dieing fishes

[Arctic Fox]

Hi, I've had a saltwater aquarium for about 6 months now, and inexplicably two of my fishes died for no reason. It's a 30 gal tall tank, with 130 watt Actinic 50/50 lights, about 25 lbs of live rock, checked the water, Ammonia was at trace levels, nitrite was 0, Nitrate was 6-7 mg/l, total nitrogen was less than 25 mg/l, KH was about 185, Salinity spec. grav. was 1.0235 (about 31.5 PPT), CA was 450 (ppm units?). So far as I can tell, water is good. It's a full reef with corals and everything. The fish that died were a Yellow Sailfin Tang, and a Royal Gramma. They were both eating well, the Tang had a slight lateral infection because he was spoiled and wouldn't eat his veggies, (gave him 3 different kinds, still wouldn't eat much of them, instead he'd go for the brine shrimp). I don't think the Tang's lateral infection is what killed him because he wasn't acting at all sick. He was also just a baby, only about 2 inches tall. The only other fish in the tank is two little figure 8 pufferfish, and a bumble bee goby and they couldn't catch anyone else if their lives depended on it, besides, they didn't look picked on. I've got 1 starfish about 6 of the little hermit crabs, and about 4 turbo snails. Everything else in the tank is happy. I can't figure out what's wrong, any ideas anyone?

[Reefland]

Hi Artic Fox, Welcome to Reefland!

How long did you have these fish and can you tell us a little bit about your acclimation process? Also did you purchase them locally or Online?

[Arctic Fox]

Had the tang for about 2 or 3 weeks before it died. Bought it locally from the pet store I buy almost all my critters from, usually don't have problems. I acclimated him from saltwater that had a spec gravity of about 1.021, this is what I did, I took his bag and floated it for about 5 minutes, then I took the smallest gauge needle I have and poked a couple holes in the bottom of the bag so the water in my tank could slowly mix with the water in the bag, I let the water mix like that for about 20 minutes, then I cut open the bottom of the bag and pretty much let him just swim out on his own. The tang was looking pretty good aside from that little brown spot (slight lateral infection) on his forehead. Then all the sudden, the day he died his whole right side just turned red and looked kind of like a scab, his right eye looked all swollen and puffy and like it was just melting out of it's socket. It looked horrible, it crawled/swam into a hole in the liverock and died within a couple of hours. I didn't see any other fish nipping at him or anything, the only thing that could have really attacked him was the Royal gramma, (the Royal gramma was added about 3 days before the tang died, same acclimation process.). I was under the impression that tangs were pretty tough, and royal grammas don't really bother anyone but other royal grammas?
As for the Royal gramma, he lived for 2 or 3 weeks, eating pretty well, I fed him, (as well as the tang), "New Line Spectrum Optimum Salt water flakes" 4 times a week, and everyone gets fed brine shrimp soaked in Zoe the other 3 days a week. He was eating pretty well except for that last day, (flake day), he just didn't seem to be interested in them. Then, about 8 or 9 o'clock just like a plane getting shot down he kinda sputtered and sank to the bottom of the tank and died like on his way down. No visible marks on him, he looked very slightly pale, eyes were still clear even, I wasn't even sure he was dead at first. After 10 or 15 minutes I had to flush him though.
So I think that's about all the info I really got on 'em, lemme know what ya'll think.

[dougc]

It sounds like one the new fish came in with some sort of pathogen. A brown spot on a tang does not sound like lateral line disease. Lateral line disease is rare in wild-caught fish. It was more likely fungal or bacterial in nature.

I would guess that the tang died from a bacterial infection, but whether that was a primary infection or a secondary one is anyone's guess. Now you have to hope that the other fish don't suffer the same fate. This is the risk you take by not quarantining new arrivals. Personally, I have never had much luck treating diseased fish in quarantine (other than ich), but at least the other fish aren't exposed to disease.

It is also probably not a good idea to introduce two new fish in such a short period of time. You may get a spike in ammonia and/or nitrates from the increased bioload. On that note, you should not see a "trace" of ammonia in an established tank. It could just be a problem with the test kit, but it bears looking into.

Finally, poking holes in a bag with a needle is probably not going to do much to mix the water from the tank with the water in the bag. You are much better off using the drip method or manually pouring tank water into the bag every few minutes.

[Anthony D]

I have a couple suggestions on acclimating, first the bag should stay in the water about an hour slowly adding water to the bag from your tank; do this several time for about another hour also removing and discarding some of the water in the bag, then remove your fish from the bag and release it. NEVER empty pet store water into your tank.



I would also suggest feeding your Tangs a vegetable based diet and feeding them at a separate time. Also buy a grounding probe for your tank your Tangs will thank you because they a very prone to stay current in your tank which could be generated from you any equipment in your tank.

Had the tang for about 2 or 3 weeks before it died. Bought it locally from the pet store I buy almost all my critters from, usually don't have problems. I acclimated him from saltwater that had a spec gravity of about 1.021, this is what I did, I took his bag and floated it for about 5 minutes, then I took the smallest gauge needle I have and poked a couple holes in the bottom of the bag so the water in my tank could slowly mix with the water in the bag, I let the water mix like that for about 20 minutes, then I cut open the bottom of the bag and pretty much let him just swim out on his own. The tang was looking pretty good aside from that little brown spot (slight lateral infection) on his forehead. Then all the sudden, the day he died his whole right side just turned red and looked kind of like a scab, his right eye looked all swollen and puffy and like it was just melting out of it's socket. It looked horrible, it crawled/swam into a hole in the liverock and died within a couple of hours. I didn't see any other fish nipping at him or anything, the only thing that could have really attacked him was the Royal gramma, (the Royal gramma was added about 3 days before the tang died, same acclimation process.). I was under the impression that tangs were pretty tough, and royal grammas don't really bother anyone but other royal grammas?
As for the Royal gramma, he lived for 2 or 3 weeks, eating pretty well, I fed him, (as well as the tang), "New Line Spectrum Optimum Salt water flakes" 4 times a week, and everyone gets fed brine shrimp soaked in Zoe the other 3 days a week. He was eating pretty well except for that last day, (flake day), he just didn't seem to be interested in them. Then, about 8 or 9 o'clock just like a plane getting shot down he kinda sputtered and sank to the bottom of the tank and died like on his way down. No visible marks on him, he looked very slightly pale, eyes were still clear even, I wasn't even sure he was dead at first. After 10 or 15 minutes I had to flush him though.
So I think that's about all the info I really got on 'em, lemme know what ya'll think.

[ick sucks]

what is your tempurature? is it stable or constantly fluctuating. do you have a heater?

[Arctic Fox]

I try to keep the temp as stable as I can, generally it's between 79 and 81 degrees Farenheit, but it can fluctuate between 78 and 82. I do have a heater but I only have it plugged in about 2 months a year, (I live in Texas). 4 degrees isn't too much right? I need a chiller...

[ClintoninCali]

When people come into my store and ask why multiple fish died in a short time span in a established tank my first response is to check the water sample that they hopefully bro0ught with them for the usual Ammonia/Nitrite. As I'm doing this though I ask if they believe they may have accidentally used any toxins around the tank area. More often than not in this scenario they had just used half a bottle of windex on the tank a few days earlier. Now I'm sure you aren't naive but most of these people thought they were doing everything right. Sometimes it's something we don't even think about doing. If you use furniture polish or any cleaning agent in even the same room as the tank it is getting in there. If you can smell it it's in the air and it's in your tank. I had a guy wipe out an entire cichlid tank by not opening the flu on his kitchen stove. I'm not saying this is your problem, just something to be cautious about. Oh, and good advice so far. I'm with them on all that other stuff. )