4 dead in a row, I suspect a 5th soon.
Inhabitants were 2 clown fish added originally. 6 nassiarus snails, 5 cerith, 5 astrea. They were in the tank and did great until I added a mandarin last week (seeded with copepods and was advertised as eating several types of prepared food so wasn't worried about having him in a young tank). Mandarin died after 48 hours. The clown fish then both died over the next 2 days. They all stopped eating, then began heavy breathing, started to swim erratically and seemed to have trouble staying upright, then they would lay on the sand breathing very heavily until they died. Here is a video of the mandarin struggling
I tested parameters before adding the mandarin and many times throughout all of this, readings were never anything abnormal. Also have an ammonia alert that stayed yellow the whole time. I use a temp controller and ATO, so temp and salinity were stable. No issues with any of the snails or copepods during any of this.
I spoke with the online retailer about the mandarin to let them know I suspected velvet since it happened so fast. They explained how unlikely that it was velvet. They thought perhaps it was an overnight ammonia spike in my tank that went unnoticed as the ammonia dropped by morning so I never noticed it. I did add a bottle of copepods and feed phyto the day before the mandarin arrived. Then I fed quite heavily several different foods trying to get the mandarin to eat. That combined with the tank being so young made them suspect it was an ammonia spike. After speaking with them it seemed that was a realistic possibility, so I didn't run the tank fallow to let disease die out and thought it was safe to add new fish.
I did a water change Friday. Then yesterday I added 2 new clowns from a LFS. This morning they both seemed like they were doing good. A few hours ago I notice that the male was suddenly having trouble swimming. Then he dropped down to the sand, was breathing heavily and died within an hour. The female is still swimming around but will not eat and she seems weak and breathing faster than normal. Here is video of these clowns: There is a picture of him before and after death attached. And a picture of the female as of right now.
I tested parameters
Temp: 78
PH: 7.8
Salinity 1.024
Ammonia: .2 - .4
Nitrate: 0
The ammonia alert on the tank is still yellow indicating 0. This is the first time during all of this I have registered anything at all on ammonia so I was surprised to see this. Is this indicating that basically I'm a monster and killing all of these fish with ammonia somehow? Because I was suspecting velvet again until I saw this test. The fish dying within 24 hours seems more to be ammonia than disease, but in that case wouldn't the snails and copepods also be dying off? Snails are all acting normal, nassarius came up for food, glass and refugium is covered in active pods.
I suspect this other clown is going to die soon if I don't figure out the cause. I'm going to do another water change ASAP, have water coming out of the RODI now. But not sure if I should go and buy another tank and set up for copper treatment as well.
Tank history: It's a 32 gallon Biocube. I used 30lbs of Caribsea Arag-Alive sand, and about 30lbs of dry live rock along with a bottle of Dr Tims one and only. I manually added ammonium chloride to get the cycle started. Cycle start was June 29th. About a week later the tank was showing the ability to process 2ppm of ammonia per day. Just to be sure I added 2ppm of ammonia a few times over the next week after that. Each time it was able to process all the ammonia within 24 hours. The first clown fish were added on July 15. July 30th I added some of the snails. A week or two later the rest of the snails were added. I also added a few bottles of copepods throughout this process after the initial cycle. I do have Chaeto growing in one of the back compartments with reverse lighting to the main tank. I have been feeding 10ml of phytoplankton to the tank twice a week to feed the pods.
Thank you for any help. Ive been out of the game for over a decade, but I never had any issues like this before. I had years of smooth sailing. Would like to do everything I can to save this clown if its possible. Really feeling like the fish murderer now :(
Inhabitants were 2 clown fish added originally. 6 nassiarus snails, 5 cerith, 5 astrea. They were in the tank and did great until I added a mandarin last week (seeded with copepods and was advertised as eating several types of prepared food so wasn't worried about having him in a young tank). Mandarin died after 48 hours. The clown fish then both died over the next 2 days. They all stopped eating, then began heavy breathing, started to swim erratically and seemed to have trouble staying upright, then they would lay on the sand breathing very heavily until they died. Here is a video of the mandarin struggling
I tested parameters before adding the mandarin and many times throughout all of this, readings were never anything abnormal. Also have an ammonia alert that stayed yellow the whole time. I use a temp controller and ATO, so temp and salinity were stable. No issues with any of the snails or copepods during any of this.
I spoke with the online retailer about the mandarin to let them know I suspected velvet since it happened so fast. They explained how unlikely that it was velvet. They thought perhaps it was an overnight ammonia spike in my tank that went unnoticed as the ammonia dropped by morning so I never noticed it. I did add a bottle of copepods and feed phyto the day before the mandarin arrived. Then I fed quite heavily several different foods trying to get the mandarin to eat. That combined with the tank being so young made them suspect it was an ammonia spike. After speaking with them it seemed that was a realistic possibility, so I didn't run the tank fallow to let disease die out and thought it was safe to add new fish.
I did a water change Friday. Then yesterday I added 2 new clowns from a LFS. This morning they both seemed like they were doing good. A few hours ago I notice that the male was suddenly having trouble swimming. Then he dropped down to the sand, was breathing heavily and died within an hour. The female is still swimming around but will not eat and she seems weak and breathing faster than normal. Here is video of these clowns: There is a picture of him before and after death attached. And a picture of the female as of right now.
I tested parameters
Temp: 78
PH: 7.8
Salinity 1.024
Ammonia: .2 - .4
Nitrate: 0
The ammonia alert on the tank is still yellow indicating 0. This is the first time during all of this I have registered anything at all on ammonia so I was surprised to see this. Is this indicating that basically I'm a monster and killing all of these fish with ammonia somehow? Because I was suspecting velvet again until I saw this test. The fish dying within 24 hours seems more to be ammonia than disease, but in that case wouldn't the snails and copepods also be dying off? Snails are all acting normal, nassarius came up for food, glass and refugium is covered in active pods.
I suspect this other clown is going to die soon if I don't figure out the cause. I'm going to do another water change ASAP, have water coming out of the RODI now. But not sure if I should go and buy another tank and set up for copper treatment as well.
Tank history: It's a 32 gallon Biocube. I used 30lbs of Caribsea Arag-Alive sand, and about 30lbs of dry live rock along with a bottle of Dr Tims one and only. I manually added ammonium chloride to get the cycle started. Cycle start was June 29th. About a week later the tank was showing the ability to process 2ppm of ammonia per day. Just to be sure I added 2ppm of ammonia a few times over the next week after that. Each time it was able to process all the ammonia within 24 hours. The first clown fish were added on July 15. July 30th I added some of the snails. A week or two later the rest of the snails were added. I also added a few bottles of copepods throughout this process after the initial cycle. I do have Chaeto growing in one of the back compartments with reverse lighting to the main tank. I have been feeding 10ml of phytoplankton to the tank twice a week to feed the pods.
Thank you for any help. Ive been out of the game for over a decade, but I never had any issues like this before. I had years of smooth sailing. Would like to do everything I can to save this clown if its possible. Really feeling like the fish murderer now :(
Leaving that aside, assuming you meant what I meant in post #11 then I'd like to share more info...)
