FISH POISONED BY FOOD! Any cure?

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

EMERGENCY - HELP! FISH ARE BARELY MOVING

Are the fish’s gills red or inflamed by chance? If you are getting false ammonia readings and the vessels become infected, the fish will become infected Spoiled fish food can increase ammonia drastically. With effects of high ammonia, the fish will breathe more quickly; you will seem them flap...

www.reef2reef.com

^^Link to previous thread

I am making a new thread on this because I want to know if anyone has accidentally poisoned their fish with spoiled frozen food and if so how they treated it.

I switched up my mysis shrimp brand the other day and overnight the fish turned lethargic. My royal gramma is likely going to pass away due to this.

When I got the food I checked it. The bottom cubes had clearly been thawed at some point but I didn't think much of it. I fed it anyways. Lethal mistake.

I believe food poisoning is the cause of the fish getting sick because my blenny didn't each much (he's doing the best), my clowns at a medium amount (they're doing okay), and my royal gramma ate the most (he's doing the worst). I have ruled out flukes by doing a freshwater bath. I ruled out velvet, ich, and brooklynella because there are no signs of any external parasites. Unless there is some weird unknown disease I am unaware of, I believe the root cause is spoiled food.

What I would like to know is if there is any known treatment for this. I don't want to lose any of my fish

SlugSnorter · Mar 2, 2022

keep params solid, throw out that food immediately. Feed a good food you are sure is safe, and maybe add something to encourage feeding. If fish show signs of internal infection follow appropriate procedure for it. (metroplex + focus, Copper and QT, etc)

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

Sounds good thanks!

Joe31415 · Mar 2, 2022

Complete guess, but if it was me, the first thing I'd be thinking is that the spoiled food released a bunch of ammonia into the tank. I think the first thing I'd do is a water test for ammonia. If I didn't have any ammonia tests, I'd start a water change (or just do one if it's not automated), toss in some carbon and run to the closest pet store to pick up either an API test kit or an ammonia badge. A cheap test is fine, you're just looking for the presence of ammonia, the exact ppm isn't all that important.
After that...go from there. If there's an ammonia spike, a decent sized water change, maybe some bio-spira or Dr Tims and then another water change a day or two later and you'll probably have it under control.
If there's no ammonia...I'm not sure. Again, if it was me, I probably wouldn't throw a ton of money at non-standard tests. I think I'd probably keep the carbon in, and keep up with a (daily?) decent sized water change to flush out whatever is in there.
If you have a skimmer, maybe skim somewhat more aggressively for a few days.

SlugSnorter · Mar 2, 2022

Joe31415 said:
Complete guess, but if it was me, the first thing I'd be thinking is that the spoiled food released a bunch of ammonia into the tank. I think the first thing I'd do is a water test for ammonia. If I didn't have any ammonia tests, I'd start a water change (or just do one if it's not automated), toss in some carbon and run to the closest pet store to pick up either an API test kit or an ammonia badge. A cheap test is fine, you're just looking for the presence of ammonia, the exact ppm isn't all that important.
After that...go from there. If there's an ammonia spike, a decent sized water change, maybe some bio-spira or Dr Tims and then another water change a day or two later and you'll probably have it under control.
If there's no ammonia...I'm not sure. Again, if it was me, I probably wouldn't throw a ton of money at non-standard tests. I think I'd probably keep the carbon in, and keep up with a (daily?) decent sized water change to flush out whatever is in there.
If you have a skimmer, maybe skim somewhat more aggressively for a few days.

other thread showed no ammonia spike if I remember. Apparently Corals and Inverts are fine too

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

Joe31415 said:
Complete guess, but if it was me, the first thing I'd be thinking is that the spoiled food released a bunch of ammonia into the tank. I think the first thing I'd do is a water test for ammonia. If I didn't have any ammonia tests, I'd start a water change (or just do one if it's not automated), toss in some carbon and run to the closest pet store to pick up either an API test kit or an ammonia badge. A cheap test is fine, you're just looking for the presence of ammonia, the exact ppm isn't all that important.
After that...go from there. If there's an ammonia spike, a decent sized water change, maybe some bio-spira or Dr Tims and then another water change a day or two later and you'll probably have it under control.
If there's no ammonia...I'm not sure. Again, if it was me, I probably wouldn't throw a ton of money at non-standard tests. I think I'd probably keep the carbon in, and keep up with a (daily?) decent sized water change to flush out whatever is in there.
If you have a skimmer, maybe skim somewhat more aggressively for a few days.

I did use an API test kit but the results were so wildly different that I couldn't tell. I'll do more tests after school. I'm getting a batch of saltwater going, but it'll be a bit. I did a water change yesterday as well.

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

SlugSnorter said:
other thread showed no ammonia spike if I remember. Apparently Corals and Inverts are fine too

@Joe31415 This was another thing. My pistol shrimp and anemones and corals are just fine. Euphyllias are slightly retracted due to change in flow but other than that everything is fine besides fish.

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

Ammonia test 0 Nitirite Test 0
Food smells relatively normal

vetteguy53081 · Mar 2, 2022

beehive124 said:
Ammonia test 0 Nitirite Test 0
Food smells relatively normal

Food not worth risk as stated in other post
if you are using API test kits, you likely have false readings and levels higher than shown
Take a water sample to a trusted LFS that does NOT use API kits and see what readings they come up with

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Food not worth risk as stated in other post
if you are using API test kits, you likely have false readings and levels higher than shown
Take a water sample to a trusted LFS that does NOT use API kits and see what readings they come up with

I don’t have an lfs near me. I’ll do a large water change

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

@vetteguy53081
wouldnt ammonia affect the corals too?

vetteguy53081 · Mar 2, 2022

beehive124 said:
@vetteguy53081
wouldnt ammonia affect the corals too?

No. Corals can use ammonia as a source of nitrogen and may even prefer it opposed to high nitrate. At a very high concentration, it can become toxic. Corals react more to high nitrates and phosphates

beehive124 · Mar 2, 2022

ohhhh okay
Thank you!

TheDragonsReef · Mar 2, 2022

Id think that spoiled food would be more of a bacterial issue than ammonia or water quality. Essentially youd just be giving the fish a bad stomach ache/food poisoning. Not sure what mediation id recommend more or less just observe and feed fresh foods unless it gets worse