New fish didnt make it.. thoughts?

[Nicknackzz13]

Hey

So i added a Bicolor Angelfish to my tank just 1-2days ago, acclimated him for 15-20mins, then popped him in, done great, swam around making friends lol and actually ate right when i fed them! picked at my live rock and was doing absolutely great!, woke up this morning and hes at the bottom of the tank beside my corals where my coral banded shrimp hangs out, dead! i was so shocked!!!!

checked my parameters, ammonia is between 0.5-0.25ppm (added prime to detoxify it) nitrates and nitrites 0ppm and PH was quite low when i moved everything to my bigger 40g its around (7.4-7.6PH)

gonna open windows tomorrow to help raise it without using buffers etc..

weird thing is it must of happened overnight or early morning, i checked them at 9-11am and he was dead when i checked!

any thoughts?


My clowns and chromish are fine, very active, feeding great, swimming together and having fun!!!!


just the other day i lost my little chromish i started with! he jumped out when my tank hood wasnt on!!!

 

[Diesel]

Sorry to hear that.
What was your PH prior to the new fish?
Did you checked the parameters from the water the fish came in?
Let's rumble up some Reefsquad family.




[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[melypr1985]

Hi! I'm sorry to hear of your loss. I'd like to know what the SG of the water was where the fish came from. LFS's usually keep their fish systems pretty low and raising them to 1.025 too quickly can cause osmotic shock and a quick death in some cases. It sounds like he was looking and acting normal when you put him in, so there wasn't any spots, dirty/dusty appearance, swimming into the flow of a powerhead, flashing/scratching, or heavy breathing?

 

[Squamosa]

A few issues concern me!

15-20mins,

That might be enough to get the bag up to temp only!
My LFS keep their fish holding tanks (QT) at 1.018 sg, mine is 1.026 sg
I normally put the bag in the sump and then run a dripline to slowly get the salinity up (this can take up to 3 hours), then I drop the light intensity and add the fish to the tank.

0.5-0.25ppm

Why do you have any ammonia in your system, are you still cycling your tank?

 

[Nicknackzz13]

Well starters, my LFS is nearly 45mins away (thats with good traffic flow) so i dont acclimate too long!

Not sure of my LFS paramaters or Salinity, mines always stays at 0.125
My temp is 78-80f
lights on for 8-12hrs per day
i feed daily, live sand,rock, done water changes etc

Never noticed heavy breathing from him, ALTHOUGH i did notice him pacing the back of the tank back and fourth constantly, but i assumed he was in a new environment so he was adjusting? I fed them and he ate while he paced as well.. then he started to graze on my rocks, picking off food and whatever else is on them? going in and out of the tunnels ive created in the rocks etc and i thought HEY hes doing good, im glad! so i was happy to see this behavior, did notice my coral banded strike at him once cause he got close to her, but he wasnt even fazed by it and swam off giving her the middle gill! lol

My chromish and clowns are doing great, and so was the angel, sadly ive no idea what went wrong? i researched some and apprantly they can have something call cyanide? or ciyanide(Sorry if its spelled wrong) and can be a silent killer of angelfish?

When i spotted him in my fish store, he was at the bottom of the tank with a bigger angelfish over him and he was like Submissive? to it, not sure what was going on, but he was cheap and he was pretty so i thought ill take him.. looked healthy very colorful etc...


what a beautiful fish to have lost! i wanted to put an eel in, but i was funny because im not too sure if theyd eat my hermits or shrimp?

i think right now though ill wait a few weeks see what happens, figure out and ask if my LFS will reinburse me? maybe a fault on their end idk, but well he was such a beautiful fish to have lost! not really worried about him costing $25, just that he didnt survive very long (day or two)

No my tank went through the cycle, and im not sure why, i was thinking possible overfeeding?

or there is something in my rock that just isnt letting the ammonia go down, but i dont wanna remove the rock because the bacteria would die off?

 

[Nicknackzz13]

Also if this helps guys, when I bought my first SW tank a few mths ago the rock came with it that the guy had for a year he told me, and I did notice a dead tiny crab but idk if it came from his rock or sand, but I changed the sand out after awhile, but not the live purple rock he gave me, would there be something in the rock? Possibly giving me the ammonia still? The ammonia did go down awhile back and then risen again I thought due to over feeding this time?

Hope this helps

 

[melypr1985]

Well, this is a good point to stick at for a moment. There should never be ammonia present in your DT. At this point it's difficult to determine if the ammonia was present before the fish died and led to it's death, or if the ammonia spiked because it was dead in the water. I'm more inclined to think it was a contributing factor in the fish's death. You'll want to work on getting your tank to a place where it's able to process 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours easily. You can get some stability and dose that to the tank to help with this without hurting any of your current inhabitants. You should also call your LFS and ask what salinity they keep the system this angel came from. If it's more than .002 or .003 difference to yours at home, then I think that (and the quick acclimation) contributed to the problem as well.

 

[Nicknackzz13]

Well, this is a good point to stick at for a moment. There should never be ammonia present in your DT. At this point it's difficult to determine if the ammonia was present before the fish died and led to it's death, or if the ammonia spiked because it was dead in the water. I'm more inclined to think it was a contributing factor in the fish's death. You'll want to work on getting your tank to a place where it's able to process 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours easily. You can get some stability and dose that to the tank to help with this without hurting any of your current inhabitants. You should also call your LFS and ask what salinity they keep the system this angel came from. If it's more than .002 or .003 difference to yours at home, then I think that (and the quick acclimation) contributed to the problem as well.

Woukd that be seachem stability? What does it do? I can get some ASAP

 

[melypr1985]

Its a bacteria in a bottle product
It will boost the nitrifying bacteria in your tank so you arnt fighting ammonia spikes like that.

 

[Bdog4u2]

What test kit you got? Api will give you false positives

 

[Salty1962]

I always take 1-2 hrs to acclimate my livestock. I check both Ph and Salinity at the start and right before release to make sure their the same. I add about half the bag with my water and then pour out half and refill the bag again. As mentioned, you should not have any ammonia in you tank, before or after a death of any livestock. I would work on getting your system a little more stable before adding anymore livestock. The problem with ammonia is as your system processes the ammonia, nitrites are going to follow and both are toxic to your fish. JMO

 

[Nicknackzz13]

yup! i

I always take 1-2 hrs to acclimate my livestock. I check both Ph and Salinity at the start and right before release to make sure their the same. I add about half the bag with my water and then pour out half and refill the bag again. As mentioned, you should not have any ammonia in you tank, before or after a death of any livestock. I would work on getting your system a little more stable before adding anymore livestock. The problem with ammonia is as your system processes the ammonia, nitrites are going to follow and both are toxic to your fish. JMO

think ill be doing just this!, going to get some stability, a big bottle, anyone know the correct dosage? or perhaps is a a whole bottle okay? just curious if anyones used it/ advice

 

[DMan]

15min isn't enough time to acclimate. Lfs 45min away is nothing when it comes to transit. My lfs is just over an hour away by public transit. And just as a comparison I added 5 Anthias on sat. Got them home around 130pm, floated the open bag till 2pm. And then started a drip acclamation. They were released into the tank around 430pm. So all said they were acclimated for about 3hrs. That may seem long, but the lfs water s.g. was 1.021 and my water is at 1.026. So it can take awhile to get there. Just remember fish are probably in a bag for 24hrs or more during shipping and then acclimated to the lfs water. A few hours isn't going kill them. And if it does well they were probably dead fish swimming anyways.

 

[melypr1985]

yup! i

think ill be doing just this!, going to get some stability, a big bottle, anyone know the correct dosage? or perhaps is a a whole bottle okay? just curious if anyones used it/ advice

The dosing directions are on the bottle. I've never stuck strictly to it because it's just bacteria in a bottle so I figured it wont hurt to just dump the whole thing in the refuge all over the rock where I want it settle. Then again, it's probably best to follow the directions on the bottle.

 

[Squamosa]

anyone know the correct dosage?

Start at manufacturer's recommendations!

 

[Nicknackzz13]

Start at manufacturer's recommendations!

thank you bud! really helpful! going to get some!!! and give it a go, Wont add nothing for approx 1 month, see how things go!

 

[Justin D]

Hey

So i added a Bicolor Angelfish to my tank just 1-2days ago, acclimated him for 15-20mins, then popped him in, done great, swam around making friends lol and actually ate right when i fed them! picked at my live rock and was doing absolutely great!, woke up this morning and hes at the bottom of the tank beside my corals where my coral banded shrimp hangs out, dead! i was so shocked!!!!

checked my parameters, ammonia is between 0.5-0.25ppm (added prime to detoxify it) nitrates and nitrites 0ppm and PH was quite low when i moved everything to my bigger 40g its around (7.4-7.6PH)

gonna open windows tomorrow to help raise it without using buffers etc..

weird thing is it must of happened overnight or early morning, i checked them at 9-11am and he was dead when i checked!

any thoughts?


My clowns and chromish are fine, very active, feeding great, swimming together and having fun!!!!


just the other day i lost my little chromish i started with! he jumped out when my tank hood wasnt on!!!

When I acclimated it's for 60 to 90 mins depending on what type of fish

 

[ReeferReefer]

I'd say do slower drip acclimation 30 min to 1 hour. Make sure your tank has no Ammonia as well. Don't chase pH as long as it's stable. The other thing to consider is that angels often don't ship well. It could be delayed response to shipping. When possible I try to get my livestock from local Reefers who have them in established reef tanks.

 

[Nicknackzz13]

I drip acclimate, also I got so.e stability, using it for 2 days now 3rd will be tomorrow, everything looking good, does anyone know if over feeding corals (Kent coral feeder) would raise the ammonia?

 

[ReeferReefer]

Overfeeding, especially broadcast feeding corals can contribute to ammonia. The thing is that your biological filtration should be able to quickly break the ammonia down into nitrite and then nitrate. What is your tank size and how much live rock do you have?