Everything is dying!

[chburnham]

To start let me tell the story of my tank. It's been setup for about 3 years now with me. I bought it from a friend who had it up and running for i don't know how long. I've had one set of fish in it since I got it. A powder blue, a blue hippo, 2 clown. These were all doing great until I went on vaccation to europe for a week. I left my dad in charge big mistake... I realized I had forgot to top off my sump before I left and didn't want my pump to run dry. I called my dad and asked him to top it off using the RO filter. Well for some reason some of the hoses came loose and he couldn't figure out how to use it so he just poured some water in there....... long story shot when i got off the plane he informed me that i only had a blue hippo left Upon arriving home i did several water changes and what not and everything seemed to be running fine. I purchased another clown and he did fine until he met his untimely death with a rock while i was cleaning the tank. My blue hiippo hasn't come out of hding since.

Brings us to present day..... Last weekend i placed an order on petco. I ordered a powder brown tang, 3 stripe damsel, a blenny, a foxface, and 2 clown. Along with a couple corals and anemones and shrimp and snails. The first set of fish i had came from petco aswell.. but when i received them they were packed in cold water with ice packs I believe to relieve stress. Well with this order there were no ice packs, they didn't inform me of shipment so when i found them at my doorstep and opened it up the water was pretty hot and everyone was running around in their bags like crazy. I was quiet PO'd as this was a $500 order. I slowly acclimate everyone into the tank except the shrimp who were DOA.

Day one- clown fish die
Day two- second clown dies
Day three- Powder brown dies
Day four- Blenny dies

The foxface seems to be doing okay as well as the threestripe. My blue hippo still is not comeing out of hiding much, every now and then to grab a bite and hide. Until the day they die they all seem fine! the Blenny was prouched on a rock eating everytime i fed like crazy! then today i find him on bottom of tank dead...

I've checked all levels everything seems fine.. There a .25 ammonia today but i've been doing water changes since they started dying off hopeing that would fix it. Does anyone have an idea? Is there something in the water or is this just Shipping stress that's catching up to them and killing them?

Petco is replacing everything but i don't want it to happen again. Should i do a massive water change? or just keep doing a lil every day?

So far the hippo, fox face, and three stripe are hanging in... foxface has been hiding but comming out everynow and then when i'm not in the room..

 

[codeblue48]

I have always been skeptical about petco. It's good they are replacing what you have lost. Maybe this is a lesson we should all learn from. Everytime I have gone into a petco with saltwater livestock they always look drab. Sucks you have lost so many fish. Hope it works out. Just keep doing water changes to get that ammonia down! *crossing my fingers for your incoming replacements*

 

[randomfishguy85]

how big is your tank, that is a lot of fish to add at once. The ammonia will kill already weakened fish. If i were you i would ask petco to just credit me and order my fish from somewhere else. Live aquaria, PIA, Nyaquatics, or somewhere local with good looking livestock. you should also implement a quarantine tank as many petcos have fish riddled with ich or velvet.

 

[chburnham]

I've already started a quarantine tank. Tank is 90 gallons with a 40 gallon sump

 

[albano]

IMO, topping off with tap water, once or twice, should not be the cause of the fish deaths! What's in your tap water?

Petco's online fish orders are shipped direct from a Calif. wholesaler, so a QT is a must!

 

[sandwi54]

First question, was the ammonia the result of the dead fish, or was it already present before the fish started dying? If it's the former, then just keep doing water changes and using prime to detoxify the ammonia. If it's the latter, there's something wrong with your system. you either added too many fish at one time (which it sounds like you did; adding 7 fish all at one time to a 90g presents a HUGE load to the system) or your system was already unstable. A stable system should be able to accommodate the addition of a couple of medium sized fish.

Now back to the original question, have you seen disease symptoms on any of the fish? Not quarantining new fish, especially those from Petco, is a very, very bad idea. Petco fish are known to carry diseases regularly, which is why I would never buy fish from them. I would take refunds from Petco and buy fish somewhere else.

 

[chburnham]

IMO, topping off with tap water, once or twice, should not be the cause of the fish deaths! What's in your tap water?

Petco's online fish orders are shipped direct from a Calif. wholesaler, so a QT is a must!

The water he used was water that had been sitting in a bucket outside for God knows how long... so no telling what was in it...

 

[chburnham]

First question, was the ammonia the result of the dead fish, or was it already present before the fish started dying? If it's the former, then just keep doing water changes and using prime to detoxify the ammonia. If it's the latter, there's something wrong with your system. you either added too many fish at one time (which it sounds like you did; adding 7 fish all at one time to a 90g presents a HUGE load to the system) or your system was already unstable. A stable system should be able to accommodate the addition of a couple of medium sized fish.

Now back to the original question, have you seen disease symptoms on any of the fish? Not quarantining new fish, especially those from Petco, is a very, very bad idea. Petco fish are known to carry diseases regularly, which is why I would never buy fish from them. I would take refunds from Petco and buy fish somewhere else.

I have an ammonia alert hanging in the tank and it didn't change till after. I'm trying to set up a QT right now. But it's ammonia is high hoping it will go down soon.

That's why i hate not having a LFS becuase at 35 a pop for shipping you wanna get as many as you can in one order.. guess i went a little over board..

 

[chburnham]

new update. My 3 year old hippo was found dead today. She's been in hiding for weeks now so i'm not sure how long she's been dead

 

[albano]

new update. My 3 year old hippo was found dead today. She's been in hiding for weeks now so i'm not sure how long she's been dead

probably just happened, unless it is badly decayed!