[smidoid]

We've all lost fish at some time, but I've yet to kill one with acclimation stress; at least that's what I thought.

The family demanded Nemo (and the water tests were fine, N04 showing 10ppmm last test a few days ago) - so I caved in.

Acclimated over 40 minutes - adding tank water slowly, fish in, feeding vigorously - nicking brine shriimp from the coral. The only odd sign seemed to be it was breathing quickly, which I put down to stress.

Less than 24 hours later, poor Nemo (a tank-raised false percula) is dead.

I'm just leaving to get some revised water tests, but everything else (blasted crabs, filter feeding worms, the astrea snail and even the corals look pretty normal.) Until I get today's tests back, I'm in big trouble with the wife and kids.

I'll update this as I get more info. Any thoughts appreciated.

[tray262]

Did you float the bag ?

[smidoid]

Sure did - full 40 mins - and even added 1/2 of tank water over the period.

Looks like it might be an SG problem. I'm measuring (verfied) 1.022.

[tray262]

That should be more then ok. Is this in your QT ? Or main tank ?

[smidoid]

QT is in bits right now! It needs to be built stuck together (it's a custom job since I'm short of room).

Update on those tests:

Temp 28C
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 8.0
SG: 1.021 - my floating pointer meter underreads a shade.

The dude at the LFS thinks (and it's my best guess too right now) that it's osmotic shock. We think it might be that it might be that the supplying tank was 1.025 or even higher.

Pretty clear that if osmotic shock was the culprit I should feed my head the the crabs in the refugium....

[tray262]

If you acc. the nemo right it shouldn't have mattered too much on the sal. I normally float the bag 20mins. Take most of the water out of the bag, add a little of my water, wait, add a little more wait, add, then dump most of the water out again and do the cyle over, it insures that most of the water is yours. I've been successful with this as of late. Although I just lost my Hipo tang. GF just called and said she found it on the floor. Very sad day becasue it was a VERY happy fish. Just all over the place. Like a little kid trying to find new things.

[forenpa1]

28C seems a little warm (82 F).

[smidoid]

It's at the top end, to be sure. That's as hot as it gets: floats between 26 and 28, now. I don't know what 02 sat is but there's 3-400 gallons going through the sump every hour so I assume it's OK.

I just tweak it because I read the fresh safe range was a little on the cool side. More accurate test gear and some plotting gear is what I really need.

I just don't get it - this pretty much has to be chemical or shock, but there doesn't seem anything else I can check for?

Tray mate, I feel for you over the tang: I only ever lost a single fish like that; and that was years ago in freshwater - it got behind the tank an expired before I could reach it.

Grandma wants to buy another fish (this was the kids 1st) but I'm a little worried in case it's something that affects the larger organisms. Everything else in the tank are small, mostly sessile, inverts.

Wife reports she had seen it "banging against the rock" but as I didn't see that, I can't be sure what was going on. On inspection the corpse was clean, smelled right, and not visibly damaged; even the colour was pretty good considering.

Update: Apparently the kids observed the fish swimming against the current - I don't remember if this is relevant.

[lobophyllia]

28C is ok for temperature but as for the SG, you should probably keep it at about 1.025. But i dont think the cause was osmotic shock because I just float my fish for 15 minutes and throw em right in. I've never lost a single fish due to that.

[dougc]

Fish can tolerate a sudden drop in salinity. A sudden rise is much more stressful. If the LFS was at 1.025 and your tank was at 1.022, that is not your problem. I use a QT tank and match the LFS specific gravity before bringing the fish home, but that is more important if the LFS has their fish tanks at a very low SG of 1.019, like one of my local stores.

Hopefully, you observed the fish carefully before purchasing. Was it respirating normally at the store?

[smidoid]

From what I could see, Doug, it looked pretty normal. The whole selection did and they were tank-bred, which is always my preference.

I dunno how it works in the states, but over here they just put 8-12 (sometimes more) of fish that size - about 1" in the same holding tank and you just get whatever they manage to net. Hardly ideal.

Since the tank is otherwise free of vertebrates, I'm bringing the salinity up a click over the night; and adding more saline water at the next changes/top ups to bring it up to 1.025 over the next week or two.

This just reminded me again of how important that QT is! I have to get mine built in time for the first wild-caught fish. In fact, she won't like it, but she ain't getting ANY until we have a fully-prepped QT!

The bit she hasn't quite gotten get is that the QT has to have a separate heater and air pump, too! She won't like it - but that's one thing I am not compromising on. Right now I'm having to re-measure to make sure I can get a least a 5gln nano in the cab - trust me, there isn't too much room in there!

I guess whatever killed the poor thing was my fault and it's gonna drive me nuts until I figure it out. They're already planning on replacing the poor thing: faster than I can calculate my screw up. Poor guy deserved better.

[Poseidon]

UFD.

Unexplained Fish Death- The sudden loss of an outwordly healthy looking fish.

Marc, I don't think it was you. Working in so many LFS as I have, sometimes fish just croak. Add in the fact that the selection process you had almost GUARENTEED that you got the slowest, and weakest of the bunch. Not you, THEM! Your LFS!

[smidoid]

Kind of you Mike. I hadn't considered that. The wife is spitting nails - doesn't want to go back to the same LFS: ever. She's convinced it was them (she saw a couple of dead fish in other tanks, but I'm not sure they were in the same water column.)

The bugger of this is, is this is the only one of the four LFSs that I know (found another recently) and possibly a fifth, this is the ONLY one that does tank-bred FPCs!

Call me a beardy, a greeny or whatever, but I'd take a tank-bred over a live-caught any day. Just doesn't seem fair to grab fish out of a nice warm ocean and them ship them thousand of miles when we don't have to.

I suppose, since the tests are all in the green, it's probably better to get "straight back on the horse" and get another.

Reading more on FPCs (as I have since the death) I quite fancy restricting the tank to just them and starting a mini breeding programme. Presumably, most of the inverts won't be fast enough to catch the fry.

On the down side, I have to find a reliable supply of rotifers and ... what to do with the filtration? How the heck do you stop the babes going up down the spouts! I have a plan (but any and all suggestions greatfully received!)

[optical]

your a murderer!
just kiddin. i never acclimated any of my livestock that i get at my lfs. our water perameters are almost identical so i just polp em right in! no problems yet.

[smidoid]

I guess I'll just have to be more careful in future and hope no one notices what Mr Crabs had for his tea, yesterday.

[rjs5134]

I worked at a LFS that had continuous problems with "UFD" - Unexplained Fish Death. It was a problem with the stock and any fish sold that spent significant time in the store. I thought it was us, not being knowledgable enough to maintain them, but any fish that came in and I brought home that day did wonderfully in my tank. After most of the regular customers stopped shopping at our store and the store was doomed to closing, we uncovered the problem. The neighboring store in the strip mall was a dry cleaners. Within a week or two of their relocating, UFD became a thing of the past. Apparently the chemicals used were settling in the water and killing the fish. Since we don't test for other pollutants it was hard to identify. It also affected the birds, but not to the same extent. Whose the neighbor of your LFS???

[smidoid]

Umm. Don't know. I'll check next time I'm up there.