More deaths - what am I doing wrong?

[Aqualoon]

Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = can barely see a reading, Salinity = 1.025

Daily 2 Gallon water changes

New water is pre-mixed by me to 1.025 salinity, heated to 78F, stored in 55 gallon food grade drum with 2 large airstones and a water pump circulating the water.

Last Fall here is a thread about fish deaths. Didn't add anything over the winter.

Come March everything was still alive so wanted to beef up the stock more. Got the following, quarantined for 2 weeks and added to the tank: Fire Shrimp, Coral Beauty and Exquisite Fairy Wrasse.

For weeks everything is going great, tank looks amazing with the new fish and the contrasting colors. Fish are active, eating, out and about (even the Fire Shrimp) and acting healthy. I feed an assortment of high quality flake and pellet, seaweed strips and frozen (this is the frozen that I buy).

So about 3 weeks go by and the Wrasse is MIA and can't find the body. Another 3-5 weeks go by the the Coral Beauty has vanished (loved that fish!) and now just this morning, one of my Clownfish (Ocellaris - normal clowns) is gone. I've had the Clownfish from the very start!

Thoughts?

 

[davehead86]

Not sure what fish you had left after the initial deaths. Sounds like a tank mate is killing the fish and then the shrimp are cleaning the carcass before you know what's happened.

Whats your QT Procedure? People who do run QT dont run it for just 2 weeks usually. Chemicals involved?

 

[Aqualoon]

Fish left:
1 x Clownfish (Ocellaris - normal clowns)
1 x Blue Green Chromis
1 x Clown Goby
1 x Royal Gramma Basslet
1 x Bicolor Angelfish
1 x Kaudern's Cardinalfish
1 x Cleaner Shrimp
1 x Fire Shrimp
2 x Pincushin Urchin

QT Process - Drip acclimation to my salinity/temp for an hour. Each put into different QT tank after drip acclimation. Left in QT for at least 2 weeks, if all is good/healthy/eating after 2 weeks they are put into main tank.

Every fish that has gone MIA was active and healthy prior.

 

[davehead86]

I believe the clownfish chromis and angelfish could be your culprit. They are all territorial fish and aggressive for what seems like no reason at some times.

If you have no more fish deaths for a couple weeks I would put it on one of these fish. If you have more deaths than you have something wrong with your parameters.

 

[Sweitz1972]

I've had my tank for five months, 55 gallon with about 70 lbs of live rock, and I watch that tank like a hawk, and I am still finding new critters every now and then. Who knows really, gotta catch it in the act. If your water parameters are stable and in that condition, I'd suspect some sort of a hitchiker. Love this hobby!!

 

[timmyliauw]

what's your filtration set up? I have clownfish pair and carpenter flasher wrasse. They both are doing well together. In fact, the wrasse is nipping my clownfish to fight food. LOL

 

[sde1500]

So not really a QT, but more of a 2 week period in an observation tank? Is the tank they are in cycled? If not are you adding prime to deal with rising ammonia levels, other wise that could be the issue. Are you treating them with anything while in QT, or is it entirely observational?

 

[CStrickland]

I'm not a disease expert, but I'm sure that I've read smarter posters say that when a lfs or distributor runs low levels of copper to mask disease, it can take a month for symptoms to show up. Either way, a 2 week observational qt is pretty minimal. Most people do something proactive if they qt for such a short period, like ttm for ich and prazi for flukes, a formalin dip, etc. Or people who don't like to treat prophylactically will observe for much longer before they introduce the fish to their tank since some diseases can hide for longer than a couple weeks.

Or it could be fish aggression

Or your acclimation procedure. A one hour drip is excessive. It's easier to match the qt salinity to the bag water and float unopened for 15 min to equalize temp. Long drips get chilly and risk ammonia poisoning.

 

[Noknock]

With you saying you are still finding new critters every now and then where did your rock come from? If you have gulf rock or from another reefer chances are you have a mantis.

 

[jiminy_crime]

Do you have any inverts like tube anemones or any other anemones in the tank?


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[Sweitz1972]

That was me that said I'm finding new critters every now and then not the original poster. I am from niagara falls Canada, the fish store I go to, claims Bali live rock, it's very light and very porous. 75 lbs takes up a lot of my tank, couldn't add anymore. When I get home from work or wake up at night I'll have a peek, always coming across some new critter once in a while. I've had numerous different snails, crabs, mushroom polyps, palythoas, couple different worms I've caught coming out of the rock only at night. Just from my experience I would be looking for a hitch hiker. Especially if your water params are in that shape. I'm always making sure my water params are in check to take water quality out of the equation should problems arise

 

[Aqualoon]

Thanks for all the responses, going to try to answer everything here.

Rock used was dry base rock, not live rock.
No anemones in the tank
The 2 week QT is purely observational unless I notice something to warrant putting "xyz" chemical/medicine into the tank

On the bright side, corals are doing really well. Had honestly thought I'd have more issues with them when transitioning to salt then the fish itself.

Also I'm not noticing any type of fish aggression. I've been keeping cichlids for almost a decade now (both African and NW) so have seen a lot of fish on fish abuse in the past. I don't even see chasing going on in this tank.

 

[sde1500]

Did you cycle the QT, or make sure to treat it for ammonia?

 

[jd371]

I noticed you stated that you drip acclimate for one hour, is that for fish from the lfs, mail order or both? You shouldn't drip acclimate mail order fish because the ammonia will start to rise as soon as the bag is opened, it's best to just set the QT sg to that of the vendor and float the bag for 15 minutes and then release into the tank.