fish dying can't get to it - will my tank survive ?

[revenant]

Hi all.. My sailfin and foxface were getting along well for quite a while but a month ago things took a turn for the worst again.. I tried catching the ff but was unable to get it out. I almost did once.. omg I wish I had that moment back.. anyways.. the foxface stopped coming out to eat, and just hid all day.. I feel terrible for her. omg. So yesterday she comes out for a couple mins and her right eye was so swollen and her left eye is swollen too... ugh god. anyways.. I am guessing she's near the end.. she's about 5 inches long and pretty skinny now.. if I can't get her out I am thinking I will see ammonia spikes but should be ok.. I think, 100G tank - 30g sump - loads of lr - will be three yo in August. Tank has been very stable but no3 is always around 30ppm.. no4 less than .3 Ph always 8.2.. Everyone else in the tank looks very healthy.

ripping the tank apart is not an option really.. it would be devastating to the rest of the inhabitants.. my tank is super grown in with GSP cloves and zoas.. it's PACKED. I am sort of looking at this is a "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.. or the one" type deal... but every time I walk by the tank my heart breaks for the ff.

I have a decent CuC team with lots of hermits, mythrax crabs, snails, conches.. shrimp too.. I guess they will go to town once she perishes.

This has been stressing me out for two weeks.. I feel terrible for the poor ff. I just don't want to crash the tank either. I hope to be able to fetch most of the body out but if I can't will I be ok? I have water ready to go for a change... maybe do big water changes and crank my wave pumps up to "storm" level for a bit ?

 

[Nano_Man]

What do you have as clean up crew and what amount sorry just read the bottom of the post .

 

[Nano_Man]

Hi all.. My sailfin and foxface were getting along well for quite a while but a month ago things took a turn for the worst again.. I tried catching the ff but was unable to get it out. I almost did once.. omg I wish I had that moment back.. anyways.. the foxface stopped coming out to eat, and just hid all day.. I feel terrible for her. omg. So yesterday she comes out for a couple mins and her right eye was so swollen and her left eye is swollen too... ugh god. anyways.. I am guessing she's near the end.. she's about 5 inches long and pretty skinny now.. if I can't get her out I am thinking I will see ammonia spikes but should be ok.. I think, 100G tank - 30g sump - loads of lr - will be three yo in August. Tank has been very stable but no3 is always around 30ppm.. no4 less than .3 Ph always 8.2.. Everyone else in the tank looks very healthy.

ripping the tank apart is not an option really.. it would be devastating to the rest of the inhabitants.. my tank is super grown in with GSP cloves and zoas.. it's PACKED. I am sort of looking at this is a "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.. or the one" type deal... but every time I walk by the tank my heart breaks for the ff.

I have a decent CuC team with lots of hermits, mythrax crabs, snails, conches.. shrimp too.. I guess they will go to town once she perishes.

This has been stressing me out for two weeks.. I feel terrible for the poor ff. I just don't want to crash the tank either. I hope to be able to fetch most of the body out but if I can't will I be ok? I have water ready to go for a change... maybe do big water changes and crank my wave pumps up to "storm" level for a bit ?

Best thing would be remove but if you can not cuc will do the job . In the 90s I had larger tanks and if a fish went missing in the rock work died cuc did the job for me . This is only my experience with this .

 

[Uncle99]

Hi all.. My sailfin and foxface were getting along well for quite a while but a month ago things took a turn for the worst again.. I tried catching the ff but was unable to get it out. I almost did once.. omg I wish I had that moment back.. anyways.. the foxface stopped coming out to eat, and just hid all day.. I feel terrible for her. omg. So yesterday she comes out for a couple mins and her right eye was so swollen and her left eye is swollen too... ugh god. anyways.. I am guessing she's near the end.. she's about 5 inches long and pretty skinny now.. if I can't get her out I am thinking I will see ammonia spikes but should be ok.. I think, 100G tank - 30g sump - loads of lr - will be three yo in August. Tank has been very stable but no3 is always around 30ppm.. no4 less than .3 Ph always 8.2.. Everyone else in the tank looks very healthy.

ripping the tank apart is not an option really.. it would be devastating to the rest of the inhabitants.. my tank is super grown in with GSP cloves and zoas.. it's PACKED. I am sort of looking at this is a "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.. or the one" type deal... but every time I walk by the tank my heart breaks for the ff.

I have a decent CuC team with lots of hermits, mythrax crabs, snails, conches.. shrimp too.. I guess they will go to town once she perishes.

This has been stressing me out for two weeks.. I feel terrible for the poor ff. I just don't want to crash the tank either. I hope to be able to fetch most of the body out but if I can't will I be ok? I have water ready to go for a change... maybe do big water changes and crank my wave pumps up to "storm" level for a bit ?

To me, that’s big enough and old enough to handle that load.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

It sucks either way... IME it should handle the load ok if the cuc will do its job. I'd prolly just plan for a extra water change or two.

 

[brandon429]

agreed I predict the fish tank can process the extra bump given all that surface area and dilution. one fish should not crash any decent sized reef tank. A fella on seneye once, in a tank slightly larger than that one tracked the full degradation of a tang wedged in the rockwork on a seneye machine and didn't even register any spike at all, the decomp process was slow enough the system just ate up the extra ammonia evenly.

 

[Robert Ranciato]

You have a sailfin in a 100 gallon tank ? Is it a babby? I would definitely have moved aquascape to catch a sick fish especially one that was being bullied. But that's just me.

 

[o2manyfish]

You're going to be fine. A healthy reef tank will consume all but the bones faster than you can imagine. If you have a really healthy pod population and clean-up crew - there might not be any rotting flesh at all. They will clean it right down to a stack of bones in a matter of days.

Dave B

 

[revenant]

Thanks for the replies and support everyone. My CuC consists of many scarlet hermits, a halloween hermit, blue leg.. probably like 30 or 40... and snails, grazers, astrea, bumblebee... three conches.. a fire shrimp and a skunk..

I feel like I will be ok, it's all a part of the life cycle, and a mature tank is good at dealing with consuming dead stuff. I figured I would reach out just the same.. Hearing your words of support really brings my stress levels down a lot. I appreciate it a lot!

agreed I predict the fish tank can process the extra bump given all that surface area and dilution. one fish should not crash any decent sized reef tank. A fella on seneye once, in a tank slightly larger than that one tracked the full degradation of a tang wedged in the rockwork on a seneye machine and didn't even register any spike at all, the decomp process was slow enough the system just ate up the extra ammonia evenly.

WOW. that is a story.. I have a feeling the ff is wedged in the back in a similar situation. Thanks for your reply!

 

[revenant]

You have a sailfin in a 100 gallon tank ? Is it a babby? I would definitely have moved aquascape to catch a sick fish especially one that was being bullied. But that's just me.

the tank is 60x18x22 and has tons of rockwork and caves and such.. the sailfin can navigate it all ... it's around 3yo.. the sailfin seems content without the ff there.. grazing and super chill... also tank is PACKED with softies.. GSP has glued the rocks together at the top where I think the fish (ff) is stuck and maybe dead at this point.. ripping it all apart would have been so stressful for the rest of the inhabitants.. but I thought about it many times. and not out of laziness I decided to leave it as-is. This all escalated fairly quickly.

 

[revenant]

Tank pic

 

[Stephen8169301]

Have you tried turning off flow for a few mins to see if it will come out

 

[revenant]

Have you tried turning off flow for a few mins to see if it will come out

I have put the tank into feed mode two times per day (10 mins no flow) and it didn't come out.

 

[jabberwock]

Thanks for the replies and support everyone. My CuC consists of many scarlet hermits, a halloween hermit, blue leg.. probably like 30 or 40... and snails, grazers, astrea, bumblebee... three conches.. a fire shrimp and a skunk..

I just lost all four of my fish to ich, so I have tons of sympathy for you, BUT, one of my super powers is humor, and so I hope this makes you smile. This is what I pictured when you described your cleanup crew...

 

[revenant]

I just lost all four of my fish to ich, so I have tons of sympathy for you, BUT, one of my super powers is humor, and so I hope this makes you smile. This is what I pictured when you described your cleanup crew...

Sorry for your loss but also lol. Thank you very much!

 

[revenant]

My protein skimmer just went crazy… Like outta nowhere .. I fear foxy has perished. I dialed it back and cleaned it.. this is 10mins after cleaning. Gonna do a 20% wc tonight and recharge my carbon.



Thanks again for all of the comments, support, and skunk related humor.
This is such a good community!