Help! Lost Foxface, and New Baby Foxface Died Within 30 Mins of Adding To Tank :(

[BDP]

I could really use some help with this one as I'm pretty upset about it.

Have had a saltwater tank over 10 years now...For 8 of those years had a great foxface in there, along with a yellow tang, 2 clowns and 2 damsels.

Couple weeks ago, I learned about the Marineland heater recall. I had one of the affected heaters. Called the company and was sent a replacement.

I installed the replacement heater, and the next morning, my Foxface was dead, lying below the heater (maybe coincidence, I thought, but it was weird). I had set the new heater to the same 77 degree tank temp and verified the temp was stable.

All other fish are fine. Waited a week to be sure, still all fish fine, clowns, damsels and tang doing well and eating well.

Went to fish store today and bought a new foxface. He looked good for about a half an hour, started eating algae and swimming, but oddly close to the heater. Suddenly I looked back, and he had died. Just like that. He was hoverng at the top of the heater, barely breathing, wrapped around it almost like he was trying to get warmth or something. He lived, literally, less than 45 minutes once placed into my tank.

Again, every other fish in there is fine. What is wrong with my tank? Did this heater do something? I'm devastated to think it did, also sad for losing my old foxface and now killing a brand new one almost instantly.

Please help, I'll try anything! Never experienced anything like this before in over 10 years in the hobby.

 

[Megatrev62]

How did you acclimate?

 

[BDP]

Thanks for such a fast reply. The fish came home from the shop with me in a bag with water and oxygen. Whenever I added fish in the past I let them float in the tank water inside their bag for around 30 minutes, then release. Added some stress coat to the tank after. Never had this happen before.

There may be more I could have done, but the fish seemed quite healthy and suddenly just got blotchy and died. It was so fast it was startling.

I could see if my water quality was absolutely terrible, and maybe I need to test for some things I haven't tested for yet, but wouldn't the other fish also be suffering?

Was there anything possible this new heater could have did to be lethal? Again, it's mostly baffling just because the other fish seem so unaffected.

 

[Megatrev62]

I bought a marine beta yesterday which I'm enjoying now. However the salinity reading difference of my tank and the tank at the store was huge.
Store-1.016 My tank-1.026
I had to slow acclimate for sure. According to what I've read here and other net areas the salinity is very important and can mean the difference of the acclimation going well. Most fish are lost quickly through the acclimation process. This may not be the case here but it is a possibility.

 

[gveng]

Sounds like the first one died by stress and the second one died by poor acclimation.

 

[gveng]

How big is the tank and what are the params?

 

[Sheol]

You need to mix your water, with that of the store's. A little at a time. I usually float new fish about 20 minutes. Then I partially open the top of the bag, and start adding small amounts of my tank water with a little measuring cup/spoon. And keep doing it every 5-10 minutes.
And I feel your pain. Got home from work today, to find my One-spot foxface (or rabbit fish..) dead. Got sucked into a powerhead intake. I have got to get something to cover that. Lost my ocellaris clown about 2 months ago. Its a deathtrap! But I thought this fish TOO large to be threatened by it..
I was wrong..

Matthew

 

[BDP]

Thanks everyone, for posting. Even though it's a bummer of a situation, it's nice to have some feedback.

I've never done a partial water acclimation before and I've had a lot of fish in this tank over the years. Well not a lot, only lost a few over the years, but never the day I got them, all my fish have always lived many years. So to see this one die so quickly was pretty shocking.

Here's a post by someone else I found that interests me:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/equipment/136949-new-heater-killed-my-fish.html

How about that huh? Now, not all my fish died, mind you, but pretty interesting that a guy who did the same thing as me, put in the same replacement model heater as me, had sudden fish death.

I didn't rise the new heater before installing, but now I am wondering if these replacement heaters are toxic. If switching out that heater killed my old and new foxface, that makes me even sadder as it was preventable

 

[snorvich]

I would definitely start using a controller (ranco or equivalent) for your heater and I would always measure SG of transport water and tank water with a calibrated refractometer.

 

[geaux xman]

my LFS salinity is usually 1.016-.017. i know a lot of you reef guys keep it at 1.025ish. so thats a pretty sudden change for the fish if immediately dropped in the tank without some sort of drip method.

i think thats the most likely cause of death in this case.

 

[ssavader]

Because of the physiology of marine fish living in a salt water environment, marine fish have to "work" very hard to prevent dehydration. They do this by drinking copious amounts of salt water and excreting low volumes of concentrated urine.

Hyposalinity environments, i.e. specific gravity of 0.016-.017 (I'm using s.g. as a correlate to salinity), places marine fish in the position of not having to work so hard at preventing dehydration, hence it is less stressful, and marine fish acclimate very quickly to a hyposaline environment, such as that often used with QT.

On the other hand, going from an environment of hyposalinity to relative hypersalnity, i.e. s.g. of .023-.025, is very stressful. As soon as that fish enters the hypersaline environment, dehydration begins, and a fish can not compensate for the fluid loss from its cells, literally dying of dehydration. This is why you must bring the low s.g. used in a QT environment (to treat ich) up to normal s.g. over a period of days. The fish literally needs days to adjust its physiology to that of a "normal" marine environment with a s.g. of .021 or higher.

Hope this helps. New fish all need time in QT alone (4-8 weeks). Slow acclimation is always a must. You can use the search function to view acclimation protocols if you want more info.

Best.

 

[Megatrev62]

I must have gotten lucky with the beta because he went from 1.016 to 1.026 in 4.5 hours.I know that was quick but no ill effects.

 

[mfish1]

No obvious answer to first one but no acclimation on 2nd seems likely cause

 

[Orcrone]

The value of proper acclimation CANNOT be overemphasized. Fish can tolerate a large range of conditions, but have an intolerance to sudden changes. Having temperature, salinity and pH as close as possible are the three things most important for a proper acclimation.

I QT all new fish, actually I QT everything wet that goes into my tank, including inverts & corals. I work with only a couple of LFS and check their salinity before purchasing. I then adjust the salinity in my QT to match that of the LFS before purchasing the fish. Makes acclimation that meach easier on the fish. Over the six weeks in the QT I can slowly adjust the QT parameters to match my DT.

 

[BDP]

Thanks all for the replies. I feel so dumb now not knowing the process. I put so many fish in, LFS water and all, just 20 minutes from bag to tank in the past. Had no idea how much I was shocking them. Guess some fish just handle it better than others. Still, it's a harsh welcome.

Lesson learned for sure. I just feel dumb for not even knowing after owning a tank for so long.

 

[Orcrone]

Don't beat yourself up. No one comes into the hobby knowing the right way to do things. I never QT'd until I had ich wipe out half my fish. What's important is wanting to learn how to do things correctly.