live rock doesn't have enough colonized bacteria if it's young so to speak. If you add a large fish, the bacteria can't consume the ammonia created by the fox face, therefore making it a toxic environment.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

The quarantine tank started cycling back in late June. That completed the cycle in early august, and i used a few rocks (before i got any fish in either the QT or DT) to jumpstart the DT cycle. It was complete in early september. I haven't had any nitrite or ammonia readings in months, and all the fish have been doing just fine in it. The Salinity in the QT and DT are both 1.24. The DT is about as stable as can be for only being up for 3 months. I have frags of zoas, duncans, mushrooms and brain coral. All of which are doing great. I think i can safely say that Ammonia/cycling is not the issue. It also has a 30 gallon sump. All the other fish in the tank are doing just fine right now.

 

[Mcgeezer]

Hmmm...possibly just a sick fish? I think that you didnt drip acclimate it may have played a big part in it. SW fish are hyper sensitive to even the littlest changes.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Gotcha. Lesson learned... Never will indo that again. Honestly, I did cichlids for 2 years before this, and I don't know that I've ever done what I did there. Thoughtless mistake. Lesson learned.

 

[formsix]

Sorry about your fish

I usually use the transfer day to do a water change, and over the course of a few hours trade out at least half the QT tank water for DT water. I tend to run my small 10 gallon QT tanks at about 1.024 salinity because evaporation happens sooooo quickly in those small tanks, and I'd rather the tanks stay a little under than risk going much above 1.026. Of course that water is nice and clean w/o nitrates (always battling those!) and who knows what else from my DT, so I figure I want to acclimate them to all that stuff. I don't think that a slow drip acclimation is necessary, but I just add a few cups of DT water to the QT tank every 10-15 minutes for a few hours (I pick a time when I'm messing with the tank already or just hanging out at home, nothing too crazy).

 

[m0nkie]

I never drip after qt. The qt is set so it matches the dt salinity and temperature perfectly. No need to drip if they match.

 

[Macimage]

I never drip after qt. The qt is set so it matches the dt salinity and temperature perfectly. No need to drip if they match.

I agree.

 

[Shanet]

I agree.

Me too. I never acclimate just make sure temp and salinity are the same and transfer. Never lost a fish like this.

 

[lespaul339]

Me too. I never acclimate just make sure temp and salinity are the same and transfer. Never lost a fish like this.

Same here. All my saltwater is pre mixed in two big storage containers that each hold 40 gallons. So the same saltwater that goes in my DT is also used for QT. My salinity and temp match so no need to do a drip acclimate.

 

[snorvich]

I never drip after qt. The qt is set so it matches the dt salinity and temperature perfectly. No need to drip if they match.

This. If the QT is initially at a lower SG, simply bring it up slowly until it matches the DT.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Sadly, I'm using cheap thermometers right now that have a +/- of 1 degree, so they could be as much as 2 deg off from each . Salinity was about 0.001 lower in the dt. I've evened this out now, but would that have been enough to stress him out? I'll upgrading thermometers in the next couple weeks.

 

[Lucky Lefty]

Lower salinity by .001 in the dt would not have done it. Going down in salinity isn't that harmful, is transferring to higher salinity that's harmful.