I will never get attached to a fish friend again. Why did this happen?

[PirateLove]

I will never, ever consider fish as pets anymore. It is too sad. Please tell me what I did wrong.

Last night, I had to shut my tank down. So I took all the live rock, corals, and fish out and placed them all in a brute trashcan with a heater and three powerheads. Today when I got home, I noticed my bicolor blenny stiff and dead in the water. I thought it had been a mistake when transferring rock and I accidentally crushed him. Went to go get a kessil to attach to the brute and when I lit it up my clownfish was swimming sideways, he is now dead after watching him for two minutes. WHAT DID I DO??? I have three powerheads in there. I can see the water churning but maybe because it is not breaking the surface they suffocated? Help =(

 

[Diana A]

did you test your saltwater? temp? was the brute clean?

 

[Tripod1404]

Was it a saltwater-safe brute? Some plastics might dissolve in saltwater.

 

[Dew reefing]

Can wa's contaminated

 

[thegrun]

you may have stirred up enough detritus to produce ammonia which killed the fish, testing the water would be a big help for prognosis.

 

[Bronx19]

I doubt salt water would perish plastic over night enough to kill everything. My money is on the crap you stirred up pulling the rocks out. Rock which hasnt received flow for ages suddenly in direct flow.

 

[OoNickoC]

In the spirit of blunt honesty for a better future, there is no one here that can tell you why that happened. The real question is who is advising you on your aquarium decisions, or the source for the decision to put everything in a holding area. That is probably one of the single most stressful things you can do to a fish unless it is paramount to procedure (such as quarantine or moving the tank). Detritus stirring, a ridiculous assumption given nearly zero information on the surrounding circumstance.

I can suggest possibilities off of the top of my head:

- A powerhead causing a whirlpool effect that caused stressed fish to swim harder than they have for a long period of time in a small area, basically not letting them "hang out" in the water column.

- Like others said, "something" in the trash can, if not brand new AND sterilized can it could have had residual chemicals anywhere on it's surface. Pesticides and herbicides (not to mention countless other products} in very small amounts can take out a tank no problem

-They were close to being on their last leg and the transfer pushed them over the edge.

**You wont know what happened unless you can retrace every single action you took recently (as in weeks/months?). **

What you can do to isolate the issue or prevent future issues is just jot down exactly what you did and do to the tank in your phone notes or on paper so you can establish a timeline, this will also help keep the tank in check.

I like to think of it this way;
You spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on the aquarium. If you factor in your time spent and the affection you have for your inhabitants then the utmost care should be taken in recording what you do somehow. Other wise there are far too many variables to track mentally, though people get lucky a very good portion of the time and guess the problems that cause tragedy. We many times don't actually "know for sure".
The longer a problem goes with no records and/or guess work, then more complicated it becomes. Sorry for the rant, I have seen this exact situation too many times to count with clients and friends.

 

[static916]

Maybe you accidentally crushed some Paly/Zoas and their juice poisoned the water...

 

[Pelagic_e36]

A series of unfortunate events. Learn from your mistakes.

 

[MuShu]

Next time, put the fish in a separate container from your rocks. Always keep a smaller quarantine tank on hand.