My parrot seems to be acting a little off today. I came into my office this morning and noticed the white spots on his head. I figured it was from him sleeping in the rocks but now that he's acting a little more reclusive than usual, I figured I'd post for the group to chime in.
A little background.
Last Thursday (week ago) our fish babysitter came and did the normal check of the tank and a general cleaning. They helped set the tank up so I've kept them involved to help grow the tank. It's around 500 gallons and has been in operation for 6 months pretty much. I started slow with a couple yellow tail damsels and it escalated from there. Up to about a month ago everything was running smoothly. Normal blooms, ugly cycles and such but no die off etc. That was until a few weeks ago.
I decided to lose my patience for a minute and picked up a Achilles Tang and Bristletooth Tang.
I do not know the source directly. They were both delivered via courier from somewhere in California. The fish by all accounts looked healthy. About 1.5 -2 weeks after entering my tank the Achilles started swimming on his side and died in about 6 hours from the first symptoms. Two weeks later, the Bristletooth died in a quick fashion. Really in the span from noticeable odd behavior to CUC food. I've since sent his carcass to a marine biologist for sampling/testing to get more insight.
This brings us to last Thursday, the tank was serviced and multiple API tests were done to check levels. All checked out good.
Monday, I came to my office to find I had a massacre on my hands. The death toll over the weekend was as follows:
all were dead, dying or simply missing from my tank after the weekend.
12 juvenile clowns
2 Yellow Tail Damsels (The O.G. inhabitants of the tank)
We tested the water on Thursday, the results PH 8.23 AMM: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 2 ppm
The Friday results similar.
Mondays results is where it gets crazy: PH. 8.23 AM: 1.0 Nitrite: 2.0 Nitrate: 20
Dosed with Prime on Monday and test results back to satisfactory the next morning and improved greatly since. Also added a large carbon filter in the sump to help pull out more junk should it exist.
Todays Results: PH: 8.2 AMM: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate 3.5
we do weekly minor water changes, clean regularly and generally keep a close eye on my tank. I sit next to it for 10+ hours per day so I have gotten familiar with the inhabitants for sure.
The only think we can come up with is "if" the weekend office cleaners are spraying Windex on my aquarium glass and it is floating into the top of the tank or down below into the sump or both. Other than that, I can't for the life of me think of a reason why the swing would happen that quickly.
I managed to sift out 3 surviving clowns on Monday morning and place them in an empty 30g bio cube I was prepping for a mantis shrimp. The only inhabitant of the cube at the time was a large Calico Crab. Who was by all accounts healthy and eating the Thursday/Friday prior.
The next day, Tuesday, I came back to my office and the Calico crab was dead and two of the remaining clowns perished with one body missing. I am going to assume the calico ate the dead clown and whatever he had killed the crab.
So with all the information above I have since ruled out the clowns taking each other out. It's clearly some sort of illness.
Worth mentioning, I did notice, before the last clowns died a couple of them had like a white streamer coming off their dorsal fin. NOT POOP. Some of the fins were pretty tattered as well. Thats why I assumed they had been figuring out who's the boss amongst them.
So, here is what is currently alive in my tank and seems to be doing just fine:
4 Blue Chromis
2 Diamond Gobi
1 Decorator Crab
12 or so Emerald Crabs
Coral Banded Shrimp
Cleaner Shrimp
Toadstool
3 Nems
2 very small engineer goby however I can't find them. I'm going to assume they are buried under the rocks currently. I saw one yesterday. Just not today.
As I stated, my parrotfish is acting odd.
Any of you reef pro's have a hypothesis?
A little background.
Last Thursday (week ago) our fish babysitter came and did the normal check of the tank and a general cleaning. They helped set the tank up so I've kept them involved to help grow the tank. It's around 500 gallons and has been in operation for 6 months pretty much. I started slow with a couple yellow tail damsels and it escalated from there. Up to about a month ago everything was running smoothly. Normal blooms, ugly cycles and such but no die off etc. That was until a few weeks ago.
I decided to lose my patience for a minute and picked up a Achilles Tang and Bristletooth Tang.
I do not know the source directly. They were both delivered via courier from somewhere in California. The fish by all accounts looked healthy. About 1.5 -2 weeks after entering my tank the Achilles started swimming on his side and died in about 6 hours from the first symptoms. Two weeks later, the Bristletooth died in a quick fashion. Really in the span from noticeable odd behavior to CUC food. I've since sent his carcass to a marine biologist for sampling/testing to get more insight.
This brings us to last Thursday, the tank was serviced and multiple API tests were done to check levels. All checked out good.
Monday, I came to my office to find I had a massacre on my hands. The death toll over the weekend was as follows:
all were dead, dying or simply missing from my tank after the weekend.
12 juvenile clowns
2 Yellow Tail Damsels (The O.G. inhabitants of the tank)
We tested the water on Thursday, the results PH 8.23 AMM: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 2 ppm
The Friday results similar.
Mondays results is where it gets crazy: PH. 8.23 AM: 1.0 Nitrite: 2.0 Nitrate: 20
Dosed with Prime on Monday and test results back to satisfactory the next morning and improved greatly since. Also added a large carbon filter in the sump to help pull out more junk should it exist.
Todays Results: PH: 8.2 AMM: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate 3.5
we do weekly minor water changes, clean regularly and generally keep a close eye on my tank. I sit next to it for 10+ hours per day so I have gotten familiar with the inhabitants for sure.
The only think we can come up with is "if" the weekend office cleaners are spraying Windex on my aquarium glass and it is floating into the top of the tank or down below into the sump or both. Other than that, I can't for the life of me think of a reason why the swing would happen that quickly.
I managed to sift out 3 surviving clowns on Monday morning and place them in an empty 30g bio cube I was prepping for a mantis shrimp. The only inhabitant of the cube at the time was a large Calico Crab. Who was by all accounts healthy and eating the Thursday/Friday prior.
The next day, Tuesday, I came back to my office and the Calico crab was dead and two of the remaining clowns perished with one body missing. I am going to assume the calico ate the dead clown and whatever he had killed the crab.
So with all the information above I have since ruled out the clowns taking each other out. It's clearly some sort of illness.
Worth mentioning, I did notice, before the last clowns died a couple of them had like a white streamer coming off their dorsal fin. NOT POOP. Some of the fins were pretty tattered as well. Thats why I assumed they had been figuring out who's the boss amongst them.
So, here is what is currently alive in my tank and seems to be doing just fine:
4 Blue Chromis
2 Diamond Gobi
1 Decorator Crab
12 or so Emerald Crabs
Coral Banded Shrimp
Cleaner Shrimp
Toadstool
3 Nems
2 very small engineer goby however I can't find them. I'm going to assume they are buried under the rocks currently. I saw one yesterday. Just not today.
As I stated, my parrotfish is acting odd.
Any of you reef pro's have a hypothesis?
