Help!

[gulfcoast76]

Looking for any ideas why EVERY fish i put in my tank ends up dead after a short time. I have 3 nems who are doing great. And 2 seahorses who are healthy. But every fish i put in ends up dead. I had a ich issuefor a while but took care of that. Ive completely changed all water, and ive even switched tanks. All my tests are spot on. I use a marineland canister, with a hob filter as welll. I have a skimmer in place and 2 wavemakers. Really at my wits end why cant i keep a fish?? Thank s for your help

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Looking for any ideas why EVERY fish i put in my tank ends up dead after a short time. I have 3 nems who are doing great. And 2 seahorses who are healthy. But every fish i put in ends up dead. I had a ich issuefor a while but took care of that. Ive completely changed all water, and ive even switched tanks. All my tests are spot on. I use a marineland canister, with a hob filter as welll. I have a skimmer in place and 2 wavemakers. Really at my wits end why cant i keep a fish?? Thank s for your help

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

We get that question fairly often from members. Trouble is, it is difficult to determine cause of death after the fact, and it is probable that if you had multiple losses over time, that there were different problems with different fish. It also may be that your fish supplier doesn't have good quality fish, we see that pretty often as well.

Generally, when fish die, but the invertebrates are all fine, that points to a fish disease of some sort, not a water quality problem. However, you have the two seahorses - they are actually quite delicate and prone to disease, so that doesn't match up with the other fish dying from a disease and they did not. It's possible that seahorses are not prone to some diseases. I almost always keep seahorses in their own tank (no other fish) so I don't have much experience with cross diseases between them and other fish.

Can you create a rough list of what fish you've had, how long they lived, and any symptoms that they showed?

Jay

 

[gulfcoast76]

Of course. The list seems quite long..but as for symptoms, only a few have shown any. So lets see ive had a convict goby, a blue tang, a mandarin, a lionfish, a foxface rabbitfish,a sweetlip, a chocolate chip starfish, a brittle star, dianas hogfish, multiple clowns. The only symptoms ive noticed was a couple had cloudy eyes and loss of color, and the normal ich spots. But some fish have been fine and then dead the next day. The seahorses have been through the good and bad times and are still doing well. As are the 3 nems. Had my only 2 fish left, 2 juvenile clowns both end up dead this morning and both were fine last night. Very frustrating. Maybe i need to give up on fish all together. Idk. Btw tank is a year old

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Sorry about the frustrations, what were the parameters of your tank if you know? Any photos? That could help us identify if something is going on in your tank. Have you made any recent changes to the tank that have caused a decline in lifespan?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Of course. The list seems quite long..but as for symptoms, only a few have shown any. So lets see ive had a convict goby, a blue tang, a mandarin, a lionfish, a foxface rabbitfish,a sweetlip, a chocolate chip starfish, a brittle star, dianas hogfish, multiple clowns. The only symptoms ive noticed was a couple had cloudy eyes and loss of color, and the normal ich spots. But some fish have been fine and then dead the next day. The seahorses have been through the good and bad times and are still doing well. As are the 3 nems. Had my only 2 fish left, 2 juvenile clowns both end up dead this morning and both were fine last night. Very frustrating. Maybe i need to give up on fish all together. Idk. Btw tank is a year old

O.K., thanks. None of those fish have a similar hardiness factor. Sweetlips can be delicate, but convict gobies are typically very sturdy. Tangs and clownfish are in the middle. Did they all come from the same store?

Any spots of ich on the fish is potentially serious, as the end result of an untreated ich infection is usually death. A single cloudy eye is sometimes caused by a minor injury, but if both eyes are cloudy, that is more often a sign if disease.

One thing to watch for is rapid breathing. That is often a major symptom that many people miss. Over time, people become more familiar with respiration rates, and rapid breathing really stands out to them. In the early part of being a hobbyist though, it is often missed, because "rapid" is so subjective. What you need to watch for is either an increase in the observable respiration rate, or a base rate that is higher than about 120 gill beats per minute (for most fish). What I do is video the fish and then count the number of bill beats in the video in X seconds and then convert that to gill beats per minute.

Another thing to watch is the fish's appeitite. Any fish that suddenly stops eating for more than 2w4 hours is either sick, or there is a water quality issue.

At this point, I would suggest leaving the tank fishless for 60 days (to let any parasites present time to die out). Trouble is, you can't do that with the seahorses present....they could be harboring a sub acute infection.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

How were the fish acclimated and for how long?
I assume you keep a lower tank temperature for the seahorses? As seahorses dont need a high turnover rate for water movement, fish do and with a canister as primary, you likely dont have biological and chemical filtration to meet their filtering needs
Can you provide a pic or two of setup with filters under white lighting ?
For ich you had, was the tan fishless and if so, how long did you leave it fishless?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sorry about the frustrations, what were the parameters of your tank if you know? Any photos? That could help us identify if something is going on in your tank. Have you made any recent changes to the tank that have caused a decline in lifespan?

Likely not a parameter issue as seahorses would be dead as they require subtle movement and good water quality

 

[Cell]

Not sure many of those fish are good inhabitants in a seahorse tank, regardless of your issue. @SeahorseKeeper may have some additional insight for your particular issue.

 

[LiamPM]

Would have to agree with the above - Even if you wernt having the issues you are, those arent great tank mate choices to start with - Seahorses need very different conditions to most of those fish you've tried and lost.

Maybe explain a little more about the ich you knew you had previously and how exactly you sorted it? Was it confirmed ich? what size is this tank? How long has it been set up for? It sounds like youve had a major issue previously and now hitting a major issue again - Its possible they are linked.

 

[Weeb]

Looking for any ideas why EVERY fish i put in my tank ends up dead after a short time. I have 3 nems who are doing great. And 2 seahorses who are healthy. But every fish i put in ends up dead. I had a ich issuefor a while but took care of that. Ive completely changed all water, and ive even switched tanks. All my tests are spot on. I use a marineland canister, with a hob filter as welll. I have a skimmer in place and 2 wavemakers. Really at my wits end why cant i keep a fish?? Thank s for your help

You said you, ". . .had a ich issue for a while but took care of that." What does this mean? What did you do? When was this ich issue? Are you sure it was marine ich?

Thanks.

 

[gulfcoast76]

How were the fish acclimated and for how long?
I assume you keep a lower tank temperature for the seahorses? As seahorses dont need a high turnover rate for water movement, fish do and with a canister as primary, you likely dont have biological and chemical filtration to meet their filtering needs
Can you provide a pic or two of setup with filters under white lighting ?
For ich you had, was the tan fishless and if so, how long did you leave it fishless?

All fish were temp and drip acclimated. Some would last a couple weeks some less than a week. I left it fishless during the course of ich treatment.

 

[gulfcoast76]

All fish were temp and drip acclimated. Some would last a couple weeks some less than a week. I left it fishless during the course of ich treatment.

As for the biological filtration, my sand bed has about a million copepods so i figured everything had to be up to par

 

[gulfcoast76]

Sorry about the frustrations, what were the parameters of your tank if you know? Any photos? That could help us identify if something is going on in your tank. Have you made any recent changes to the tank that have caused a decline in lifespan?

Ph 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates0.5
Salinity 1.024

 

[gulfcoast76]

Photo. Was wondering about the plastic plants...could they be leaching some chemicals into water???

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Photo. Was wondering about the plastic plants...could they be leaching some chemicals into water???

In the past, plastic plants all came from a couple of companies like Penn Plax and Metaframe. They were all safe. Nowadays, these plants could be made by other companies, some of which are cheap imports and may have done NO studies as to safety.

I don't think that is the issue, because any toxins would first kill delicate invertebrates, like the anemones, but one never knows for sure....

Jay

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

As for the biological filtration, my sand bed has about a million copepods so i figured everything had to be up to par

Do you have any rocks in your tank?
Do you have a protein skimmer?

 

[Lavey29]

Your tank needs to be fishless for 76 days. Then any new fish added should be QT prior with meds and observation for 15 to 30 days. Pick fish appropriate for your small size tank.

 

[gulfcoast76]

You said you, ". . .had a ich issue for a while but took care of that." What does this mean? What did you do? When was this ich issue? Are you sure it was marine ich?

Thanks.

It was white spots and cloudy eyes. Some of the fish i put in qt with copper treatment. None made it through that process. I treated the tank with ich-x. This has been 2 months ago.

 

[gulfcoast76]

Do you have any rocks in your tank?
Do you have a protein skimmer?

Yes i have 10 pds live rock and i also have a skimmer running. Substrate is caribsea live sand

 

[gulfcoast76]

Your tank needs to be fishless for 76 days. Then any new fish added should be QT prior with meds and observation for 15 to 30 days. Pick fish appropriate for your small size tank.

What medications should i be using in my qt?