Lady of Babylon
Community Member
I am really devastated.
I have been working on creating a sustainable ecosystem (indo/central pacific and heavily Hawaiian islands) with my saltwater tank. I want to breed a variety of specific hard to get species so that the aquarium trade doesn’t continue to have such devastating effects on the oceanic ecosystems. I also want to share and teach my appreciation of the ocean and it’s ecosystems with others. It’s one of my longest and biggest dreams.
It brings me back to my childhood when my dad lived on his sail boat in Oceanside, Southern California. He taught me a lot about the ocean and it’s life. I have always had a love and respect for the ocean and it’s ecosystem.
Hawaii and the indo-pacific have shut down all operations for a minimum of 3 years... great for the wild life! however that makes my dream of having my ecosystem and breeding sustainably REALLY a challenge. So I did what any panicked dreamer does with a credit card and the REALLY RARE opportunity to purchase all of the fish I had planned... ALL AT ONCE!
My tank could handle the bioload.
And it was.
Then Thursday happened. I knew better than to mess with cucumbers. (I got to help my clean up crew, thought it would be ok.) something bothered it. (Thinking it was my potters angel since he was all of a sudden pale and the only one that looked distressed.) it went into self defense mode and spit out its guts and released toxins. I thought I had caught it in time... but it set off a chain reaction. The puffers then puffed and released their toxins in defense on the other side of the tank. In 15 minutes. Even with heavy amounts of activated carbon already in place... I lost several thousands in aquatic life.
survivors :
* 5 green chomis,
* dwarf moray eel,
* yellow tang,
* 2 dragon faced pipefish,
...
Schrodinger’s listed:
* 1 golden eyed kole,
* 1 fire fish,
* cleaner wrasse,
* coco worm,
* Orange starfish,
* 3 saron shrimp,
* 1 fighting conch,
* peppermint shrimp,
* 5 zebra dwarf hermit crabs,
* all mushrooms,
* leather corals, hammer coral, duncans, zoas, +
* campfire and pink feather duster worms,
* humpback cowrie
* arrow crab
* 2 barnacles
* 2 mussels
* bubble snails
* micro jellyfish
* star polyps
* frogspawn coral
* 3 mini maxi anemones,
* copepods, amphipods, dwarf stars, tongan snails, nassarius snails, astraea snails, turbo snails, thin striped hermit crabs, macro algae, etc.
* other micro flora/fauna
...
Known casualties:
* gold neon gobies (mated pair with eggs)
* flame fairy wrasses (mated pair)
* 5 firefish
* 3 pink streaked wrasses
* 1 golden eyed kole
* pyramid butterfly fish
* court jester goby
* 2 long nosed butterfly fish
* pebbled Angel fish
* 2 potters Angel fish (male & female)
* fishers Angel fish
* 2 Hawaiian white spotted puffers
* white spotted dwarf goby
* 1 dragon faced pipefish
* blue striped pipefish
* 5 Vanderbuilt chromis,
* 2 fighting conches,
* 2 limpets
* 2 short spine urchins,
* 2 long spine urchins,
* 3 flame scallops,
* 12 sexy shrimp
* 6 saron shrimp
* 1 cucumber
* chocolate chip starfish,
On Thursday I spent a few hours staring at my fish that I had pulled out of the tank and into clean water with a heater and a bubbler hoping that they would snap out of it, breaking down and trying to give them fish “CPR” hoping that I would revive them... I am still in denial and shock.
Friday and Saturday I watched my vander’s die one by one and all of my mushrooms and coral melt like the wicked witch of the west...
It’s Sunday ... and I can’t catch a break. Even the life forms in the sand are jumping ship. It doesn’t look hopeful that I’ll have any survivors. Every time I do a water change the tank seems to get worse. My live sand is turning black right before my eyes.
And yes. I have been pumping extra oxygen into the tank for a few hours. I also got close to 50 lbs of live rock that I have just added to the tank. Never in all my life of keeping fish have I ever seen or have anything like this happen to such an extreme.
I am at a complete loss as how to move forward.
anyone know how I can salvage my tank?
I have been working on creating a sustainable ecosystem (indo/central pacific and heavily Hawaiian islands) with my saltwater tank. I want to breed a variety of specific hard to get species so that the aquarium trade doesn’t continue to have such devastating effects on the oceanic ecosystems. I also want to share and teach my appreciation of the ocean and it’s ecosystems with others. It’s one of my longest and biggest dreams.
It brings me back to my childhood when my dad lived on his sail boat in Oceanside, Southern California. He taught me a lot about the ocean and it’s life. I have always had a love and respect for the ocean and it’s ecosystem.
Hawaii and the indo-pacific have shut down all operations for a minimum of 3 years... great for the wild life! however that makes my dream of having my ecosystem and breeding sustainably REALLY a challenge. So I did what any panicked dreamer does with a credit card and the REALLY RARE opportunity to purchase all of the fish I had planned... ALL AT ONCE!
My tank could handle the bioload.
And it was.
Then Thursday happened. I knew better than to mess with cucumbers. (I got to help my clean up crew, thought it would be ok.) something bothered it. (Thinking it was my potters angel since he was all of a sudden pale and the only one that looked distressed.) it went into self defense mode and spit out its guts and released toxins. I thought I had caught it in time... but it set off a chain reaction. The puffers then puffed and released their toxins in defense on the other side of the tank. In 15 minutes. Even with heavy amounts of activated carbon already in place... I lost several thousands in aquatic life.
survivors :
* 5 green chomis,
* dwarf moray eel,
* yellow tang,
* 2 dragon faced pipefish,
...
Schrodinger’s listed:
* 1 golden eyed kole,
* 1 fire fish,
* cleaner wrasse,
* coco worm,
* Orange starfish,
* 3 saron shrimp,
* 1 fighting conch,
* peppermint shrimp,
* 5 zebra dwarf hermit crabs,
* all mushrooms,
* leather corals, hammer coral, duncans, zoas, +
* campfire and pink feather duster worms,
* humpback cowrie
* arrow crab
* 2 barnacles
* 2 mussels
* bubble snails
* micro jellyfish
* star polyps
* frogspawn coral
* 3 mini maxi anemones,
* copepods, amphipods, dwarf stars, tongan snails, nassarius snails, astraea snails, turbo snails, thin striped hermit crabs, macro algae, etc.
* other micro flora/fauna
...
Known casualties:
* gold neon gobies (mated pair with eggs)
* flame fairy wrasses (mated pair)
* 5 firefish
* 3 pink streaked wrasses
* 1 golden eyed kole
* pyramid butterfly fish
* court jester goby
* 2 long nosed butterfly fish
* pebbled Angel fish
* 2 potters Angel fish (male & female)
* fishers Angel fish
* 2 Hawaiian white spotted puffers
* white spotted dwarf goby
* 1 dragon faced pipefish
* blue striped pipefish
* 5 Vanderbuilt chromis,
* 2 fighting conches,
* 2 limpets
* 2 short spine urchins,
* 2 long spine urchins,
* 3 flame scallops,
* 12 sexy shrimp
* 6 saron shrimp
* 1 cucumber
* chocolate chip starfish,
On Thursday I spent a few hours staring at my fish that I had pulled out of the tank and into clean water with a heater and a bubbler hoping that they would snap out of it, breaking down and trying to give them fish “CPR” hoping that I would revive them... I am still in denial and shock.
Friday and Saturday I watched my vander’s die one by one and all of my mushrooms and coral melt like the wicked witch of the west...
It’s Sunday ... and I can’t catch a break. Even the life forms in the sand are jumping ship. It doesn’t look hopeful that I’ll have any survivors. Every time I do a water change the tank seems to get worse. My live sand is turning black right before my eyes.
And yes. I have been pumping extra oxygen into the tank for a few hours. I also got close to 50 lbs of live rock that I have just added to the tank. Never in all my life of keeping fish have I ever seen or have anything like this happen to such an extreme.
I am at a complete loss as how to move forward.
anyone know how I can salvage my tank?
