Completely confused

jpgnmt

jpgnmt

Member
I woke up this morning and all my fish were dead, laying on the bottom of the tank. Corals, mushrooms and Anemone were all fine. The tank is 3.5 years old. Only change recently is my Dwarf Yellow Angel started chewing on the Hairy Mushrooms. I looked online to see if a Hairy Mushroom could release a toxin to protect itself and got mixed points of view. I checked all my parameters, all good. No way to test for toxins. I am running charcoal to try to stop any continuing issue.
Any thoughts?
jpgnmt
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
.... I'm so sorry!....what a total horrible thing to have happen.
What is in the tank? Stuff like Sea apples, sea hares and such, are toxic if they are bothered...so give us a full stock list and see if we can unravel the mystery.
 
jpgnmt

jpgnmt

Member
I use a heater with an outside controller and the temp is holding at 80, would thing a short would pop a breaker or at least kill the heater. The tank has Hammer Coral, Frogspawn, Yellow Polyps, Red Mushrooms, Purple Mushrooms, and Hairy Mushrooms, Fish were a Barberi Clown, a Six-line Wrasse, the Dwarf Yellow Angel, three small blue Damsels. A Cleaner Shrimp and a Boxer Shrimp. Lots of hermit crabs that all seem fine and a couple of larger crabs that I don't know about since they are always hiding in the rocks. The tank is a 54 gallon bowfront. CPR Bakpak skimmer, UV sterilzer, Magnum 350 pushing the water through the sterilizer, three internal powerhead pumps, T5 HO lights and a metal halide.
 
jpgnmt

jpgnmt

Member
I just put some charcoal in the Magnum to run for a while, not sure what else to do. Thanks for the input.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Wow, I can see the angel being affected by something, they can be ticky but the damsels are super hardy. What did you feed your fish, could the food be contaminated? I was thinking along the lines of maybe they ate something the coral and inverts didn't.
 
jpgnmt

jpgnmt

Member
I have had the Angel for about 8 months. We thought about food as well but it was a frozen cube of brine shrimp from a package that we have been using for about two weeks. It stays in the freezer and just comes out to go in the tank.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpgnmt http:///forum/thread/386363/completely-confused#post_3393027
I have had the Angel for about 8 months. We thought about food as well but it was a frozen cube of brine shrimp from a package that we have been using for about two weeks. It stays in the freezer and just comes out to go in the tank.
Could something have been in the thaw cup or on the counter...on your hands? Did it melt and get refrozen? What I find so strange is that the shrimp are fine, they are so delicate and sensitive to anything off. They also eat the fish food in the tank, just as the fish do. Could your fish have had ich or something and you not notice? Inverts, corals nor an anemone would be bothered by that parasite and in great numbers it would kill every fish in the tank...but all at once..
 
jpgnmt

jpgnmt

Member
The shrimp died at the same time so everything that ate the food died overnight. We keep the package in the freezer and for the night feeding just pop out a cube and drop it in the back. In the morning I drop it in a cup, melt it with water purchased from my LFS, add a bit of flake and pour it in the front.
 
C

cuccaro

Guest
I have had a heater send put a small electrical charge that killed fish I never knew till one day touch heater and got vapped
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuccaro http:///forum/thread/386363/completely-confused#post_3393048
I have had a heater send put a small electrical charge that killed fish I never knew till one day touch heater and got vapped
I also had a heater break and electocute the tank. My inverts froze in place, my serpent star lost its arms as it moved across the tank, all my corals closed up tight, and most died. I lost all my tiny critters in the rocks and sand..the only thing alive were a few coral that came back out after almost two weeks and all the fish. I did not loose a single fish, they were hiding in the rocks and I added some stress coat to help them and they seemed fine after that and came out.....It's amazing how different two tanks can react under the same circumstances.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
just curious I can't see where it says anything about it. Did you test anything? at all?
all I hear are random thoughts about what it could be, why dont you try using your testy kits and eliminating some "possibles" like ammonia... first.
and for the recdord NO a hairy mushroom getting nibbled on isnt going to kill a whole tanks worth of fish. I have ripped those things in half in tanks with fish in them and the fish and other inverts were fine including cleaner shrimp and peppermints.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by reefkprZ http:///forum/thread/386363/completely-confused#post_3393063
just curious I can't see where it says anything about it. Did you test anything? at all?
all I hear are random thoughts about what it could be, why dont you try using your testy kits and eliminating some "possibles" like ammonia... first.
and for the recdord NO a hairy mushroom getting nibbled on isnt going to kill a whole tanks worth of fish. I have ripped those things in half in tanks with fish in them and the fish and other inverts were fine including cleaner shrimp and peppermints
He said he tested things first off and all was well, he did'nt post the results of the tests.... but surely if the ammonia would be high enough to do in every single one of the fish, wouldn't the anemone, corals and shrimp be affected?
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
doh.. I missed the part where he said that and I even looked twice. LOL my bad.
he said his shrimp died too. also if it was an ammonia spike maybe not, I can't swear that it would damage corals as quickly as burning out fishes gills. but I would think it unusual for the corals not to be showing any signs of distress. they are mostly really hardy corals, mushrooms looks like some palys in there and he lists his hammer and frogspawn, those I would expect to see signs of distress from.
I would use a multimeter and a ground to test the tank for stray voltage. if its an intermittent or problem coming from one piece of equipment that doesn't run constantly (heater anything on a timer) you won't be able to detect it if all the equipment is not running not running. I would check anything that runs overnight first. and please dont stick your fingers in the tank while doing this if your holding something connected to a ground wire and there is an electrical short you become part of the circuit.
if you have auto top off check to see that its not coming through the top off when its topping off your tank etc. test everything that touches the tank. check for salt creep near your lights etc etc even if the equipment isnt "in" the tank but only touches it a salt creep connection can cause an electical path.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpgnmt http:///forum/thread/386363/completely-confused#post_3393038
The shrimp died at the same time so everything that ate the food died overnight. We keep the package in the freezer and for the night feeding just pop out a cube and drop it in the back. In the morning I drop it in a cup, melt it with water purchased from my LFS, add a bit of flake and pour it in the front.
I totally missed this post....have you checked your phosphates? They are deadly to fish and inverts. You should always be rinsing your frozen foods. My best guess is that the food was contaminated with something bad, or it defrosted and refroze and spoiled..
If your phosphates are high enough to kill fish, it would have killed the anemone also. I just mentioned it because frozen foods are high in phosphates and should be rinsed with RO water. Thaw out the food in a cup of RO water, once thawed pour into a net and take a cup of RO water and pour it over the net with the food...all rinsed.... and just put the net in the tank and invert it to release the food. I personally would never feed flakes or pellets in my tank because of the pollution they cause.
Mysis shrimp not brine shrimp, Brine shrimp is fish candy. Mysis is a good meal and you don't need any other flake or pellet with it. I'm so very sorry you lost your fish and shrimp...how about you post your test results so we can see what your looking at.
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
+1 on rinsing the frozens and de-thawing before adding....i also add a drop of garlic extract to the mix. Let it soak in for a min or so.
Im gonna say its a faulty piece of equipment cuz youve had ur tank for 3yrs and for your fish to just die overnight one day is crazy talk....how old is ur heater, powerheads, pumps, anything???
Sry bout ur lose
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
I dont't know about spoiled fish food idea, I suppose it is very well possible, but have you ever smelled spoiled fish food? you would probably have a hard time carrying it you your fish tank without gagging.
I'm leaning toward either a mechanical of chemical culprit. at this point thouigh we kind of need some feed back from the OP.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by reefkprZ http:///forum/thread/386363/completely-confused#post_3393108
I dont't know about spoiled fish food idea, I suppose it is very well possible, but have you ever smelled spoiled fish food? you would probably have a hard time carrying it you your fish tank without gagging.
I'm leaning toward either a mechanical of chemical culprit. at this point thouigh we kind of need some feed back from the OP.
Just grasping straws...the food is the only thing that the fish and shrimp eat that the anemone and coral don't...at least not until it's very deluted. shrimp and fish gobble food as soon as it hits the tank. I'm not saying spoiled food only as an idea, but also contamination from something it touched.
 
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