PLEASE HELP!!! Fish in distress!!

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jencheung

AC Members
Jan 22, 2007
194
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Cambridge, MA
I bought a small Coral Beauty on Saturday and have had her in a 10 gallon quarantine tank since then. The store had all of their new fish in a lower salinity system since they came that way from the shippers (she had arrived last Monday) so her quarantine tank is at 1.020. The quarantine tank has a few chunks of live rock from my main tank, a ball of chaeto, some filter floss from my main tank, a powerhead and a heater. She was fine over the weekend and was eating last night. I woke up this morning and she's seemed to be acting funny, alternately swimming near the surface (she'd been mostly staying near the chunks of rock up until this morning) and just resting on the bottom breathing heavily. I tested the water and it showed .25 nitrite so I quickly did a 2 gallon water change. I redirected the powerhead more towards the surface to try to oxygenate the water a bit more. Half an hour later she's lying on her side gasping. I've since done two more 2 gallon water changes and the tests are showing 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate. Due to the multiple water changes in under an hour the temperature in the tank dropped about a degree and a half. Her condition hasn't changed she's just lying on her side. What else can I do? What did I do wrong?? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
 
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jencheung

AC Members
Jan 22, 2007
194
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0
Cambridge, MA
It didn't really come out of the rockwork when food was introduced but when it drifted by she ate it. The quarantine wasn't cycled but I put in live rock from my established system and stuck some of the filter floss from my established system to the intake of the powerhead.
 

DominionDesign

Just chillin', watching the fish.
Aug 5, 2008
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Jacksonville, FL
I don't see anything you did wrong, some fish react more so than others to stress and this may be the case. Keep an eye out for ich which can be set off or aggravated by stress from moving and/or temp changes. It sounds like you may have had a mini cycle with the ammonia spiking overnight. I would keep testing, do a water change if you see any rise in ammonia, making sure to keep the temp of the new water as close as possible to the tank. I wouldn't feed anymore untill she is up and about, I would also bring the temp up slowly to about 82 which will speed up the life cycle of any parasite and also weaken it so you can treat accordingly if needed. The great thing about Q tanks is you are not dealing with this in the main tank. Good luck!
 

jencheung

AC Members
Jan 22, 2007
194
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0
Cambridge, MA
So I did another waterchange of about 4 gallons at around 11:30, she was still lying on her side on the bottom. The ammonia, nitrites and nitrates had been steadily at 0 since about 10 am. I ran out at noon, was gone for just over an hour to pick up a new HOB filter to add to the tank with more established media (of course today the backup HOB we had for emergencies wouldn't start up, and then of course my husband took the car to work so I had to take the bus to the nearest store). I get home and get to the tank to hook up the new filter and... she's not moving. :(

Lesson learned: I guess the filter media and live rock I had in the tank wasn't enough to handle her resulting in a mini cycle. In under 4 hours a coral beauty can go from bobbing near the surface to lying on her side gasping to dead. For future quarantines I'll always use a HOB in addition to what I had (and probably seed it with BiroSpira too)... RIP little girl :cry:
 
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