Why are my fish dying?! Plz help

[blossom]

Finished repying: thank you everyone for all of the help and advice. I will be getting a new ammonia test kit and a tap water test kit. We will also quarentine our fish in copper and try to starve the potential illness out.

Sorry for the length but we really need help!! My husband and i have a 32 gal. biocube. Weve been adding things for a couple months now and have many corals that are doing great but we are having trouble with fish. After having a yellow prawn goby for months we made an amateur mistake and bought a benggai from petco. They both were dead within days with no signs of why. We got a diamond watchman and he did very well for 3 weeks and then died within 2 days after buying a gramma. The gramma did well though, so after 2 weeks then we added 2 clownfish that came with a tank we bought (long story), and the gramma died after a day. We are at a loss. No signs of illness on any of the fish. Only things we know are all the fish stopped eating the day they were dying and started breathing heavy.

 

[Pickle_soup]

Can you post a picture of your set-up including filtration and all that stuff? Also, what are your water parameters? What other animals do you have in your tank?

 

[blossom]

Can you post a picture of your set-up including filtration and all that stuff? Also, what are your water parameters? What other animals do you have in your tank?

Alk- 10.9
C- 490
PH- 8
Amm- .15
Rite- 0
Rate- 10
Salinity- 33
Temp- 79.8
Our parameters have been about the same this whole time. The other animals we have are 2 Clown Fish, Skunk Shrimp, Trochus Snails, Nesarious Snails, Turbo Snails, Cerith Snails, and a few Serpant Star that were hitchhikers on some coral. Its a biocube so hard to get a picture of the filtration but basically a small very basic sump. We have white rocks and carbon in the media pocket with fliter floss on top.

 

[Pickle_soup]

Alk- 10.9
C- 490
PH- 8
Amm- .15
Rite- 0
Rate- 10
Salinity- 33
Temp- 79.8
Our parameters have been about the same this whole time. The other animals we have are 2 Clown Fish, Skunk Shrimp, Trochus Snails, Nesarious Snails, Turbo Snails, Cerith Snails, and a few Serpant Star that were hitchhikers on some coral.

Waterwise everything looks great, so we can rule the basics out. Did the clowns bully any other fish? It might be, and I am guessing that that's the case is that all the deaths are unrelated. How do you acclimate new fish?

 

[blossom]

Waterwise everything looks great, so we can rule the basics out. Did the clowns bully any other fish? It might be, and I am guessing that that's the case is that all the deaths are unrelated. How do you acclimate new fish?

The clown were introduced yesterday night so that couldnt be the culprit for all the deaths. My acclimation process isnt the greatest ill admit. I put them in the bucket with the water that they were previously housed with, and then add about half a cup of our tanks water every 5- 10 minutes for about 30-40 minutes. We worry that maybe an illness sits in the tank and only affects the fish when they become stressed by a new tankmate.

 

[Pickle_soup]

The clown were introduced yesterday night so that couldnt be the culprit for all the deaths. My acclimation process isnt the greatest ill admit. I put them in the bucket with the water that they were previously housed with, and then add about half a cup of our tanks water every 5- 10 minutes for about 30-40 minutes. We worry that maybe an illness sits in the tank and only affects the fish when they become stressed by a new tankmate.

I myself am a fan of the drip method. How is the new clown doing?

 

[blossom]

I myself am a fan of the drip method. How is the new clown doing?

Its two (sorry, i missed an "s") and they are doing good. All of the fish did great when they were the new fish but died after being the established one.

 

[MoshJosh]

Waterwise everything looks great, so we can rule the basics out. Did the clowns bully any other fish? It might be, and I am guessing that that's the case is that all the deaths are unrelated. How do you acclimate new fish?

I though ammonia of 0.15 was a bad thing?

 

[Pickle_soup]

Its two (sorry, i missed an "s") and they are doing good. All of the fish did great when they were the new fish but died after being the established one.

And they had no visible signs of illnesses I presume. That's really weird. The only thing I can think of is to keep checking your water and pay close attention to their eating. Btw, what do you typically feed them? As for deaths, it's really hard to figure it out with pictures. I lost a fish in an inexplicable way in my qt a month ago. I don't think your other fish's deaths are related. Unless there is something in the water that is slowly hurting the fish over time. Do you use tap water or RO? What test kit do you use for ammonia? I don't think it's a real reading.

 

[Pickle_soup]

I though ammonia of 0.15 was a bad thing?

I don't think that's it real. Corals and inverts would die first, but they are doing fine.

 

[Pickle_soup]

Do you dose anything into the tank?

 

[MoshJosh]

I don't think that's it real. Corals and inverts would die first, but they are doing fine.

I have read that a lot of people do get false ammonia readings, does it matter what test kit OP was using?

Still with deaths happening rapidly it may be worth fully ruling out?

 

[blossom]

And they had no visible signs of illnesses I presume. That's really weird. The only thing I can think of is to keep checking your water and pay close attention to their eating. Btw, what do you typically feed them? As for deaths, it's really hard to figure it out with pictures. I lost a fish in an inexplicable way in my qt a month ago. I don't think your other fish's deaths are related. Unless there is something in the water that is slowly hurting the fish over time. Do you use tap water or RO? What test kit do you use for ammonia? I don't think it's a real reading.

Our water is tap, i didnt think of it being that. We dont do many water changes. Occasionally flakes and pellets but mainly frozen Mysis shrimp. Our ammonia test kit is API brand.

 

[Pickle_soup]

I have read that a lot of people do get false ammonia readings, does it matter what test kit OP was using?

Still with deaths happening rapidly it may be worth fully ruling out?

You have a point, but with nitrates sitting at 10, I don't think it's ammonia. To be safe, she should probably test it herself and than ask LFS is they can test it too.

 

[MoshJosh]

Our water is tap, i didnt think of it being that. We dont do many water changes. Occasionally flakes and pellets but mainly frozen Mysis shrimp. Our ammonia test kit is API brand.

I have heard that API is fairly unreliable so very well could be a false reading. . .

The tap could be the issue. . . the obvious question first, are you dechlorinating it?

 

[blossom]

Do you dose anything into the tank?

We dose these 3 but have only done it once about a month ago.

 

[Pickle_soup]

Our water is tap, i didnt think of it being that. We dont do many water changes. Occasionally flakes and pellets but mainly frozen Mysis shrimp. Our ammonia test kit is API brand.

I am not a fan of API for ammonia. I always had it show ammonia in my tank, although it was established for years. Not sure if API shows ammonia and much less toxic ammonium too.

 

[sc50964]

Waterwise everything looks great, so we can rule the basics out. Did the clowns bully any other fish? It might be, and I am guessing that that's the case is that all the deaths are unrelated. How do you acclimate new fish?

How old is the tank? Surprised to see ammonia which isn’t good if it’s true.

 

[blossom]

We have an API test kit and

You have a point, but with nitrates sitting at 10, I don't think it's ammonia. To be safe, she should probably test it herself and than ask LFS is they can test it too.

ive heard of their ammonia being questionable. We havent had it tested any other way yet

 

[Pickle_soup]

We dose these 3 but have only done it once about a month ago.

That shouldn't be an issue. I think it's tap water. Do you treat it @MoshJosh asked?