Hi all,
I have an issue going on in my 90 gallon SW tank. I have had my tank up and running for a couple of months with 100 pounds of cured live rock, 100 pounds of live sand. Water is RO/DI, salinity is .022, 2 korelia powerheads, protein skimmer (up to 180 gallon), 20 gallon sump with refug. (Refug had 10 pounds of live sand, live rock)
Water perameters:
ammonia- 0
nitrates - trace, under 10
nitrites- 0
PH - 8.2
temp 78
We went to LFS with great reputation and purchased a dwarf flame angel, a domino damsel, a yellow tail damsel, and a false perc clown (was a large clown, probably 2 inches). The angel and clown were housed in the same tank. At the same time we bought food for the fish, marine cuisine, mysis shrimp and brine shrimp. I also bought a pellet food for marine fish, but never used that. We acclimated the fish properly for quite a long while, almost 3 hours. LFS recommended 1 hour, but erring on the side of caution....I went longer. (I did not quarantine the fish because our LFS quarantines before sales. The fish did great, all ate well and seemed very happy in their new home. The 3rd day, I noticed the clown didn't eat. But was acting very normal, no paleness, no ich spots, nothing. By evening I found him laying on the bottom breathing extremely heavy and very lethargic. NO other symptoms what so ever. He only got up once for a few minutes, but then went back down. Within 2 hours he was gone. Brought back to LFS, thankfully it was on day 4 when we brought him back, they offer a 3 day live fish guarantee, but they gave us credit for him and we got 2 small clowns and 2 sand snails instead. Water was tested at LFS and all was perfect. Acclimated new clowns and snails, all was great! On day 8, the domino damsel didn't eat and the flame angel only picked at a few small pieces. Domino started hiding, which he didn't do before and was very inactive. No domino in the morning, was dead under the live rock. The angel wouldn't eat and behavior changed, hid behind rocks, and didn't move around like normal. I carefully caught and removed the angel and acclimated her to a 10 gallon quarantine tank. (This I started before I purchased the fish with existing aquarium water, heater, and filter with no carbon. All perameters were the same as the existing large tank.) She hung on for many hours, at the very end her color went pale and she was gasping at the top for air. We did add a bubbler to the tank, but it didn't help. Soon she was gone. (I tested water at her death and all water perameters were the same. Same with the main tank.)
I am at a loss as to what could be going on. All the fish 'seemed' to have the same symptoms. Basically loss of appetite and lethargy. Only the flame angel did the 'gasping' thing at the top, but this was only briefly at the very end.
Any suggestions or ideas of what could be happening?? I am very afraid for my 3 remaining fish, but so far so good. Sorry for the long post, but wanted to include all info that I could think of.
Talked to a lady at Petco and she thinks we added too many fish at one time. I would think our perameters would have changed if this were the case. They have stayed exactly the same.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has any ideas....
Sue
I have an issue going on in my 90 gallon SW tank. I have had my tank up and running for a couple of months with 100 pounds of cured live rock, 100 pounds of live sand. Water is RO/DI, salinity is .022, 2 korelia powerheads, protein skimmer (up to 180 gallon), 20 gallon sump with refug. (Refug had 10 pounds of live sand, live rock)
Water perameters:
ammonia- 0
nitrates - trace, under 10
nitrites- 0
PH - 8.2
temp 78
We went to LFS with great reputation and purchased a dwarf flame angel, a domino damsel, a yellow tail damsel, and a false perc clown (was a large clown, probably 2 inches). The angel and clown were housed in the same tank. At the same time we bought food for the fish, marine cuisine, mysis shrimp and brine shrimp. I also bought a pellet food for marine fish, but never used that. We acclimated the fish properly for quite a long while, almost 3 hours. LFS recommended 1 hour, but erring on the side of caution....I went longer. (I did not quarantine the fish because our LFS quarantines before sales. The fish did great, all ate well and seemed very happy in their new home. The 3rd day, I noticed the clown didn't eat. But was acting very normal, no paleness, no ich spots, nothing. By evening I found him laying on the bottom breathing extremely heavy and very lethargic. NO other symptoms what so ever. He only got up once for a few minutes, but then went back down. Within 2 hours he was gone. Brought back to LFS, thankfully it was on day 4 when we brought him back, they offer a 3 day live fish guarantee, but they gave us credit for him and we got 2 small clowns and 2 sand snails instead. Water was tested at LFS and all was perfect. Acclimated new clowns and snails, all was great! On day 8, the domino damsel didn't eat and the flame angel only picked at a few small pieces. Domino started hiding, which he didn't do before and was very inactive. No domino in the morning, was dead under the live rock. The angel wouldn't eat and behavior changed, hid behind rocks, and didn't move around like normal. I carefully caught and removed the angel and acclimated her to a 10 gallon quarantine tank. (This I started before I purchased the fish with existing aquarium water, heater, and filter with no carbon. All perameters were the same as the existing large tank.) She hung on for many hours, at the very end her color went pale and she was gasping at the top for air. We did add a bubbler to the tank, but it didn't help. Soon she was gone. (I tested water at her death and all water perameters were the same. Same with the main tank.)
I am at a loss as to what could be going on. All the fish 'seemed' to have the same symptoms. Basically loss of appetite and lethargy. Only the flame angel did the 'gasping' thing at the top, but this was only briefly at the very end.
Any suggestions or ideas of what could be happening?? I am very afraid for my 3 remaining fish, but so far so good. Sorry for the long post, but wanted to include all info that I could think of.
Talked to a lady at Petco and she thinks we added too many fish at one time. I would think our perameters would have changed if this were the case. They have stayed exactly the same.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has any ideas....
Sue
