Fish Death Help

S

sloogan

New member
Hello,
Recently I finally stocked my 65 gallon tank after cycling it for about 5 months with 4 damsels snails and etc. I traded in my damsels for some fish and then some I purchased a Coral Beauty, 2 firefish, 2banggai cardinal and a tiger pistol shrimp. Before buying I tested all my parameters everything was good. Ammonia 0 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0.25 calcium 500-600 Ph 8.2/8.3 phosphates 2.0 (I'm assuming cause of dry rock I added after soaking for 2 days). Now 2 days ago my coral beauty died from ich when acclimating I'm assuming he got stressed from the drip acclimation, I've read angels are notorious for catching ich. My firefish I literally hadn't seen in a week after digging through the tank today I found what was left of a carcass and the other was MIA. Also I constantly tested for ammonia because I heard sometimes firefish crawl in holes and die. I was worried about my corals and none of the days did it even bump a little in ammonia. All that is left now is my crazy pistol and my banggai. The banggai's tail fins look to be literally fraying, the membrane between their fins is decaying. I assume their death is imminent. Anyone have any possible clue as to why this is happening. No I do not have a QT system no I do not have space for one. This was a fresh batch of fish

Thanks!
 
h1p9C6
 
How long were the fish in there bags?
After you opened the bag up to drip acclimated them?

You really shouldn't drip acclimate a fish.

If the Salinity is different.. I use the "cup" method..

I float the bag for temperature... then open the bag... take a few cups of LFS water out... then add a cup of mine... then every couple minutes.. I take one cup out add a cup.. I do this for about 20 minutes and then drop the fish only into the tank..


There is a "sticky" at the top of new to hobby forum called "death in bags" posted by Sk8tr.

I strongly suggest reading that..

It explains why drip acclimating fish can be deadly to them.. and the reasons why (Ammonia builds up fast in the bag.... once you open it and expose it to fresh air


I'm truly sorry about your losses :-(
Personally it breaks my heart when any of mine die

Sent from my SM-S907VL using Tapatalk
 
LeJeune981 said:
How long were the fish in there bags?
After you opened the bag up to drip acclimated them?

You really shouldn't drip acclimate a fish.

If the Salinity is different.. I use the "cup" method..

I float the bag for temperature... then open the bag... take a few cups of LFS water out... then add a cup of mine... then every couple minutes.. I take one cup out add a cup.. I do this for about 20 minutes and then drop the fish only into the tank..


There is a "sticky" at the top of new to hobby forum called "death in bags" posted by Sk8tr.

I strongly suggest reading that..

It explains why drip acclimating fish can be deadly to them.. and the reasons why (Ammonia builds up fast in the bag.... once you open it and expose it to fresh air


I'm truly sorry about your losses :-(
Personally it breaks my heart when any of mine die

Sent from my SM-S907VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I realized the way I worded that was wrong, it died 3 days after but I think it was over stressed from the drip acclimation. I drip acclimated it in a 5gallon bucket with all the other fish in the same bucket. There was probably 7 inches of water with an air stone. I was devistated when my angel died. I feel so at fault. What do you guess is killing my banggais though why are their fins decaying :(
 
My guess... and it's only a guess..I'm pretty new as well...

The air stone...

Read that sticky.. it will explain it in detail..

How long were they in the bucket?

All the fish.. in the bucket.. we're poisoned by ammonia.. the air stone helped the Ammonia get worse in the bucket (the sticky post explains why in great detail)
It may not have killed them immediately... but made them deathly ill...
In that sticky it's called "killing them with kindness"

I could be wrong.. just my opinion..

But deff.. please read that sticky..

Sent from my SM-S907VL using Tapatalk
 
LeJeune981 said:
My guess... and it's only a guess..I'm pretty new as well...

The air stone...

Read that sticky.. it will explain it in detail..

How long were they in the bucket?

All the fish.. in the bucket.. we're poisoned by ammonia.. the air stone helped the Ammonia get worse in the bucket (the sticky post explains why in great detail)
It may not have killed them immediately... but made them deathly ill...
In that sticky it's called "killing them with kindness"

I could be wrong.. just my opinion..

But deff.. please read that sticky..

Sent from my SM-S907VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Wow, they were in the bag for about 2 hours or so, but since i dumped all the bag water into the bucket with the fish it makes sense now there was a ton of poop but i thought nothing of it "just get them O2 and they'll be good" that's what i thought. Thanks for the guidance. I'll do the bag method or tank method with matching salinity next time. I feel terrible. Hope the banggai's make it.
 
I hope so too...
Hopefully someone will chime in with some advice to save the Lil guy :-(

Sent from my SM-S907VL using Tapatalk
 
I have seen post of people using 3 treatments (kanaplex+metroplex+furan-2). Not sure how it is used. I have used Furan 2 with mixed results.
 
It is hard to tell from your picture of your test kit of what tube is for what test.

It looks like you have ammonia and nitrite. Those should both be 0. Poor water quality will cause fin rot.

I think you overloaded your tank too quickly and it is going though another mini cycle.


New tanks are tricky.
 
LeJeune981 said:
My guess... and it's only a guess..I'm pretty new as well...

The air stone...

Read that sticky.. it will explain it in detail..

How long were they in the bucket?

All the fish.. in the bucket.. we're poisoned by ammonia.. the air stone helped the Ammonia get worse in the bucket (the sticky post explains why in great detail)
It may not have killed them immediately... but made them deathly ill...
In that sticky it's called "killing them with kindness"

I could be wrong.. just my opinion..

But deff.. please read that sticky..

Sent from my SM-S907VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

This is normally only a thing when the fish are shipped for an extended period. Transferring to and from a LFS or on short hauls doesn't usually cause this to happen.
 
OhsCC said:
It is hard to tell from your picture of your test kit of what tube is for what test.

It looks like you have ammonia and nitrite. Those should both be 0. Poor water quality will cause fin rot.

I think you overloaded your tank too quickly and it is going though another mini cycle.


New tanks are tricky.
Click to expand...

Everything was 0 except nitrite with 0.25 and phosphates of 2.0ppm I have CPB coming in today for the filter. I tested the nitrite and it's coming down a little.
 
So one thing I've learned if you don't QT your fish in a separate tank is this. Don't put too many fish in at the same time. I'd stick to two fish tops then wait a few weeks for another 1-2.

Bad things happen in this hobby if you move too fast. If you introduce too much change at once nothing good comes of it. In my opinion you don't have the water volume to add that many fish at once.
 
Ich isn't caused by stress, it is a parasite. Stress only makes the fish more susceptible to it. It was likely already in your system based on you using fish to cycle it. Side note, don't do that again, its bad for the fish and there are many better ways to do it. Hard to say what is affecting the fish without pictures, but it does sound like some fin rot. As for what killed the others, hard to tell as well. It was definitely too many fish added at one time.

Also, are you mixing up nitrIte and nitrAte? Your tank is cycled if ammonia and nitrIte are zero.
 
sde1500 said:
Ich isn't caused by stress, it is a parasite. Stress only makes the fish more susceptible to it. It was likely already in your system based on you using fish to cycle it. Side note, don't do that again, its bad for the fish and there are many better ways to do it. Hard to say what is affecting the fish without pictures, but it does sound like some fin rot. As for what killed the others, hard to tell as well. It was definitely too many fish added at one time.

Also, are you mixing up nitrIte and nitrAte? Your tank is cycled if ammonia and nitrIte are zero.
Click to expand...

Oddly enough. The guy I purchased the tank from had the tank for 2 years and when I went to look at it he had corals growing and everything. I'm 90% sure it was already fully cycled. When I added the fish I monitored all the parameters every 14 hours the only thing that stood out to me was the Phosphate after reading around PH boost can cause this which I was using AquaVitro eight four. I think I found the culprit, after cleaning out the stand I noticed some trace elements and reef buffer I had been using, expired July 2016 :uhoh3:. I know when some chemicals expire the potency just is lowered and inaccurate in terms of dosing. Is it possible I poisoned my own fish! I feel so neglectful:facepalm:. I'm taking the fish to the LFS and gonna run CPB and Carbon in the tank for a week or 2 with just my crazy pistol shrimp. Should I put food in the tank for bacterial consumption so I don't have to recycle my tank, or do you think my snails and hermits will produce enough of a bio load.
 
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