Coral Beauty Loss

[Yahtzee170]

Hey all,

I purchased a six line wrasse, ocellaris clownfish, and coral beauty from a LFS yesterday. The clownfish and coral beauty were in the same tank at the LFS, and all three were on the same system. I'm definitely not an expert, but the store was clean, I didn't see any sick looking or dead fish, and the employee that helped me was excellent. When I inquired about their quarantine practices, I was told they don't have a separate quarantine area but have a cycle throughout the month including copper, PraziPro and some other medications I don't recall. I don't know how long these fish had been in their system.

After purchase I did the following:
-approx. 1 hour ride home in car
-matched salinity in 10g quarantine to their 1.024 (I used 32 PPT with Hanna salinity tester)
-floated sealed bags for ~45 minutes in 78 degree water
-opened bags and used a net to transfer

I've attached a 6 second clip of the coral beauty and clownfish after transfer. I thought the coral beauty might be breathing a little fast, but was upright and swimming around a little. The other fish looked fine to me.

In the middle of the night I checked on them. The clownfish looked fine, wrasse was in his mucus cocoon, but coral beauty was laying flat on the bottom and breathing very quickly. Unfortunately this morning it passed. The clownfish and wrasse are both active this morning and ate a little. Here are pictures of the tank and post-mortem:

Spoiler: post-mortem

Is there anything I can do differently to prevent this happening again? I'm at a loss, and the only thing I can think of is maybe the stress of the move? or not enough cover in the quarantine tank?

 

[vetteguy53081]

There is a varied reading with crank and bag salinity
How did you acclimate them and for how long?
increasing oxygen may have helped coral beauty. What is current ammonia level and what test kits are you using?
Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet?

 

[Yahtzee170]

There is a varied reading with crank and bag salinity
How did you acclimate them and for how long?
increasing oxygen may have helped coral beauty. What is current ammonia level and what test kits are you using?
Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet?

I floated the bags for about 45 minutes, after which I used a net to transfer each fish to the QT tank.
I'm using a seachem tidal 35 filter set to its max flow for filtration. Seems to be a good amount of surface agitation. Ammonia is 0 using API, and <0.02 from seachem ammonia alert. Nitrite was also 0.
I use RODI (confirmed 0 TDS just now) with tropic marin reef pro. That batch of saltwater has been mixing in a Rubbermaid ~2 weeks. It's mixed to 35 ppt, which I decreased to 32-33 with rodi before adding the fish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I floated the bags for about 45 minutes, after which I used a net to transfer each fish to the QT tank.
I'm using a seachem tidal 35 filter set to its max flow for filtration. Seems to be a good amount of surface agitation. Ammonia is 0 using API, and <0.02 from seachem ammonia alert. Nitrite was also 0.
I use RODI (confirmed 0 TDS just now) with tropic marin reef pro. That batch of saltwater has been mixing in a Rubbermaid ~2 weeks. It's mixed to 35 ppt, which I decreased to 32-33 with rodi before adding the fish.

Acclimation may have been the issue
You want to float the bags for about 20 minutes and drip or empty contents into a clean bucket and add.a cup of water to bucket every 15 minutes 6-8x and check bucket salinity to see if it matches that of tank Then release fish and to prevent osmotic shock

 

[Yahtzee170]

Acclimation may have been the issue
You want to float the bags for about 20 minutes and drip or empty contents into a clean bucket and add.a cup of water to bucket every 15 minutes 6-8x and check bucket salinity to see if it matches that of tank Then release fish and to prevent osmotic shock

I've read mixed things on drip or not. My understanding is any ammonia in the bag becomes more toxic after increasing pH/aeration? Might not be relevant though since the fish were only in the bags for ~2 hours.

I did compare the salinity between the bag and tank, and both were 32-33 ppt.

I didn't compare pH or other parameters, not sure if that could have been the issue. Either way will give that method a try. Thank you.

 

[Karen00]

I'm sorry for your loss. The only thing I would've have done differently would be more along the lines of acclimating how vetteguy does it. From my reading salinity is super important but it's also important to get them acclimated to your water which means adding your tank water to the acclimation process. From my reading subtle differences in water chemistry can shock some fish. I have also been told to do it this way by three LFS's I have dealt with. Their comment was simply to get them used to your tank water. Obviously it's possible something else happened with the Coral Beauty but it does seem like shock of some sort.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I'm sorry for your loss. The only thing I would've have done differently would be more along the lines of acclimating how vetteguy does it. From my reading salinity is super important but it's also important to get them acclimated to your water which means adding your tank water to the acclimation process. From my reading subtle differences in water chemistry can shock some fish. I have also been told to do it this way by three LFS's I have dealt with. Their comment was simply to get them used to your tank water. Obviously it's possible something else happened with the Coral Beauty but it does seem like shock of some sort.

Yes and no bag water at the end

 

[Karen00]

Yes and no bag water at the end

Exactly.