Need help asap

Squishie89 · May 17, 2014

I think my cucumber released his toxins. Fish are gasping. I have added air stones. Water is mixing right now. I am adding carbon as we speak. What else can I do? I do not have a QT set up, but once the water is ready I could set it up. Cucumber has been removed.

tyler1503 · May 17, 2014

I think you've covered your bases on this one, well at least I can't think of what else to do. QT the fish and do water changes ASAP.
Good luck.

Squishie89 · May 17, 2014

Performed a 20% water change. 600g of carbon is in the sump. 4 air stones in the tank. Copperband butterfly is doing the worst as she is laying down at this point. The other 8 fish aren't great but not as bad as her at the moment.

tyler1503 · May 17, 2014

Scary.
Can you do any more water changes at the moment?
Do you know why he released the toxins?

Squishie89 · May 17, 2014

He looked stuck in a rock so I helped him out. I have done this for him in the past with no ill effects but I guess this was the time.
I am making more water now.
Thank you for your help.

Squishie89 · May 17, 2014

Clementine (butterfly) died. She was dead when I got to the tank in the morning. Everybody else was "okay" to "normal" except George (blenny) who was breathing very heavy. When I got home after the tank build, George was dead. All other fish; 2 clownfish, 2 pipefish, 1 mandarin, 1 randalls goby, and 1 gumdrop coral croucher are all fine. I just did a 15g water change and I am making more RODI water right now. I have also been adding in nitrifying bacteria to help deal with the die off from the fish. Smaug (cucumber) was still alive when I got home, but very obviously dying, so I put him in the freezer.

Despite how absolutely horrible this has been, unfortunately it could have been A LOT worse. It is only due to me having RODI water and carbon on hand, and catching it REALLY early that I was able to save anyone.

Defect · May 17, 2014

Sorry to hear about your losses but as you said it could have been worse. Thanks for the lesson...I will never try to help a cucumber!

Squishie89 · May 17, 2014

Defect said:
Sorry to hear about your losses but as you said it could have been worse. Thanks for the lesson...I will never try to help a cucumber!

There is about a billion VERY frustrating things that happened in the last 24 hours. One of them is there is almost no advice out there on what to do if this happens to you. I was just going on, "Get the toxins out" last night and did what I thought I could do, only other thing was adding the air stones since the fish were gasping. Too much stuff out there says, "The toxins are fish killers." "Be careful!"

tyler1503 · May 18, 2014

Sorry for your losses. At least the remaining fish are ok.
Maybe you could post a step by step thread about how you dealt with it?
It may help others who are in a similar situation. I've been putting off getting a longhorn cowfish because of the toxins they release.

Naiad · May 18, 2014

I am very sorry to hear about this. For future readers I would suggest pulling the fish into a qt with brand new water while you work at removing any toxin from your tank. The shock of all new water is less harmful than the toxins. Perhaps we should get a sticky going in the invert Section for people to post how they have delt with this.

Mike J. · May 18, 2014

Sorry for your loss. The air stones probably weren't a necessity. As with any contaminate, large water changes and running carbon are the remedies. "The solution to pollution is dilution."

Squishie89 · May 18, 2014

tyler1503 said:
Sorry for your losses. At least the remaining fish are ok.
Maybe you could post a step by step thread about how you dealt with it?
It may help others who are in a similar situation. I've been putting off getting a longhorn cowfish because of the toxins they release.

Yeah I am thinking of doing that. However I think one of the main problems, or in my case, fortunes, is figuring out what the problem was and acting QUICKLY. But at least the info can be out there.

Naiad said:
I am very sorry to hear about this. For future readers I would suggest pulling the fish into a qt with brand new water while you work at removing any toxin from your tank. The shock of all new water is less harmful than the toxins. Perhaps we should get a sticky going in the invert Section for people to post how they have delt with this.

We had definitely thought about filling the QT and getting them in there, however, I think that might have pushed some of them over the edge. The sticky sound like a good idea, I will talk to someone.

Mike J. said:
Sorry for your loss. The air stones probably weren't a necessity. As with any contaminate, large water changes and running carbon are the remedies. "The solution to pollution is dilution."

Yeah probably not neccesary but when it is 1-2am and your beloved fish friends are in SEVERE distress, you do whatever you can. I saw heavy breathing, which can sometimes mean lack of oxygen (and the butterfly was going to the top of the water a lot) you put in air stones, so I did that.
I think you are right and the water change and carbon are what saved them.