Tank Deaths

[boowho]

I woke up this morning and 4 of 5 of my fish were dead. I have had no problems and all of my parameters were fine. The temp in my tank was 78. Any ideas as to why? 2 of the fish I had since I started my tank. Tank has been running since February 13. Fish lost were: Yellow Tang, Blue Damsel, Strawberry Basslet and a Cinnamon Clown. Surviving was the Lawnmower Blenny. My Inverts are also still alive along w/ the Peppermint Shrimp and a Turbo Snail.

[DansMarineTank]

How big is the tank, what type sorry of set up do you have? filtration? skimmer? what parameters are ok?

[dorkfish]

Sounds like the aftemath of the amonia poisonig you subjected your fish to when setting up the tank. No matter what the tank is, a fishless cycle needs to be done, or the chances of the fish living anywhere near as long as there suposed to are very slim.

[boowho]

I know for fact that it was not ammonia poisoning. I did a water test the night before all of this happened and the test read 0 for ammonia. My nitrate read 0, nitrite 0, alkalinity 300 and the ph level was 8.4. Everything was perfect. I have a 29 gallon Eclipse tank..Marineland 200 filter..Aqua C Remora Skimmer. 10#'s Live Rock.. 4" Live Sand Base. All of the fish were eating well and didn't seem stressed to me at all. As a matter of fact at feeding time they were coming up to the top for me to feed them. I was actually hand feeding my cinnamon clown. He was cool. Well anyway, any suggestions on what to do next? Run it without fish? All answers are welcomed. Thanks for replying............

[dorkfish]

Well, the yellow tang is said to need atleast a 55g (although some people say 75), but I have a yellow tan in a 29g right now so I should'nt be talking, but as long as it's smaller than 4" I think it's ok for short term(and my tank is bieng upgraded to 55 within a month becuase I'm moving). If all the params were perfect, I say catergarize this as MSD and restock the tank, preferably with more peacefull occupants(no damsels or the majority of chromis).

Did you research the ocupants before hand? If not I would consider this a perfect time to start a new with more suitable fish, and maybe turn it into a reef setup(right now all you need is lighting, but I don't know what your current lighting is so I'm not sure). I have links if you need them, just ask.

[boowho]

30" 2x65watt SunPaq with Lunar Light and fan

[boowho]

Actually, all of my fish got along great. I had no problems with fighting. I even stayed up late and tuned all the lights out in the tank thinking that maybe something was living in the live rock and came out and killed everything. I had flashlight in hand and was prepared to catch what ever it was. I wished I would of taped myself because I'm sure I looked like a huge dork. The most I caught was the cats chasing the light. LOL

[Fishieness]

IMO, you definatly need to find out what happened and not just let it go. My guess you changed the water with a bad salt. maybe you didnt put in enough salt? or too much? Maybe the salt was jsut bad. maybe you washed out the container with a detergent? Maybe somethign got into the bucket. You need to find out what killed your fish before thinking of restocking. Please. you say these fish were fine before your water change, now after they are all dead. You cannot say that everything is fine. Something happened.
sooo.... what are your water paramenters? lol
good luck

[dorkfish]

ya, but after a few years the damsel would get really agressive and nippy/ teritorial, read some species profiles over at age of aquariums and you will see what I mean. I have even read of them(on other sites) living for quite a while with octipi (wich will hunt down and eat any thing in the tank that moves) becuase of how evasive they are(wich will make any attempts by the other fish in the tank defending themselves useless).

If you want corals, the light will be suffiecient for most if not all soft corals, and maybe some SPS or LPS if they are close enough to the light.

[Fishieness]

ya, but after a few years the damsel would get really agressive and nippy/ teritorial, read some species profiles over at age of aquariums and you will see what I mean. I have even read of them(on other sites) living for quite a while with octipi (wich will hunt down and eat any thing in the tank that moves) becuase of how evasive they are(wich will make any attempts by the other fish in the tank defending themselves useless).

If you want corals, the light will be suffiecient for most if not all soft corals, and maybe some SPS or LPS if they are close enough to the light.
???
it doesnt matter what the damsels would have eventualy turned out like. The point is that at some point, weather it still be the case, her aquarium was unsuitable for 4 of his 5 fish to survive in. If she is going out to buy more fish she needs to find out what caused the others to die and make sure it is fixed. Even with damsels, a life is still a life.
And those lights would be good with most softies and some LPS such as a hammer. But i wouldnt put any sps under there.

[boowho]

I don't use a synthetic salt, I use a natural seawater. It is a premix all I do is pour it in. I have used it since the start of my tank. Perhaps I got a bad mix? If that is the case then why didn't my inverts, turbo snail and peppermint shirmp die? Hmmm...I am at a loss and not quite sure how of if I am supposed to treat my tank if I don't know what happened. I thought about just throwing in the towel but I have worked so hard on this tank to give up on it. Once again, "Thanks" for all the input that everyone is putting in. Hopefully someone can help me figure this out.

[Fishieness]

once again.... post your levels. Just because something bad was put in, doesnt mean that it would necessarily kill your inverts. What is the due date on the water? They do have due dates right?
i have lost fish before without losing any inverts.
we realy do need to kwno yoru water paramenters.

[boowho]

My nitrate reads 0, nitrite 0, alkalinity 300 and the ph level is at 8.3. Also ammonia 0. These readings were taken today when I got home from work.

[boowho]

The expiration date of the natural seawater is Best if used by January 2007

[OrionGirl]

How long had the fish been in there? Was the tank cycled? If so, how?

[boowho]

I started my tank On February 13, 2K6. Let it run for 2 days w/just live sand and the natural seawater. I purchased my cured live rock on February 15 and of course added asap. I bought the Lawnmower Blenny and the Damsel on March 15, 2K6. I let the tank run for a month before adding any fish.

[55semireef]

What condition were the fish in when you found them? Did they have gashes in them or cuts?

Did you happen to by any chance smell the tank?

Seems like some type of chemicle got in the tank. If your inverts survived, then I don't think it had to do with water quality. Killing a damsel can be tough. Trust me on that one.

When I first started the hobby, I put a yellow tail damsel in a 2 gallon with nitrates like 35 and a salinity of 1.047. I had no idea what I was doing at the time. lol. It lived for like a day and then disappeared. I assume the crabs took care of that.

[OrionGirl]

So the tank was never cycled. When were all these other fish added?

What I suspect happened is that the addition of a bunch of fish in a short time period caused an ammonia spike. Given the timeline, too many fish were added too fast. The bacteria colony was able to catch up, but the damage was already done--test results now won't indicate what was there a week ago.

[nccoastal]

the blenny made it.
i had a situation where 2 fish died all the sudden, and one had a bloated belly a few days later, but my blenny made it. everything was normal. hospitalized the sick fish, flu shot and a lollipop. there were sometimes i though he was not gonna pull thru but he did. but the blenny never showed signs of anything. thing is my blenny never eats the brine shrimp the others do. to be on the safe sidethrow your food out :spam: . and dont shove a tang in there. get some gobies and be happy.
also does your tank stay 78 all the time.
:OT: maybe the blenny was tired of all there swimming around in his view.