Rybren
Well-known member
Over the course of the past 5 days, I have lost 4 fish:
Paracheilinus lineopunctatus x P. angulatus
Wetmorella nigropinnata
Cirrhilabrus exquisitus
Acreichthys tomentosus
All have been in the tank for a minimum of 6 months and all had been eating and looking healthy and perfectly normal right up until they died.
The flasher and fairy wrasses were alive and well at lights out but were gone in the morning. I could find no trace of their bodies.
I found the filefish stuck to the side of an MP-40, but it spent a lot of time hanging out next to the powerhead and hadn't gotten stuck before, so I suspect that it died and then got trapped against the pump. I looked at the body with a magnifying glass and there were no wounds, ulcers or signs of external parasites.
I lost the possum wrasse today. I saw it swimming around and eating earlier in the afternoon. When I looked at the tank after supper, it was being blown around by the powerheads. It looked a tad bloated, but that could be my imagination. It was barely breathing when I netted it out of the tank. I placed it in a container of tank water and looked at it under a cheapie digital microscope. Again, there were no visible signs of injury nor were there any signs of parasites. The gills looked normal.
All of the other fish appear to be perfectly normal; no flashing, no stringy poo, no bumps/ich-like spots.
As a side note, over the past 1 -2 months, I had been experiencing STN with a number of my LPS corals and had performed 6 x 15% water changes about 2 weeks ago and I have been running more carbon than I normally would. I also added a poly filter to see if there would be a colour change, but there hasn't been.
The tank is a 120G with a 40B sump. I use IO salt mixed with 0 TDS RODI water. The tank is kept at the following parameters, which have remained stable over the past year:
Temp: 78.5 - 79.5
SG: 35ppt
pH: 8 - 8.1
NO2: undetectable
NO3: 5 - 10
PO4: <0.05
Alk: 9 dKh
Ca: 440 - 460
Mg: 1400
I use kalk in the ATO and dose 5 ml of DIY NOPOX spread out over the course of the day.
I've been keeping fish for over 50 years (only about 9 have been SW) and have never experienced anything like this before.
Does anyone have an idea as to what may be going on? Is there a reef-safe medication that I can use in-tank to help slow the deaths?
Thanks,
Jerry
Paracheilinus lineopunctatus x P. angulatus
Wetmorella nigropinnata
Cirrhilabrus exquisitus
Acreichthys tomentosus
All have been in the tank for a minimum of 6 months and all had been eating and looking healthy and perfectly normal right up until they died.
The flasher and fairy wrasses were alive and well at lights out but were gone in the morning. I could find no trace of their bodies.
I found the filefish stuck to the side of an MP-40, but it spent a lot of time hanging out next to the powerhead and hadn't gotten stuck before, so I suspect that it died and then got trapped against the pump. I looked at the body with a magnifying glass and there were no wounds, ulcers or signs of external parasites.
I lost the possum wrasse today. I saw it swimming around and eating earlier in the afternoon. When I looked at the tank after supper, it was being blown around by the powerheads. It looked a tad bloated, but that could be my imagination. It was barely breathing when I netted it out of the tank. I placed it in a container of tank water and looked at it under a cheapie digital microscope. Again, there were no visible signs of injury nor were there any signs of parasites. The gills looked normal.
All of the other fish appear to be perfectly normal; no flashing, no stringy poo, no bumps/ich-like spots.
As a side note, over the past 1 -2 months, I had been experiencing STN with a number of my LPS corals and had performed 6 x 15% water changes about 2 weeks ago and I have been running more carbon than I normally would. I also added a poly filter to see if there would be a colour change, but there hasn't been.
The tank is a 120G with a 40B sump. I use IO salt mixed with 0 TDS RODI water. The tank is kept at the following parameters, which have remained stable over the past year:
Temp: 78.5 - 79.5
SG: 35ppt
pH: 8 - 8.1
NO2: undetectable
NO3: 5 - 10
PO4: <0.05
Alk: 9 dKh
Ca: 440 - 460
Mg: 1400
I use kalk in the ATO and dose 5 ml of DIY NOPOX spread out over the course of the day.
I've been keeping fish for over 50 years (only about 9 have been SW) and have never experienced anything like this before.
Does anyone have an idea as to what may be going on? Is there a reef-safe medication that I can use in-tank to help slow the deaths?
Thanks,
Jerry
