Two fish died in past week, any ideas?

[codys21]

Hello, everyone!

I have a 29g that's been set up since February. I first added two clowns (same size at the time) at the end of March and then added a brain coral, a GSP, a zoanthid, and a Banggai Cardinalfish in the middle of June. Four days ago, I added a lawnmower blenny, two trochus snails, four astraea snails, and six cerith snails to help combat some hair algae (the snails have been doing a great job!). All livestock has been purchased from my LFS except for a cleaner package I got back in March which was purchased from Reef Cleaners.

On August 14th, my wife and I woke to a dead clownfish . It's the smaller of the two and we have no idea why it died. All parameters seem to be okay (listed below). Today when I came home during lunch, I noticed our cardinal was acting a bit sluggish. When I got home less than an hour ago, I found him dead. I thought after the clownfish died, maybe it was just a fluke, but two fish now? Again, We've had the clownfish for almost five months and the cardinal for two. We moved on August 1st (but literally only two miles) but the fish were without light (other than indirect, natural light) for a couple days. We also started to notice some hair algae before moving so we tried to scrub the rocks since we had to take them out to move anyway. We only used a brush and some water that was already in the tank (no chemicals or anything). After moving and putting the r ocks back in, the hair algae problem was actually worse but all parameters still seemed okay. After our normal weekly water change and the algae still persisting, we were planning on getting some additional snails to help combat the issue, but the clownfish died before purchasing the snails and the blenny so I assume it's not a problem with that.

I've also had a problem with my brain coral which was discussed a bit in the link below, but the other corals are doing fine.

So, any ideas?

Water Parameters:
Temp: 78.1
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.1
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrate: 5
dKH: 10

Phosphate: 0.25(?) (hard to read API test)

Calcium: 460

RODI water with IO Reef Crystals
Doing 5 gallon water changes every week.

29g tank
Orbit Marine IC LED on high for 7 hours
No sump
Aquatic Life 115 Mini Skimmer set up since beginning of July

Thanks!
Cody

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-is-happening-to-my-brain-coral.426511/page-2#post-4942579

 

[Reeferdood]

@Humblefish

 

[EmdeReef]

Parameters seem fine. Any spots, wounds, scars, mucus, peeling skin on the dead fish? Any chance you have a picture?

When you say the fish were without tank lights was the flow also cut off and how many days was that before the fish died?

Other clown doing ok? No Flashing, heavy breathing or anything unusual on its body?

 

[codys21]

Parameters seem fine. Any spots, wounds, scars, mucus, peeling skin on the dead fish? Any chance you have a picture?

When you say the fish were without tank lights was the flow also cut off and how many days was that before the fish died?

Other clown doing ok? No Flashing, heavy breathing or anything unusual on its body?

So spots, wounds, etc that we saw. No, unfortunately no pictures of either of them. The tank was without flow for about a day but has been with flow since. It was Aug 1-2 without flow. That was 12 days before the clown died and 20 days before the cardinal died. Other clown seems to be doing fine.

 

[codys21]

So spots, wounds, etc that we saw. No, unfortunately no pictures of either of them. The tank was without flow for about a day but has been with flow since. It was Aug 1-2 without flow. That was 12 days before the clown died and 20 days before the cardinal died. Other clown seems to be doing fine.

Actually, this picture was taken yesterday. The trochus is the highlight of the picture but the cardinal is there.

 

[ZoWhat]

Algae blooms can deplete vital O2.

My guess is your Aquatic Life 115 Mini Skimmer is not oxygenation the water fast enough if an algae bloom is going on.

A skimmers 2nd job it to oxygenate the water

Are fish seeming to swim more towards the top?
Are fish breathing heavy with gills rapidly flapping? All Classic signs of O2 depletion

Your O2 might be critically low



.

 

[ZoWhat]

Did some editing...you.might want to reread above

 

[codys21]

Algae blooms can deplete vital O2.

My guess is your Aquatic Life 115 Mini Skimmer is not oxygenation the water fast enough if an algae bloom is going on.

A skimmers 2nd job it to oxygenate the water

Are fish seeming to swim more towards the top?
Are fish breathing heavy with gills rapidly flapping? All Classic signs of O2 depletion

Your O2 might be critically low


.

Fish seem to be breathing fine. If anything, the clownfish were actually just starting to explore the bottom of the tank. They always use to chill near the top, especially in the corners and sleep. They (well now just one ) seems to still spend some time on top to sleep but spends time elsewhere as well. The skimmer seems to be producing plenty of bubbles, plus I've only had it for about a month whereas I've had the clowns for about five. That could still be a reason, I'm just not really seeing those signs. Any way to test?

 

[ZoWhat]

O2 was just an educated guess.

29g is not a lot of water volume...which means stakes are higher with temp swings and salinity swings.

Your water parameters seem ok....
Sounds like O2 is ok if skimmer is functioning properly.....

My next guess would be STRESS is killing them

Fish could be stressed by:
* large temp swings (like +/- 5degrees or more over 24hrs)
* large swings in salinity (I hope you're using a refractometer and not a swingarm)
* stress from other fish fighting over territory. Dominance wins and survives. Submissiveness loses and dies.

Check those three things and report back plz



.

 

[EmdeReef]

Hypoxia could cause rapid fish death, but usually manifests itself within hours/days, and unlike pathogens/toxins, in a small tank mortality would almost certainly be 100%. Symptoms are usually difficult to miss.

Is it possible that there were any toxins introduced during your move? I’d do a few water changes just to be safe.

Gram negative bacteria along with velvet are the most common killers of fish often without many easily discernible signs, especially on clowns. That said both are pretty indiscriminate and while it’s possible for a fish to survive both events, it’s not that common.

Unfortunately, sometimes we just don’t know. I would advise you wait a few weeks before adding any new fish/inverts and once you can be more certain your tank is stable you should consider quarantine. Good luck!

 

[codys21]

O2 was just an educated guess.

29g is not a lot of water volume...which means stakes are higher with temp swings and salinity swings.

Your water parameters seem ok....
Sounds like O2 is ok if skimmer is functioning properly.....

My next guess would be STRESS is killing them

Fish could be stressed by:
* large temp swings (like +/- 5degrees or more over 24hrs)
* large swings in salinity (I hope you're using a refractometer and not a swingarm)
* stress from other fish fighting over territory. Dominance wins and survives. Submissiveness loses and dies.

Check those three things and report back plz

.

No large temp swings. Yes, I'm using a refractometer and keeping it stable at 1.025. I know the rule of thumb for inches of fish per gallon for saltwater fish is considerably less lenient than freshwater fish but all three of my fish were tiny. Maybe five inches combined. They all seemed to do their own thing but the clowns would occasionally hangout. They never seemed to be fighting, unless the female clown (only one left) was a jerk at night.

 

[codys21]

Hypoxia could cause rapid fish death, but usually manifests itself within hours/days, and unlike pathogens/toxins, in a small tank mortality would almost certainly be 100%. Symptoms are usually difficult to miss.

Is it possible that there were any toxins introduced during your move? I’d do a few water changes just to be safe.

Gram negative bacteria along with velvet are the most common killers of fish often without many easily discernible signs, especially on clowns. That said both are pretty indiscriminate and while it’s possible for a fish to survive both events, it’s not that common.

Unfortunately, sometimes we just don’t know. I would advise you wait a few weeks before adding any new fish/inverts and once you can be more certain your tank is stable you should consider quarantine. Good luck!

I can't 100 % rule out that something got in the tank during our move but I honestly cannot think of anything. I had completed two water changes between my move and first fish death and an additional water change between the two fish deaths.

Yes, I'll be waiting to add anything additional. Hopefully my last clown doesn't get too lonely!

 

[ZoWhat]

Are you testing your water source for TDS?

 

[ca1ore]

Fish die, sometimes two in quick succession. That Banggai looks to be on the thin side, are you feeding enough? Could have been any of the things already noted.

 

[codys21]

Are you testing your water source for TDS?

Yes, I am. It's zero.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

My bet would be it it was stress related. Moving the tank, low o2 from no flow for a day (thats a long time), possibly the clowns fought for dominance, under feeding (that cardinal look super skinny). All probably played a role in the death of the fish, leaving them open to disease and parasites.