Orchid Dottyback and corals dying

[Aegon]

Tank was doing fine yesterday most of corals were out and fully expanded fish were all happy and fed brine shrimp, I woke up this morning to find my dottyback laying on the sand bed dead, all other fish are find and corals are fine other than one of my zoas

Not sure what caused this I’m currently doing test I’ve completed the following
and am checking other parameters was looking for any guidance so I don’t lose any other fish / coral due to something I can prevent in the future. Any help is greatly appreciated

salinity 1.025
Phosphate ULR .07 PPM
Nitrate 7 ppm
Ammonia .25ppm

Yesterday ammonia was 0 so not sure if that’s from the fish / broke shrimp from yesterdays feeding

 

[Aegon]

Zoa Yesterday

 

[Topekoms]

Appears that you have just setup your tank. how long has it been up and running?

 

[fishguy242]

add carbon,add airstone, point return to surface, water change all will help at this point.

 

[Aegon]

Appears that you have just setup your tank. how long has it been up and running?

Water has been cycled in brute tank w rock in garage for over 2 months while it’s only been setup in tank for a little over a month now

 

[Topekoms]

add carbon,add airstone, point return to surface, water change all will help at this point.

We still need more information before action to be taken. Doing a water change at this point might cause even more problems. If you go and do a water change yes will remove some of the ammonia but if the tank is only a week old that ammonia level is expected and the correct action would to do nothing unless the ammonia reaches a higher point.

 

[Topekoms]

Water has been cycled in brute tank w rock in garage for over 2 months while it’s only been setup in tank for a little over a month now

When did you add the fish and coral? And by cycle how did you do it? Just add saltwater and let it run or did you add ammonia or some other source of nutrients?

 

[Pkunk35]

Maybe bullied?

 

[Aegon]

Just checked magnesium levels they’re showing 1350 ppm

zoa started to open back up so I’m not to worried I’m just confused on why the dotty died

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Just checked magnesium levels they’re showing 1350 ppm

zoa started to open back up so I’m not to worried I’m just confused on why the dotty died

since you have ammonia in the tank, it means the tank was not completely cycled yet, it could not handle the bioload of one small fish.

 

[Aegon]

When did you add the fish and coral? And by cycle how did you do it? Just add saltwater and let it run or did you add ammonia or some other source of nutrients?

Once in the brute tank I had a heater and added Tim’s all in one and supplemented ammonia at about 1ppm once it could handle it i started increasing the ammonia levels I put in to about 1.5 ppm in the brute tank

 

[Aegon]

since you have ammonia in the tank, it means the tank was not completely cycled yet, it could not handle the bioload of one small fish.

Tank levels yesterday and everyday prior to that were showing ammonia levels at 0 but that could be the case I might have to wait to stock

 

[Aegon]

Maybe bullied?

He usually hides in the rock but that’s always a possibility only other death I had was the hawk fish killing a baby postol shrimp sadly so possibly he had a nip at the dottyback

also I supplement the tank with these, not sure if they could’ve contributed to the dottyback a death if it was water related

 

[Topekoms]

My thought is to do nothing. Messing anymore with the tank will cause further problems. It seems to me you stocked the tank too fast and it can't handle the bio load. I would not buy any more corals until you get thru the ugly stage. You are still a baby tank you haven't been thru the full cycle yet. I would monitor levels and if the ammonia keeps rising do a water change. Also cut back your feeding to what they will eat only and don't add any coral foods. That will just make the ammonia rise.

 

[Aegon]

My thought is to do nothing. Messing anymore with the tank will cause further problems. It seems to me you stocked the tank too fast and it can't handle the bio load. I would not buy any more corals until you get thru the ugly stage. You are still a baby tank you haven't been thru the full cycle yet. I would monitor levels and if the ammonia keeps rising do a water change. Also cut back your feeding to what they will eat only and don't add any coral foods. That will just make the ammonia rise.

Okay I’ll stick to that for the next coming months hopefully what’s in the tank survives. Thank you everyone for the help I’ll update if anything else happens

 

[fishguy242]

how are other fish? lethargic ? breathing fast ?

 

[Aegon]

how are other fish? lethargic ? breathing fast ?

All the other fish are looking and moving completely normal, breathing normally.
I guess it was just a bio load issue or maybe dottyback got bullied

 

[gbru316]

1. Bullying isn't likely to kill a fish overnight, unless the "bully" has physically attacked the fish and caused injury. Orchid dottybacks often disappear into your rockwork for days when first adding them, and only venturing out once they feel comfortable doing so. My recent addition hid for 4 days until the cherub pygmy angel stopped chasing it back into the rock.

2. 0.25 ppm ammonia could be telling. Or it could not. What test kit did you use? If it's API, I'd be suspicious of the results. They're notorious for registering ammonia when none is present.

3. Zoanthids closing up periodically is common. Especially after first adding them. In my experience, corals often look fine the day you add them. If they have problems, those don't become apparent until days/weeks later.

4. If all of your other fish are doing fine, there's no reason to suspect a water quality issue.

New fish die. It's not uncommon at all. They're often stressed from shipping/LFS/new tank and may have underlying issues (flukes, ich, velvet, etc). The stress of a move coupled with the underlying issue is sometimes enough to allow the pathogen/parasite to take over and kill the fish. Many use prophylactic treatments for new fish.


If you're not running activated carbon, do so. Then monitor your livestock for changes.


Your tank is new, with dry rock. You've got some major battles coming up. I suggest taking a step back and focusing on finding stability and preparing for the upcoming real-estate battle between bacteria/coralline/nuisance algae. Which means perfecting your maintenance routine, researching the "new tank" biome cycle and learning which tools you might be able to use. Adding more coral/livestock at this point is only going to make things more difficult as a larger bio-load is going to amplify any nutrient swings and coral will reduce your ability to use blackout periods to fight the algae.

 

[Aegon]

1. Bullying isn't likely to kill a fish overnight, unless the "bully" has physically attacked the fish and caused injury. Orchid dottybacks often disappear into your rockwork for days when first adding them, and only venturing out once they feel comfortable doing so. My recent addition hid for 4 days until the cherub pygmy angel stopped chasing it back into the rock.

2. 0.25 ppm ammonia could be telling. Or it could not. What test kit did you use? If it's API, I'd be suspicious of the results. They're notorious for registering ammonia when none is present.

3. Zoanthids closing up periodically is common. Especially after first adding them. In my experience, corals often look fine the day you add them. If they have problems, those don't become apparent until days/weeks later.

4. If all of your other fish are doing fine, there's no reason to suspect a water quality issue.

New fish die. It's not uncommon at all. They're often stressed from shipping/LFS/new tank and may have underlying issues (flukes, ich, velvet, etc). The stress of a move coupled with the underlying issue is sometimes enough to allow the pathogen/parasite to take over and kill the fish. Many use prophylactic treatments for new fish.


If you're not running activated carbon, do so. Then monitor your livestock for changes.


Your tank is new, with dry rock. You've got some major battles coming up. I suggest taking a step back and focusing on finding stability and preparing for the upcoming real-estate battle between bacteria/coralline/nuisance algae. Which means perfecting your maintenance routine, researching the "new tank" biome cycle and learning which tools you might be able to use. Adding more coral/livestock at this point is only going to make things more difficult as a larger bio-load is going to amplify any nutrient swings and coral will reduce your ability to use blackout periods to fight the algae.

It is an api test so I wasn’t to worried about it when I saw .25 register as for everything else I just started activated carbon yesterday and I’m gonna take all your advice and not add anything else and just get ready for the biome cycle

I think you’re right about it being an underlying issue or stress because the dottyback has just recently been active in the tank after hiding for a few days

thank you for all the feedback I’m gonna look into the new tank cycle more and get ready for it

 

[Aegon]

Update, next day after putting in activated carbon I unfortunately lost 2 more fish overnight. API test continues to read .25 ammonia salinity 1.025 nitrate 3 ppm

fish were breathing normally when I woke up this morning and just dropped suddenly
Royal has a small cavity center mass as it was being snacked on by an emerald crab before I got it out