My Fish Died :(

[djs4him]

5 days ago, I bought a juvenile coral beauty angelfish for my 180 live rock fish only tank. The tank is relatively young at around 6 months since setup but it is fully cycled and has been hosting two juvenile clownfish for several months now.

pH: 8.1
dH: 10
specific gravity: 1.025
temperature: 78

He's been super healthy and happy these past 5 days. Today I found him lying on his side on the sand floor breathing heavy. I don't have a hospital tank and I was late for a family event so I grabbed my 5gal bucket, filled it with tank water, gave him his own heater and airstone, put some antifungal in there (the only med I had on hand) and ran out the door.

When I came home a few hours later, he was laying flat on the bucket floor still breathing heavily. I gave him some new antibacterial I had bought at my LFS but moments later I watched him breathe his last and die.

Any ideas why? Perhaps he had a parasite? My two juvenile clownfish are still happily swimming along. Just curious if there's something I can do to prevent this from happening again. I guess I should have quarantined him (I didn't).

 

[Dcal]

thats a bummer sorry that happened to you! I dont have any ideas but hopefully someone can help soon

 

[Sharkbait19]

Any white spots? Did you happen to take any pics or videos? How was the fish acclimated?

 

[djs4him]

Not a very useful photo but .. this was moments before he died when he was still breathing heavy in a glass jar I transferred him to. No visible spots of any kind or external parasites. His coloration looked beautiful and vibrant to me. My nitrates were under 5ppm .. I just checked them last night. It's possible he wasn't getting enough oxygen but after transferring him and giving him his own air stone, I would have thought he'd have recovered.

So still a bit surprised by this quick turn of events.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

5 days ago, I bought a juvenile coral beauty angelfish for my 180 live rock fish only tank. The tank is relatively young at around 6 months since setup but it is fully cycled and has been hosting two juvenile clownfish for several months now.

pH: 8.1
dH: 10
specific gravity: 1.025
temperature: 78

He's been super healthy and happy these past 5 days. Today I found him lying on his side on the sand floor breathing heavy. I don't have a hospital tank and I was late for a family event so I grabbed my 5gal bucket, filled it with tank water, gave him his own heater and airstone, put some antifungal in there (the only med I had on hand) and ran out the door.

When I came home a few hours later, he was laying flat on the bucket floor still breathing heavily. I gave him some new antibacterial I had bought at my LFS but moments later I watched him breathe his last and die.

Any ideas why? Perhaps he had a parasite? My two juvenile clownfish are still happily swimming along. Just curious if there's something I can do to prevent this from happening again. I guess I should have quarantined him (I didn't).

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I'm sorry about your coral beauty. Two thoughts come to mind: it came in with a gill infection known as velvet (Amyloodinium) or it is suffering from cyanide poisoning (less likely). Collectors in some regions use cyanide to capture fish more easily, and it causes mortality later on, once the fish are sold. I think it is probably velvet.

Without a treatment tank and a fast copper treatment, even minor cases of this disease are tough to cure. The next issue is - will the clownfish catch the same illness? That is likely, and the only treatment is the same - copper in a medication tank. Hopefuly, that isn't the problem and your clownfish will be fine.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not a very useful photo but .. this was moments before he died when he was still breathing heavy in a glass jar I transferred him to. No visible spots of any kind or external parasites. His coloration looked beautiful and vibrant to me. My nitrates were under 5ppm .. I just checked them last night. It's possible he wasn't getting enough oxygen but after transferring him and giving him his own air stone, I would have thought he'd have recovered.

So still a bit surprised by this quick turn of events.

Sounds like low oxygen and possible overdosing with medication used. Heavy breathing often suggests high ammonia, low o2, gill gills amongst other reasons.

 

[cancun]

5 days ago, I bought a juvenile coral beauty angelfish for my 180 live rock fish only tank. The tank is relatively young at around 6 months since setup but it is fully cycled and has been hosting two juvenile clownfish for several months now.

pH: 8.1
dH: 10
specific gravity: 1.025
temperature: 78

He's been super healthy and happy these past 5 days. Today I found him lying on his side on the sand floor breathing heavy. I don't have a hospital tank and I was late for a family event so I grabbed my 5gal bucket, filled it with tank water, gave him his own heater and airstone, put some antifungal in there (the only med I had on hand) and ran out the door.

When I came home a few hours later, he was laying flat on the bucket floor still breathing heavily. I gave him some new antibacterial I had bought at my LFS but moments later I watched him breathe his last and die.

Any ideas why? Perhaps he had a parasite? My two juvenile clownfish are still happily swimming along. Just curious if there's something I can do to prevent this from happening again. I guess I should have quarantined him (I didn't).

Hi there! I am sorry you lost your fish. Everyone has great advice as usual, but one thought I had was a acclimation issue.....what salinity was the fish when you received it, and how did you acclimate him to your tank? Just a thought.......

 

[Gatorpa]

Hi there! I am sorry you lost your fish. Everyone has great advice as usual, but one thought I had was a acclimation issue.....what salinity was the fish when you received it, and how did you acclimate him to your tank? Just a thought.......

Good point, although it may not be that my LFS runs their fish system at 1.019—-
Iasked why and they explained that’s what their wholesaler runs their systems at.
Last time I bought fish from them I did about a 4 hour acclimation.
They all ate that day and were out swimming and being very active.
All are doing very well a month later.

 

[gbroadbridge]

5 days ago, I bought a juvenile coral beauty angelfish for my 180 live rock fish only tank. The tank is relatively young at around 6 months since setup but it is fully cycled and has been hosting two juvenile clownfish for several months now.

pH: 8.1
dH: 10
specific gravity: 1.025
temperature: 78

He's been super healthy and happy these past 5 days. Today I found him lying on his side on the sand floor breathing heavy. I don't have a hospital tank and I was late for a family event so I grabbed my 5gal bucket, filled it with tank water, gave him his own heater and airstone, put some antifungal in there (the only med I had on hand) and ran out the door.

When I came home a few hours later, he was laying flat on the bucket floor still breathing heavily. I gave him some new antibacterial I had bought at my LFS but moments later I watched him breathe his last and die.

Any ideas why? Perhaps he had a parasite? My two juvenile clownfish are still happily swimming along. Just curious if there's something I can do to prevent this from happening again. I guess I should have quarantined him (I didn't).

In future, don't panic.

Do not do any treatments unless you have a sound diagnosis.

I would have put the fish into a separate tank, with the same water and have just increased aeration with some carbon filtration, and see what progressed. So you did the right thing.

Sometimes in panic mode we can actuallly make things worse.

Did you account for salinity differences when you acclimated the fish?

 

[52728299]

I recently had a coral beauty I added to a qt tank. 20 gallon 2 air stones no meds added yet and salinity was 1.025. I acclimated for an hour slowly raising the bags water to match. The poor guy didn't last 24 hours in the qt tank.

My point is sometimes these fish come with issues invisible to us but are hard on the fish. Whether it's overly stressed or, flukes or velvet or even all of the above it's best not to beat yourself up over it. The best thing in my humble opinion going forward is to use a quarantine setup to help mitigate any possible disease and acclimate them as best you can. This isn't just giving the new fish it's best chance at surviving but also protects your established animals already in the display.

I know I had to learn the hard way about the importance of a qt and have been able to get my 3 original fish in copper. I thought they were healthy before but after having treated them they have gained a lot of weight their color has improved and they just act happier (they are a bit bored in the simple qt setup tho)

I have personally experienced a tough time with dwarf angels too idk if you got yours at a local shop but going forward that's where I'd get mine after being able to see it healthy and eating for a couple weeks. Hope my rambling is somewhat helpful, good luck

 

[Gatorpa]

I recently had a coral beauty I added to a qt tank. 20 gallon 2 air stones no meds added yet and salinity was 1.025. I acclimated for an hour slowly raising the bags water to match. The poor guy didn't last 24 hours in the qt tank.

My point is sometimes these fish come with issues invisible to us but are hard on the fish. Whether it's overly stressed or, flukes or velvet or even all of the above it's best not to beat yourself up over it. The best thing in my humble opinion going forward is to use a quarantine setup to help mitigate any possible disease and acclimate them as best you can. This isn't just giving the new fish it's best chance at surviving but also protects your established animals already in the display.

I know I had to learn the hard way about the importance of a qt and have been able to get my 3 original fish in copper. I thought they were healthy before but after having treated them they have gained a lot of weight their color has improved and they just act happier (they are a bit bored in the simple qt setup tho)

I have personally experienced a tough time with dwarf angels too idk if you got yours at a local shop but going forward that's where I'd get mine after being able to see it healthy and eating for a couple weeks. Hope my rambling is somewhat helpful, good luck

Agree with all your observations.
Dwarf Angels can be very hit or miss….

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi there! I am sorry you lost your fish. Everyone has great advice as usual, but one thought I had was a acclimation issue.....what salinity was the fish when you received it, and how did you acclimate him to your tank? Just a thought.......

I think acclimation issues would be ruled out in this case because the fish was eating and acting fine for 5 days after arrival, and then took a turn for the worse. Acclimation problems show up immediately, or in the first 24 hours.

Jay

 

[gbru316]

Do not do any treatments unless you have a sound diagnosis.

From what I've read, prophylactic treatments for ich, velvet, and flukes aren't necessarily bad thing. A few weeks in copper and a few weeks in prazi seems to be pretty standard.

But that's a bit different than a knee-jerk treatment for an unknown pathogen.