Fish die off

[paintballer1]

I have a 10 gallon FOWLR and every 3 days I seem to lose a fish it's a relatively new tank I started with a blenny, 4 damsels, emerald crab, red shrimp and a snail. so far I have lost the emerald crab first and than a damsel a few days ago and now another damsel. My parameters today are 1.024 salinity, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates also 0 ammonia and Ph was 7.8 and temperature at a steady 78 since the tank started. There has been no apparent signs of usual diseases. I do not have any pictures of the deceased. Can anybody help?

 

[Mini Coop]

I have a 10 gallon FOWLR and every 3 days I seem to lose a fish it's a relatively new tank I started with a blenny, 4 damsels, emerald crab, red shrimp and a snail. so far I have lost the emerald crab first and than a damsel a few days ago and now another damsel. My parameters today are 1.024 salinity, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates also 0 ammonia and Ph was 7.8 and temperature at a steady 78 since the tank started. There has been no apparent signs of usual diseases. I do not have any pictures of the deceased. Can anybody help?

How long was your tank set up before you added the fish?

 

[paintballer1]

1 month or so I waited until all parameters were steady

 

[Mini Coop]

Did you QT the fish before you added them? What kind of filtration are you using? I am not an expert, and will learn from your situation as well. Sorry for your losses. Trust me, I know how much that sucks.

Have the damsels been fighting at all?

 

[paintballer1]

There has been no aggression that I've seen and no sadly I did not QT because they were all added in at the same time I just have a hang on back filter but added some bio ball media to the back after the carbon filter pad

 

[tgfitz1]

There has been no aggression that I've seen and no sadly I did not QT because they were all added in at the same time I just have a hang on back filter but added some bio ball media to the back after the carbon filter pad

10g is a very small volume of water to add 5 fish at once to a new tank. You would have been pushing the boundaries of a 10 gallon tank even if you'd have added the 5 fish over a year or so. Did you start with live or dead rock/sand and how much did you use? My guess would be that your new biological filter couldn't handle the large change in bioload and you had an ammonia spike.

 

[paintballer1]

Dead sand but live rock about 5-6 lbs the tank with fish has been going for 1 month before the die off and one month before the fish were added

 

[tgfitz1]

Dead sand but live rock about 5-6 lbs the tank with fish has been going for 1 month before the die off and one month before the fish were added

I would still suspect an ammonia spike is the killer, do you feed your fish heavily? I'm really surprised that your nitrates are showing at 0 with 5 fish in a 10g. Also bear in mind that damsels are territorial fish that can be aggressive, and can often kill the smaller weaker fish in the group until you are left with only one.

 

[paintballer1]

Wouldn't a spike show up in the test? I test every two days

 

[tgfitz1]

Wouldn't a spike show up in the test? I test every two days

Not necessarily, a spike can happen and be brought back down to zero within 24 hours easily, but obviously it is toxic to fish even in small levels!

 

[ahiggins]

Wouldn't a spike show up in the test? I test every two days

what test kit are you using?
My friend used to use API (Im an advocate against it lol) and his would read zero when he had about 0.25 ppm.
I would 100% agree with ammonia spike. I have a 10 gallon with a single talbots damsel, thats about all my 5# of LR can handle. Granted I only do monthly water changes lol

 

[paintballer1]

So you think there a spike every few days that kills one fish and goes back to zero before I can test? I test every 2 days and every day there is a death.

 

[paintballer1]

I do use API

 

[ahiggins]

I think its constantly a low amount that your test isnt picking up.
the fact that really hardy fish are dying is a massive red flag.
Ive had emeralds live through an ammonia spike....in fact one lived out of water for about 6 hours lol

 

[paintballer1]

That was the first death the emerald crab

 

[tgfitz1]

So you think there a spike every few days that kills one fish and goes back to zero before I can test? I test every 2 days and every day there is a death.

I agree that the API test isn't a reputable test kit, from what I've seen and heard on here. Maybe not a spike that is killing just one fish at a time because chances are, all of your fish would be killed. But it's probable that there is constant ammonia source in the tank that slowly killing off the fish, after all damsels are pretty hardy fish. I would start doing water changes maybe every other day for a week or two and see if you end up losing any more fish. You could also add a product such as Prime that will help break down ammonia.

 

[paintballer1]

Well I just got back and now another damsel is dead that makes two today this one looked pretty beat up

 

[john2152]

Is it a new tank?if used have you checked for copper...crab wouldn't survive and depending on how much copper couldn't fish also take a hit?

 

[john2152]

There it is...probably one damsel left,if not there will be

 

[paintballer1]

There is one damsel left the one that just died he was actually alive find messed up and he was upside down and could not swim straight so I put him out of its pain