Fish and coral looking bad???

[Mr Neon]

Well my 30 gal has been up and running great for about a month. Got a domino damsel and Xenia and a few other corals...

Well today I changed the water pump in the tank sump to a more higher flowing pump. I left the house for a few hours and came back and found my Xenia to be nearly all shrunk and the damsel laying down and labored breathing... Kinda worried becasue I tested the water and it was fine...checekd everything and could not find nothing wrong.

The only thing I did different was replace the old water pump with a new one...

Any idea?? The fish is almost a year old and I had it in my other tank and transferred it with no problem...same for the Xenia...

 

[K-ROK]

Maybe the tank hasn't fully cycled yet?

 

[Mr Neon]

That is one possibility but alas the damsel hit the dust and is being taken care of by the crab funeral director. Tank was fully cycled from a testing standpoint. I had the damsel inthe tank from the beginning and had no problems, he was very hardy and actually grew! Maybe stress, something it ate.

My xenias have went down to nothing after being full but my zoos are fine. mushrooms fine green stars fine.

Tested water again and nothing changed..everything normal...

Just wonder if by changing the pump along with another power head inside the tank caused something..I am trying to rule out most common things...

Very odd

 

[Howieytown]

I have heard that Xenias are kind of touchie. I couldnt grow them before and only until lately have i had any luck with them. They would last for about a month and then die.

Other people i know that have them they spread like wildfire...

As for the damsel i dunno, usually pretty hardy

 

[K-ROK]

Was the pump used or new? Maybe it was contaminated with something that hurt your livestock. Sounds like the pump is the key if that is the only thing that you changed. Labored breathing means no oxygen in the water or at least the fish isn't getting enough for some reason. I'd say try a water change and see what happens. Sorry to hear about your damsel. I have 2 in my QT tank that need homes - but you are a couple hours away so it wouldn't be worth the drive. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Mr Neon]

Well I fished out the damsel so the water chemistry does not get too off...tank is still new....

I am going to have to say the pump is probably the cause for the change...Maybe there was residue in the pump that came out that caused a reaction that the fish and Xenia could not tolerate. The pump is a RIO 10hf on my tank...I changed from a 475gph to a 620gph for more flow to elimate the power head inside the tank and clean things up...make the tank look more natural instead of a power head looking right at you.

The funny thing about my Xenias is that they been down before and looked dead...then slowly they come back strong...I can only hope this is the case again...I had them in my 15 nano for over a year and they did great for awhile then would go down, then back up...The problem there was water quality as the RO system I was using through another source turned out to be bad and it was a bit late to cacth it...

My skimmer was over-flowing this morning as well with more of a watery skim than foam so I had to adjust the cup a bit...I have a remora on the tank...

I will do a water change today and take it from there..

Thanks

 

[mattyice]

i would have to say the pump is the problem that caused all of that, could of been some type of oil that is added at the factory to keep it lubricated, sorry about your losses, i lost my angel over the night to some type of worm/fungus, in two days all of its fins were eaten away and anything i did couldnt save it

 

[Mr Neon]

Just re-arranged my LR this morning and I deceided to break one of them up a bit to place better in the tank....Now this rock was new yesterday..only one piece I got while at the FS. It was mostly cured as it had no smell and there was some nice color on the rock...

Well I broke it apart and to my surprise it was black on the inside and stunk real bad... I know think this may have been the cause all along...I thought I had a good piece of LR and it was just one piece. I would have never imagined the inside to be black and smelly...

 

[K-ROK]

Mattyice,
I lost my first Emporer to a bacterial infection. They are really sensitive fish and everything has to be perfect for them so don't feel too bad. I got my current one off this forum and it was a bit bigger - 4-5in but still in juvi coloration. If they make it to that size it seems like they are good to go. Small ones are so sensitive. Very sorry about the loss.

 

[Mr Neon]

Matt was that the angel you just bought??? if so wow...sorry about that as well.

It is no wonder this hobby is so challenging.

 

[mattyice]

yes the hobby is very challenging but thats what makes it fun i feel, i might try looking at the one at hectors to see how well its doing, and yes it is the one i just bought and it does suck but you know what you learn from these types of things and get past this in the future

 

[Mr Neon]

Wow! When I use to have my 15 nano set up the first time I had one fish..a catalina goby. The rest was easy corals and I never had problems....

When I set the 15 up the second time, I got the damesl and clown as well as some corals and things just died. The clown dissappeard one day and I never seem it again...talk abut fast body removal!!! The damsel was the one I transferred into my present 30 gal and lost yesterday.

But like you said, we learn and move on...I will get another one and just be more careful when switching stuff out...even adding LR as well....

The neat thing is that the Xenias alwasy toldme something was up by their nature...yeah, they are touchy, but it does give me heads up if somethingis not right....it is just figuring out what IS not right!!!LOL