...been struggling

[Shawn_epicurious]

I love my Grandsons : ) I do! They did something to my tank while visiting 2 weeks ago... I don’t know what, I just know it was them... (I found a candy wrapper under my cabinet) they didn’t know any better... right? (A completely separate debate lol )

Something happened on Sunday, almost two weeks ago... I still don’t know what... I went to work the next 2 days... the world gives us a busy life right? I found 2 dead fish in my tank Tuesday evening... 3 other fish missing and I never found any remains ( good CUC? ... I dunno) I had a huge ammonia spike and lost another fish since then and.. my blue hippo tang............ Is tearing himself up. He’s not gonna make it: ( He hasn’t eaten in almost 2 weeks.) I can’t net him. I’ve tried.

I am kind of lost right now on what I should do next... I have a 200 gallon tank. I have been doing daily water changes of around 40 gallons a day. What ever is in my water is not showing up on any of my test.., the ammonia is gone... I watched nitrites spike after... and then saw a spike in Nitrates. That’s gone now. My tang has lost his mind... he is freaking out my other fish... I really do feel bad for him.

What do I do next!

 

[CMMorgan]

Have you tried anything like Seachem StressGuard?
Have you tried a lights out period to calm him down.
What are the parameters? Salinity?
If they put a chemical in there, it won't likely show up on a standard test. That would be one for an ICP. Even then, it could just be a toxin, like Windex or air freshener.
I would definitely try StressGuard. You may also want to try to box him in with some grating to make it easier to catch him. If you can trap him, you can get him to a quarantine until you can mitigate the toxin.
You are doing the right thing with water changes but it is like Japan dumping the radiated water into the ocean.... it needs a LOT of water to dissipate but it doesn't go away. Ultimately, you are going to have to do a significant size water change to get the levels down.
Best of luck... I hope that you catch the little fella. Godspeed.

PS Hang in there, fish can be resilient - just like us. Back in the day, some idiots broke into our school library over a holiday and poured a half a gallon of glue into the freshwater aquarium. The tank was a gelatinous mess after the break. Amazingly enough, they found sticky little fish inside... still alive but barely. Those fish were still there when I graduated.

 

[Fish_Sticks]

....what type of candy did they put in the tank?

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Carbon and water changes are the way to go. Good job getting the ammonia under control. Do you have a frag, qt, or big rubbermaid you can set up for the tang? It can be caught, that is fact. It sucks but sometimes you just have to tear everything apart to catch a fish...

 

[F i s h y]

Well wishes Shawn... sorry to hear of your recent struggles. I know you planned heavily for your tank. And you have done the right things. Keep your head up you can definitely overcome this.

 

[CMMorgan]

....what type of candy did they put in the tank?

And to think.... we eat this stuff? LOL Hopefully it wasn't something edible to do that kind of damage.

 

[ScubaFish802]

Edit: re-read post.

Would such a small piece of candy really do something this intense?

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Have you tried anything like Seachem StressGuard?
Have you tried a lights out period to calm him down.
What are the parameters? Salinity?
If they put a chemical in there, it won't likely show up on a standard test. That would be one for an ICP. Even then, it could just be a toxin, like Windex or air freshener.
I would definitely try StressGuard. You may also want to try to box him in with some grating to make it easier to catch him. If you can trap him, you can get him to a quarantine until you can mitigate the toxin.
You are doing the right thing with water changes but it is like Japan dumping the radiated water into the ocean.... it needs a LOT of water to dissipate but it doesn't go away. Ultimately, you are going to have to do a significant size water change to get the levels down.
Best of luck... I hope that you catch the little fella. Godspeed.

PS Hang in there, fish can be resilient - just like us. Back in the day, some idiots broke into our school library over a holiday and poured a half a gallon of glue into the freshwater aquarium. The tank was a gelatinous mess after the break. Amazingly enough, they found sticky little fish inside... still alive but barely. Those fish were still there when I graduated.

I have not tried that... I’ll,try to get some this weekend : j

relly...glue... that. Sux : (

 

[Fish_Sticks]

Edit: re-read post.

Would such a small piece of candy really do something this intense?

Maybe... something with menthol, like a mint, could really irritate the gills.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

....what type of candy did they put in the tank?

I honestly don’t know if it was candy they put in the tank.. I found an empty wrapper... right? It was Halloween weekend. That particular wrapper was a Reese’s peanut butter cup

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Edit: re-read post.

Would such a small piece of candy really do something this intense?

The wrapper just tells me they were doing something they should not have been doing... they were in my cabinet when no one was looking...

So honestly... this could have been a simple fish death. 5 of the fish I lost were cardinals...pajamafish... these guys were all at a minimum of 3” each... they were old...it could have started as a natural occurrence that spiked ammonia and the rest couldn’t handle it. I don’t know.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Carbon and water changes are the way to go. Good job getting the ammonia under control. Do you have a frag, qt, or big rubbermaid you can set up for the tang? It can be caught, that is fact. It sucks but sometimes you just have to tear everything apart to catch a fish...

I do have a QT... I also have 300 lbs of live rock and a scape I really like : ) I don’t want to tear it won if I don’t have to

 

[CMMorgan]

I do have a QT... I also have 300 lbs of live rock and a scape I really like : ) I don’t want to tear it won if I don’t have to

This is the exact reason that I have never glued my aquascape together. I always worry that if I have to rescue a fish that I won't be able to get to it. That said... I never have the same scape because it's all leverage and balance.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

This is the exact reason that I have never glued my aquascape together. I always worry that if I have to rescue a fish that I won't be able to get to it. That said... I never have the same scape because it's all leverage and balance.

Nothing in my scape is glued together

 

[Rick.45cal]

I’d run some carbon, and stop doing lots of drastic waterchanges, it sounds like you’ve probably done plenty.

Might be easiest to catch the tang at night, with a small net and a flashlight. You blind him with the flashlight and scoop him up. It might take a few tries. If that doesn’t work, I highly recommend getting a trap, it will be useful in the future.

FWIW I doubt the Reeses Peanut Butter cup is the culprit. Who knows what they did though.

Running a “Poly Filter” might be helpful they absorb all kinds of stuff.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

...on topic please ?

 

[CMMorgan]

Nothing in my scape is glued together

Then maybe you won't need to take the whole 300 lbs down to catch him, just enough to build a barricade and chase him into it.

 

[Doctorgori]

2nd that polyfilter and 2nd on the suspects.....but kids can do something completely innocent and unrelated like spraying aerosols et. Things might settle down if/ when that Hippo recovers, let’s hope so.
edit. BRS vid mentions red light for catching fish, I’ve kept a cheap LED for just that purpose

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

Edit: After reading your post again, I changed my mind. I'm not sure what's going on here. I don't know why the blue tang is acting like that.

 

[mermaid_life]

hey i have been following your multiple posts on starting with SPS, etc. You really have been super diligent with everything. I am in the same boat with trying SPS for the first time and definitely have not been as diligent as you have been. I'm sorry you are having all of these issues.

I am speaking up because of your tang issue. My lieutenant tang went through the same thing yours is a while back. I woke up one morning and it was insane. His fins were all torn up and it was scratching like crazy. Catching him and taking down the scape was not an option for me. I didn't know what else to do so I added ruby reef rally just to give it some possible relief from infection from the scratches. I really thought it was a goner. However, as soon as I added the rally, it calmed down a bit and was able to heal. Since then it's fully recovered with fins all regrown. Still don't know the culprit of what happened. My suspicion of allergy to food has not been supported by the experts. Either way, I don't feed that type of food anymore and it hasn't happened again since but I digress.....

Best of luck! Will continue to follow.