Devastated

[MeMyFishandI]

I got a new fish today. Actually, I got three. One went in to the main tank, and two had to go in to QT as their SG was way lower than my main tank. In the course of an hour, the QT tank had a massive ammonia spike. I quickly did a water change and got the levels back to normal. In the end, it killed one of the fish I had just brought home. The fish in the main tank went missing and I eventually found it hiding within - as in deep inside- a rock.

I had a "massive" (two fish - out of two fish) die off a few months ago, where I was very excited to move my fish from their 10g to their new, super fun, made just for them, 25g. They died within 48 hours of the move and I still don't know why.

I have no hope that these fish will survive the night.

I am not new to fish keeping. I have been doing the reef thing for a year but I have more than 15 years of fresh water experience. I know how this *should* work. I just don't know if I can keep salties anymore, as much as I love them.

Top it all off, I found a cat poop nugget in my bed. Ugh.

Vent over (for today).

Thanks for listening.

 

[magicwhistle]

What do you mean when you say you added them to the tank?

Did you add them after acclimating? Did you just dump the bagged water into the tanks with the fish?

 

[ScottR]

First off, sorry about your loss. What kind of filtration and pumps do you have? Zeros ammonia and NO2 I’m assuming? Any pics of your setup. Hopefully someone here can help you to be more successful.

 

[4tanks]

Was your qt cyled and did you acclimate the fish properly

 

[4tanks]

Best thing is post all you levels and start to finish how you added your fish acclimation etc and as previously said what's your setup etc

 

[laverda]

To much missing information to even guess what happened. Why would you not QT all three fish. Seems pointless to QT and dump the other into your display.

 

[magicwhistle]

I noticed from one of your previous posts you had concerns about your RODI filter.

Did you ever sort that out? Also before you used it did you let the RO membrane flush (like 45mins to an hour)? They have preservatives that need to be flushed out. Not sure if these show up on TDS meters or what they are even. When I used my RODI filter for the first time I tested the TDS and it was 0 right away so they might not show up at all.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

What do you mean when you say you added them to the tank?

Did you add them after acclimating? Did you just dump the bagged water into the tanks with the fish?

I acclimated them properly. Very slowly, over the span of several hours. I checked all parameters prior to adding fish, added prime and beneficial bacteria.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

I noticed from one of your previous posts you had concerns about your RODI filter.

Did you ever sort that out? Also before you used it did you let the RO membrane flush (like 45mins to an hour)? They have preservatives that need to be flushed out. Not sure if these show up on TDS meters or what they are even. When I used my RODI filter for the first time I tested the TDS and it was 0 right away so they might not show up at all.

RODI filter was working perfectly

 

[MeMyFishandI]

To much missing information to even guess what happened. Why would you not QT all three fish. Seems pointless to QT and dump the other into your display.

The two were being kept at hypo salinity as they were just brought in. The third is the only fish in the tank. No need to QT.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

First off, sorry about your loss. What kind of filtration and pumps do you have? Zeros ammonia and NO2 I’m assuming? Any pics of your setup. Hopefully someone here can help you to be more successful.

everything was spot on prior to adding the fish.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

Was your qt cyled and did you acclimate the fish properly

yes to all.

 

[robbyg]

I acclimated them properly. Very slowly, over the span of several hours. I checked all parameters prior to adding fish, added prime and beneficial bacteria.

Was the QT cycled and tested for Ammonia and Nitrate?
I am only asking because You say you added the fish and then the bacteria.
There is no way a QT of any reasonable size would have an Ammonia spike in one hour.

 

[magicwhistle]

I acclimated them properly. Very slowly, over the span of several hours. I checked all parameters prior to adding fish, added prime and beneficial bacteria.

dang. Seems very odd that a cycled tank would have a big ammonia spike so quickly with 2 fish added.

I was thinking maybe you added water from the bag which would have ammonia in it maybe a lot depending how long the fish were in it.

Several hours is pretty long to acclimate though was the acclimating container heated while you did this? Did the fish look ok from the store and after acclimation?

Which parameters did you check? I only ask because often people think we acclimate for SG but the more deadly issue would be pH and temperature. Most fish can handle SG swings but do poorly with big pH swings. But over several hours pH should have been fine regardless.

Mystery. Sorry for the losses man.

 

[Fishbird]

I acclimated them properly. Very slowly, over the span of several hours. I checked all parameters prior to adding fish, added prime and beneficial bacteria.

Did you get the fish locally or did they come in the mail? I’m assuming you got them locally since you did such a long acclimation but if they came in the mail, then the long acclimation is likely what did them in. Once the water in the bag is exposed to air ammonia that has built up from the fish during transport becomes much more toxic very very quickly. For fish that come via mail I’ve just cut a tiny slit to take a water sample, taped the slit up immediately, matched salinity in my QT, floated the bags for 15 minutes to temp match, and add the fish without adding any of their old water.

Sorry if you knew all that about acclimating from the mail vs local store!

 

[Fishbird]

Also what kind of fish were they and what size is your QT?

And I’m sorry about your losses!

 

[Katrina71]

I'm sure your kitty will be making it up to you with snuggles. I'm sorry for your losses, but don't let it get you down.

 

[fishguy242]

sorry to hear ,hypo at 1.015? poss to? just guess 1.023..? poss shock,what were symptoms?how long in qt before prob?

 

[MeMyFishandI]

I thought I would write an update. The fish are a yellow watchman goby, an orchid dottyback and a springer damsel. The springer damsel is the one that didn't make it.

As of this morning, the watchman is looking very good and is responsive. The orchid dotty back is alive! She is still in the rock but I can see her popping her head out, here and there. She's gathering courage to come out.

After a night of sleep (wondering if there was any more poop in the bed, even though I checked multiple times), I think the springer just couldn't handle the stress. My slow acclimation, which I did to settle my mind, probably didn't help. I just didn't want to get burned again with this tank.

I got the fish from a LFS. The goby and damsel had just arrived there yesterday, which is why they were hypo.

I appreciate everybody's input. At this point I don't want to dissect the incided, I just wanted to have an outlet.

Again, thanks for reading.

 

[andrewey]

Glad your dotty back is alive! Sorry about your loss and your rough night. I hope everything gets better from here!