Cyanide poisoning? Grrr...

[deer]

Hi guys, I recently bought a medium sized Maroon Clown for one of my tanks. He went in with a Amblyeleotris goby, several snails, crabs, and a pair of shrimp who are all doing fine, if a little greedy.
Acclimation went well, and the clown fish showed fairly normal behaviour. He hid at first, but soon began to eat and explore his new home.
However, I did notice something strange about him, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. His chin was a little eroded from rubbing against the bag in transit, but in my experience this heals quickly.
Sadly, over the next few days his vitality waned as he stopped eating and began to hide again. Eventually, he no longer left one small area of the tank and was breathing rapidly while struggling frantically to keep his place in the water column. Three hours later, he perished.
The only thing I can think of that might have killed him is cyanide poisoning. If this turns out to be correct, I am not going to buy fish from that store any more! Does anyone have an idea what could have killed the poor little guy?
Thanks

 

[beth]

Hi, Deer, and welcome to the forums.
What you describe could have been a host of different things and not necessarily cyanide poisoning. Check your water levels at this point to make sure that is good.

 

[myreef05]

Usually they will die in about 30 days from Cyanide. If it had a "pinched" belly could be/probably was cyanide.
Post your water parameters anyway so we can help if there is a problem.

 

[tizzo]

Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook p181
Unexpected delayed deaths are often blamed on cyanide. However, these deaths are more likely caused by various other forms of stress, leading possibly to irreversible, ammonia-induced gill damage, perhaps kidney damage, and/or starvation.
The so-called syndrome (group of clinical signs) of "cyanide poisoning" is said to be heavy feeding with continual wasting away and a mucoid exudate from the gut.
...but both of those symptoms can be many other thing as well, it goes on to say...
I am curious though, how did you acclimate him?

 

[deer]

My nitrites are a little high at about 0.2 ppm; everything else is fine. Part of the reason that I am a little suspecting is because I did a 70% water change right before I added the clownfish. Do you guys recommend I do a water change right now, or wait for the bacteria to handle things?
I acclimated him for about 45 minutes, which is the same amount of time I use to acclimate most everything. Another reason I blame cyanide is that every other animal in the tank is doing really well and feeding greedily. Seems a little peculiar...

 

[deer]

I also forgot to mention that I cleaned the filter today, and in doing so I accidentally spilled some debris into the water column. Is it possible that one of these particles could have gotten stuck in the poor fish's gills and damaged them?
Thanks

 

[thoroughbred]

I doubt that would be it but anything is possible. You do however acclimate your fish very fast (IMO). They have a detailed acclimation guide on this site, check it out. I'm not saying your fish died due to your acclimation process but it defiantly wont hurt to acclimate your fish using the drip method.

 

[deer]

Noted. Thanks for the help.