Lost 2 fish

[mbsloan]

Would love some input here

I am working thru a new tank. I have QT’d 6 total fish. The first 4 great, lost the last 2 in QT.

I am following Ryan/Elliots QT. 100% WC every 3 days.

The last two were both tangs. bristletooth and a blue hippo.

Not really sure what to think.
Here are the facts:
-They were both very small. Around 1” - 1.5”
-I have seen them eating. Maybe I should have fed more or different or something. With them being on the small side.
-They definitely didn’t die from ammonia. Tested.
-Temp, salinity, etc has been good and stable.
-Copper is at the normal therapeutic level. Same for all fish

I’m not sure if it was just crap luck or if something else went wrong. I didn’t notice anything alarming. Just one day dead.

The Blue hippo died 3 days in. The Bristletooth only had 2 days until QT was finished.

Other fish I have qt’d…2 clowns, Royal gramma, watchman goby,

Currently in qt is a Sailfin tang. I really don’t wanna lose him.

 

[mbsloan]

The only thing that comes to mind from my freshwater days, maybe I’m under feeding. Maybe I need to be offering more food for such a little fish. I don’t know.

 

[KrisReef]

How do you measure the copper level?

Do you have any pictures of the fish.

Hope you can figure it out.

 

[JayM]

Would love some input here

I am working thru a new tank. I have QT’d 6 total fish. The first 4 great, lost the last 2 in QT.

I am following Ryan/Elliots QT. 100% WC every 3 days.

The last two were both tangs. bristletooth and a blue hippo.

Not really sure what to think.
Here are the facts:
-They were both very small. Around 1” - 1.5”
-I have seen them eating. Maybe I should have fed more or different or something. With them being on the small side.
-They definitely didn’t die from ammonia. Tested.
-Temp, salinity, etc has been good and stable.
-Copper is at the normal therapeutic level. Same for all fish

I’m not sure if it was just crap luck or if something else went wrong. I didn’t notice anything alarming. Just one day dead.

The Blue hippo died 3 days in. The Bristletooth only had 2 days until QT was finished.

Other fish I have qt’d…2 clowns, Royal gramma, watchman goby,

Currently in qt is a Sailfin tang. I really don’t wanna lose him.

What copper are you using? What level were you running? What are you using to test it?

 

[mbsloan]

Copper power
2.5
Hanna Checker

 

[mbsloan]

How do you measure the copper level?

Do you have any pictures of the fish.

Hope you can figure it out.

I should’ve took pictures. I did not.

Be honest, I was too mad

However, I did inspect the fish both times. No visible damage or sores or anything like that.

No visible symptoms

 

[vetteguy53081]

Would love some input here

I am working thru a new tank. I have QT’d 6 total fish. The first 4 great, lost the last 2 in QT.

I am following Ryan/Elliots QT. 100% WC every 3 days.

The last two were both tangs. bristletooth and a blue hippo.

Not really sure what to think.
Here are the facts:
-They were both very small. Around 1” - 1.5”
-I have seen them eating. Maybe I should have fed more or different or something. With them being on the small side.
-They definitely didn’t die from ammonia. Tested.
-Temp, salinity, etc has been good and stable.
-Copper is at the normal therapeutic level. Same for all fish

I’m not sure if it was just crap luck or if something else went wrong. I didn’t notice anything alarming. Just one day dead.

The Blue hippo died 3 days in. The Bristletooth only had 2 days until QT was finished.

Other fish I have qt’d…2 clowns, Royal gramma, watchman goby,

Currently in qt is a Sailfin tang. I really don’t wanna lose him.

What level is your copper reading at and how are you testing it?
Water change every 3 days is not healthy and you want your copper level as steady as possible and how are you testing ammonia?
Are fish breathing normal or labored?
Can you post video using white light, no blue of remaining fish of at least 20 seconds?

 

[mbsloan]

What level is your copper reading at and how are you testing it?
Water change every 3 days is not healthy and you want your copper level as steady as possible and how are you testing ammonia?
Are fish breathing normal or labored?
Can you post video using white light, no blue of remaining fish of at least 20 seconds?

As far as the water change every three days, that’s part of the protocol that Ryan from BRS and Elliot from Marine collectors made. That’s just what I’m following.

I have an ammonia tester Hanna checker.

Ammonia never got above .25. I also have a seachem ammonia alert. It’s never shown ammonia.

Fish honestly look great.

The blue hippo I assumed was something wrong when I got it. It only lasted 36 hours.

However, my bristle tooth has been in quarantine for almost 2 weeks now. It has had mice it has had algae. It has a hide. Was not gasping for air. Nothing literally was making plans to put it in the tank Thursday night. Never would’ve thought it would’ve died today.

I can take videos of myself in Sailfin at some point tonight.

Again looks great. The cell phone is definitely not as small as my other two tanks I was qting.

 

[mbsloan]

sorry, been feeding mysis and algae.

Also started hatching brine shrimp was gonna start that today. Have also fed Tigger pods.

 

[mbsloan]

The thing that gets me is, I followed the same process for my other fish I’ve had no issues. This is the same QT process that Marine collectors does for their quarantine fish

 

[vetteguy53081]

As far as the water change every three days, that’s part of the protocol that Ryan from BRS and Elliot from Marine collectors made. That’s just what I’m following.

I have an ammonia tester Hanna checker.

Ammonia never got above .25. I also have a seachem ammonia alert. It’s never shown ammonia.

Fish honestly look great.

The blue hippo I assumed was something wrong when I got it. It only lasted 36 hours.

However, my bristle tooth has been in quarantine for almost 2 weeks now. It has had mice it has had algae. It has a hide. Was not gasping for air. Nothing literally was making plans to put it in the tank Thursday night. Never would’ve thought it would’ve died today.

I can take videos of myself in Sailfin at some point tonight.

Again looks great. The cell phone is definitely not as small as my other two tanks I was qting.

Especially in copper, alert badge simply is not accurate and effective maybe two weeks as made also for freshwater. Your Hann ammonia - ,,,, you want .025 or below. You stated.25- is this the reading youre getting?
At every 3 days, the copper is barely getting a chance to take effect even though it is restored during water changes , assuming you are mixing new water at same copper level>
Copper takes 2-3 days to take effect and removing it at same time period not recommended unless ammonia is high

 

[mbsloan]

Yes, they are staying in copper for 14 days at 2.5. The water change is so ammonia never builds up. It’s 100% water change.
So basically mix up big batch of salt water at 2.5 copper. Every three days dump the water replaced with new water.

Ammonia never gets above .2. One time it got a point to everything else is either been barely reading on the Hanna checker.

The one time it got to .2 was it was really late in the day for the third day so it was probably just a little bit longer than exactly 3 days. But the fish went through a whole water change agin before it died.

I’ve been around freshwater and cichlids most of my adult life. In my opinion this was not ammonia.

My gut feeling is either something was wrong with the fish that I couldn’t catch your see or I wasn’t feeding enough being how small they were. These were little 1 inch tanks. I would consider them tiny.

In my area, everybody’s getting really small tanks there there’s been no small to medium.

I don’t know why my gut feeling feels like it’s around food

 

[mbsloan]

Tangs not tanks. Stupid autocorrect

 

[MikeReefs]

Sometimes fish just don’t take QT well, it happens. Maybe the 100% water changes every 3 days caused stress, that could be a possibility

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes, they are staying in copper for 14 days at 2.5. The water change is so ammonia never builds up. It’s 100% water change.
So basically mix up big batch of salt water at 2.5 copper. Every three days dump the water replaced with new water.

Ammonia never gets above .2. One time it got a point to everything else is either been barely reading on the Hanna checker.

The one time it got to .2 was it was really late in the day for the third day so it was probably just a little bit longer than exactly 3 days. But the fish went through a whole water change agin before it died.

I’ve been around freshwater and cichlids most of my adult life. In my opinion this was not ammonia.

My gut feeling is either something was wrong with the fish that I couldn’t catch your see or I wasn’t feeding enough being how small they were. These were little 1 inch tanks. I would consider them tiny.

In my area, everybody’s getting really small tanks there there’s been no small to medium.

I don’t know why my gut feeling feels like it’s around food

You want .02, not .2, may be part of issue. You want at least 28 days in copper, nit 14. Our protocol is 30 days
If food was an issue, fish would be quite thin

 

[mbsloan]

I meant 02. I’m doing this on the phone at my kids practice.

I’ve even spot check ammonia with my Red Sea test kit, it’s basically undetectable it could’ve been stress it could be something it’s not ammonia.

 

[mbsloan]

I’m 99% sure I figured out the issue.

My qt tank was at 41-42ppt salinity. I think my refractometer got off. I tested my display tank and it was at 36ppt so a bit higher but the dilution of the system probably helped. Both my qt tanks were at 41-42 though.

I tested everything. Copper. Ammonia. Nitrite. Nitrate. Temperature. Only thing that was off was salinity.