Deceased Clowns

[Wrigley&Ivy17]

Good morning, in need of some help. I have a 32g Biocube w/live rock, various crabs, snails, peppermint shrimp and a emerald crab. All inverts are doing fine. Around a month ago I did a complete water change. The only fish living the Biocube had died, I want to assume of "old age". Yesterday, I tested the water everything was good. Ammonia 0 Nitrate and Nitrites too. I had added Dr Tim's several wks ago. Since the water looked good, I went and got 2 clowns and a diamond goby. The fish were acclimated for 2 hours using the drip method. I wake this morning to both clowns being dead. Diamond goby seems to be doing well and has made a home under a rock that houses zoa frag plugs. I saw the 2 clowns last wk at the local fish store (black snowflake). They showed no signs of diseases. This is a store I've used multiple times in the past. I can't figure what happened? Do I need to try to get the goby out and move him into my other tank? Everyone is on cruise control in there. I don't want anything else to die. How can I tell if it's stray electricity and wouldn't that effect the goby too? Thanks in advance.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

First, rule out "stray electricity" that gets blamed for things but there is simply no truth to it, it is just a "bogeyman" that can be blamed since almost all tanks have measurable induced voltage.

I'm not sure that a "complete water change" is ever advisable, certainly not for an aquarium that doesn't have severe water quality issues. I routinely change 50% of the water in a tank, and that is o.k. as long as you match up temperature and salinity and then aerate the new water for a few hours to stabilize the pH.

I don't think your earlier fish died of "old age" - many marine aquarium fish can live dozens of years and even the shortest lived species can live for 4 or 5 years.

Many LFS hold their fish at low salinity. Drip acclimation is not enough to counter that if your tank is at full salinity. Do you know the salinity that the fish were in at the LFS compared to your tank? Here is an article I recently posted on acclimation methods:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What kind of filtration do you have, is there proper as exchange?

Can you post a full tank pic?

 

[Wrigley&Ivy17]

First, rule out "stray electricity" that gets blamed for things but there is simply no truth to it, it is just a "bogeyman" that can be blamed since almost all tanks have measurable induced voltage.

I'm not sure that a "complete water change" is ever advisable, certainly not for an aquarium that doesn't have severe water quality issues. I routinely change 50% of the water in a tank, and that is o.k. as long as you match up temperature and salinity and then aerate the new water for a few hours to stabilize the pH.

Many LFS hold their fish at low salinity. Drip acclimation is not enough to counter that if your tank is at full salinity. Do you know the salinity that the fish were in at the LFS compared to your tank? Here is an article I recently posted on acclimation methods:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

I get

First, rule out "stray electricity" that gets blamed for things but there is simply no truth to it, it is just a "bogeyman" that can be blamed since almost all tanks have measurable induced voltage.

I'm not sure that a "complete water change" is ever advisable, certainly not for an aquarium that doesn't have severe water quality issues. I routinely change 50% of the water in a tank, and that is o.k. as long as you match up temperature and salinity and then aerate the new water for a few hours to stabilize the pH.

I don't think your earlier fish died of "old age" - many marine aquarium fish can live dozens of years and even the shortest lived species can live for 4 or 5 years.

Many LFS hold their fish at low salinity. Drip acclimation is not enough to counter that if your tank is at full salinity. Do you know the salinity that the fish were in at the LFS compared to your tank? Here is an article I recently posted on acclimation methods:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

I do get my saltwater and RO water from this fish store when I do water changes. It all matched before I put it in. : (

 

[Wrigley&Ivy17]

What kind of filtration do you have, is there proper as exchange?

Can you post a full tank pic?

I have the biocube pump and i also have a hydor circulation pump. The circulation pump is in the top right. Biocube return pump top left. There is a nano skimmer in the middle section in the back. I have filter floss and chemiblue in the back chambers as well.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I get

I do get my saltwater and RO water from this fish store when I do water changes. It all matched before I put it in. : (

I would still restrict any water change to 50% - draining more than that out can really stress the animals.

Do you know the salinity of the tank the fish came from versus yours?


Jay

 

[bushdoc]

I know that it may not apply to your situation, but drip acclimation of fish is not recommended if they were in transport for prolonged time. Still, if it took you long time to run from LFS / you were runing some errands on your way back home, it might've effected fish negatively due to pH/ammonia toxicity effect.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is not a filter issue and could you please describe how you actually acclimated with drip (which im not fond of) as you spent two hours with this.

 

[Wrigley&Ivy17]

What kind of filtration do you have, is there proper as exchange?

Can you post a full tank pic?

I did, it's at the bottom of the thread. ty

This is not a filter issue and could you please describe how you actually acclimated with drip (which im not fond of) as you spent two hours with this.

I use a bucket and IV tubing (I'm in the medical field) to a slow drip acclimation.

 

[Wrigley&Ivy17]

I know that it may not apply to your situation, but drip acclimation of fish is not recommended if they were in transport for prolonged time. Still, if it took you long time to run from LFS / you were runing some errands on your way back home, it might've effected fish negatively due to pH/ammonia toxicity effect.

I live around 15 mins from the store to home. I did do drip acclimation, using IV tubing that has a roller clamp and you can set the flow.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I did, it's at the bottom of the thread. ty

I use a bucket and IV tubing (I'm in the medical field) to a slow drip acclimation.

So, you dripped for two hours. did not match salinity or close to, float the bags, etc?
Did you use bucket water for the tank ?

 

[Wrigley&Ivy17]

So, you dripped for two hours. did not match salinity or close to, float the bags, etc?
Did you use bucket water for the tank ?

Yes, the salinity matched and no, I didn't use the bucket water that they were acclimated in. The goby that was acclimated the same way and gotten at the same time yesterday is doing well. This one puzzles me.

 

[vetteguy53081]

.