Help! Fish Are Dying!

[pong]

systems is around 150 gallons...

for some reason...

fish are dying now...


i have a tomato and a perc that is dying now...
thinning significantly... and this is just happening
today

yesterday, both were swimming happiliy eating a lot in
the tank...

what could be the cause?

[Akaash]

What are your water parameters?

[Tswifty]

You need more information on the post.

How old is your system?

What is your system... as far as equipment, powerheads, cover, etc...

What are your current water parameters?

How long have you had the fish... (btw it's generally not recommended to mix clownfish)

[pong]

system is 2 years old

3 koralia 4's in main tank
1 protein skimmer rated for 200 gallons

sump at 40+ gallons

the fish that died are more than 1 month old in the tank

i have an air pump in the sump to add to oxygen exchange

fowlr with 1 anemone

ran out of ammonia testers but nitrate is around 40

[pong]

since this tank didnt have anything that was dying nor was out of balance for the past 6 months or so... was not monitoring all the parameters anymore

[Akaash]

Well right off your nitrate is high. Should be 10 at maxium.
Protein skimmer running ok?
Are you using tap water?
Overfeeding maybe?
When was your last water change?
I'd get the ammonia test ASAP and check that out too.
PH and temp stable?
Is all your livestock accounted for? Anything maybe dead somewhere?

[Shooter7]

40 nitrates is not all that unusual for a fowlr. Would, however, be looking for ammonia, pH variances, temp stability, salinity, alk, other values that might help indicate what's going on. Any damage on the fish? Had it had any problems with any other fish in the tank? Used any chemicals near the tank lately - like bug spray, carpet cleaner, etc? Just gotta start eliminating things, and you're much more familiar with your system than we are.

[pong]

there is one hermit crab that i couldnt find... i placed the
sick fishes in the 1st area of the sump... wherein in case they die, ill be easily able to get them out.

last water change was a week ago... it seems ill be needing one again in the morning...

temp is stable

nitrate has been at that range for the longest time already

[pong]

update: tomato and perc are dead...

every other critter in the tank that i know of and i can normally see are still alive...

the 2 cleaner shrimps and the blue crab, that is always hiding... haven't seen them yet...

it seems that there is an ammonia spike here from the
dead hermit...

looks like this will start a mini-cycle?

[Shooter7]

I find it rather hard to believe that a single dead hermit in 150g of water is going to cause an ammo spike. I had hermits die in a 10g before and didn't spike anything. Something else seems amiss, if you're saying that you have high ammo levels. Have you overshot your tank's bioload capacity maybe? Too many or too large fish putting out more waste than the tank can process? The hermit could have been the canary here...

[pong]

here is the list of what i placed in the tank...

1yr + in tank
1 dwarf angel
2 3-striped damsels
1 blue crab

8 months+
2 yellow tail damsels

4 months+
3 blue damsels

2 months+
2 african clowns
1 foxface

1 month+
2 cleaner shrimps
2 camel shrimps

and yes... i realized i also lost a
2 inch lipstick tang... which was less than
a week in the tank

could this also be due to the fact that i fed baby
brine shrimps the other day?

chaeto was added also...

[pong]

Originally posted by Shooter7
I find it rather hard to believe that a single dead hermit in 150g of water is going to cause an ammo spike. I had hermits die in a 10g before and didn't spike anything. Something else seems amiss, if you're saying that you have high ammo levels. Have you overshot your tank's bioload capacity maybe? Too many or too large fish putting out more waste than the tank can process? The hermit could have been the canary here...

or maybe... the hermit was the last straw that made the ammonia quantity in the water toxic for the smaller inhabitants

[Tswifty]

there are alot of mixed clownfish in that tank... were they getting along?

[Tswifty]

Also alot of damsels which are notorious bullies

[pong]

for some reason... they were not fighting... unless of course you would consider the occasional playful chasing around of fish once in a while...

no damage in the fins of the fishes.

[cfw1199]

IMO...it's either the damsel mafia acting like damsels....or there is a dead fish somewhere in the tank with an NH3 spike.......you need to test NH3 pronto.....If there is a spike....double a dose of prime for very short term and find out where that spike is coming from....

[inachu]

If this happened to me first thing I'd do is:
remove dead things
remove 20% of water and use salted RO water.
check filter. If dirty then clean it. maybe it clogged up.

[pong]

ok... so its only the tomato that died in the water this evening... the perc decided to jump ship... and direct to the floor... i followed an ant trail to see where they were going and i found the perc there...

so far, the dead inhabitants that i couldnt find are...
1) 1 lipstick tang,
2) 1 hermit crab,
3) 1 mandarin fish

4 shrimps are in there and my fat blue crab too...

[Tswifty]

How old is your tank/sandbed... and how deep is your sandbed?

A picture of your tank would also help.

[Tswifty]

Also... have you posted your water parameters yet?

[pong]

3 inches in main tank...

8 inches in the first segment of the sump
4 in the second
4 in the last

tank is close to 3 years

[Tswifty]

do you clean the sandbed regularly or perform any type of maintenance on it?

[pong]

i cant post the other parameters besides nitrates because that is the only tester that i have left
nitrates are at 40+

everything has been stable so i didnt bother purchasing
a new set of testers once i ran out.

it seems ill have to start purchasing again

if there is something that is gonna be stressed if the quality of the water goes south... its my carpet anemone... but its looks happy there... and even ate
slices of fish that i gave it...

[pong]

for the sandbed... i stir it up a bit before i change my water so that all the dirt can be sucked with the water change.

for big chucks of dirt, i use a fish net to get them

[Tswifty]

Assuming your parameters are in check is not a good way to proceed. You need to have a grip on them, and a record, so when something like this happens it's easier to tell if something was out of whack or shifted.

I've heard it many times... The only time a lot of people test their water is once something has gone wrong.

I would like to know your:

Temp:
Salinity (SG):
pH:
dKH:
Ammonia: