Dead fish. Sad day

[seaham358]

I have had my tank running for about a week. 125 LR/LS, no amm, NO2,NO3. Put in 1 bird wrasses, 1 flame angel , mated pair purple anthias, 1 green chromis. All died except the green chromis. The bird had things growing in him that looked like small white hairs all over his body. He would swim around a little and then just lay on the bottom, he also had large string like slime on his nose in the morning the lfs said this is normal. He was in the tank for like 3 days and died, the Angel got it next. he lost some color and had the same white hairs on him, he also had some white patches, not spots like ich. They all stopped eating. The purple anthius showed no signs of anything they just died the same day as the angel. The Green chromis is all over the tank with no signs of anything. Have some snails, crabs and a shrimp that are doing well. The lfs uses copper in all their tanks. I have 2 corals in the tank

 

[stcardoza]

Boy, that's awful, you have my condolences. Did you put all of those fish in there at once, or over a few months? Sometimes if you add that many fish at once it can cause an ammonia spike in your tank and stress the fish out, which will lead to death from poisoning. Anyway, sorry about your loss!

 

[almarktool]

seaham,
welcome to the board,
sorry to hear about your loss,
u mentioned that your tank has only been running 1 week, and all levels are -0- so i guess u must have used fully cured LR and pure LS,
i think u maybe should have waited atleast another 1-2 weeks before adding anything,
usually it is good idea to add 1 fish per 2-4weeks , this gives the lr and ls a chance to grow more benifical bacteria in order to handle the bio-load of the new fish , and so -on etc for the next and then the next fish,
also just a note angel fish should be added approx 6 months after the tank has been started as they do require a very established tank and excellant water conditions and eat alot of alge that can only be found in a established tank,
there is a good book out by Robert Fenner, called The Consiquenst Marine Aquarist, has some excellant reading it
perhaps u could also let us know more spec's on your tank, it is a 125 gallon how much LR how much LS what other type of filter set up do u have ?
feel free to ask more questions we are all here to help

 

[itchy]

Seaham,
first welcome to the board. Now as for a few clarification questions? This tank was Only 1 week old? is that right? If this is the case then it was to early to add fish but lets get some more info and get you started in the right direction. Please tell the board a little about your tank. What size? filtration system? Water parameters, (Ph, ammonia,Nitrite, nitrates). If I read you right your tank cycled in 1 week? WoW Saltwater tanks can take up to 6 weeks to cycle.
Beth and Terry B. are great on here about answering questions and helping do things right. Most Lfs will tell and sell you anything to make money. This board is a great place to ask question and learn the right way.
Now one thing to keep in mind is to add fish slowly in this hobby. There are several reasons for this.....One is so that once your tank cycles you don't want to add to many fish so that your tank can't keep up with the bioload. So I suggest one a month but I am sure other people add more. This is a safe bet as 1. the fish get acclimated....2. the bioload is not overwhelmed and 3. if there is a disease introduced then you can hopefully catch it before it causes to much damage.
There will be other post to help you out as more experienced people read your post. Just remeber everyone here is here to help so enjoy all the FREE good advice and take it slow.

 

[seaham358]

The LR was cured and the sand right off the plane from florida. My lfg gave me the water already from his system. He runs a full service business. Set up everything and trucked over the 125 gal of salt water. Not to sure on the filter. Its a gravity feed to the under tank sump that pumps I think 300 gal an hour with a protein skimmer that has its own pump. I checked the levels of everything 2 times a day with No amm spike at all. The Ph is around 8.2-8.4 temp is 79. The lfg has no idea why they died either. He said he would replace them when I wanted more fish, he said in 3-4 weeks we will try it again. The lfg is a new friend of mine. I get most things at his cost, fish the tank ect...
An ALL Glass 125 Gal, It has 125 lbs of LR and 100 lbs LS. I have a lot of brown alge that the snails and crabs are taking care of. All the fish were added at once. The white hair like things attached to the bird has him confused. I have 2 dogs and dust and hair gets in the tank and maybe that is what stuck to the fish? It has a canopy on it but the back is open. Thanks for any help with this.

 

[almarktool]

well IMO then if everything was perfect in the tank then it was just a case of a overload too many fish at once the benifical bacteria could not reproduce fast enough for the amount of fish u added at once,
this is of course ruling out anyt parisites or disease's
ideally if u bought 1 fish put it in the hospital tank for 4 weeks to make sure it was eating well and free from parisites etc, then added it to the tank then buy another do the same this will give u the approx 1 fish every 4 weeks i was talking about, check out the disease forum if u get a chance and search under quarintine it might answer some question and or give u some insight on fish parisites,
fire away with any more questions

 

[itchy]

seaham,
I am not sure but if the filter and everything else was new this will cause you problems. Just because you get cycled water and cured rock and LS doesnt mean your tank is ready. Bacteria needs to build in the filter system as well. If I am reading this info wrong I am sorry just trying to help. For instance if you have a filter with 2 carbon carts. Then I always change 1 at a time as each cart. has beneficial bacteria on it. So even though everything was cycled and cured doesn't mean you still could not have thrown yourself into a new cycle. Do you see what I mean? Bacteria has to build in all new tanks. Cycled water and LS and LR will only help cycle faster. So when you put this many fish in a new tank on top of an unstable cycle then this will cause problems and bio overload. when you go to start over again just do it slowly this time. Add 1 fish every 3-4 weeks to give the bioload time to catch up. Otherwise you are asking for problems. Sorry this happen and hope I was of some help.

 

[seaham358]

I had .50 amm, and around the same NO2 and around 5.0 on the NO3. In 4 days the amm -o and the NO2-0 and within 3 more day the NO3 was -0 ... The LR and LS did the cycling. When I put the fish in I checked everyday and Nothing spiked... Nothing.. Everything was good. My LFG lost a Flame Angel also so he thinks it was some kind of nasty parasite. I was asking if anyone has seen these symptoms. The white on the base of the tail, white on the fins and the fins also had the white stuff hanging off of them, patches on the side and upper back. Not spots like ich, much bigger just smaller the an eraser. The flame had some kind of growth all over him. The bird had the same growth but had a lot of little white hairs on him also. Thanks for the help.. I will be adding 1 fish at a time till the tanks has been runnig for some time. I'm lucky, the lfg said he would replace all the fish when I'm ready for them.

 

[itchy]

I am glad to hear that your LFS is gonna replace the fish that you lost as the LFS here does not do that. I am not sure I have seen this kinds of parasite. I am having a problem with my yellow Tang and can not for the life of me find out what it is. It is the strangest thing I have seen can't even explain it I don't think. Anyway good luck and just be sure that you wait a few weeks before you add anything as you don't know if this is something that can survive without a host for a while like ich or not. You would hate to infest new fish.

 

[seaham358]

The LFG gave me a Mimic Tang to put in the tank and see what happens. Well, after 3 days it was dead. No spike in anything. So much for the Bio overload theory. He gave me a UV sterilizer to run on the tank for 4 weeks and we'll try again. He figures that it must have been something in the live rock, some parasite?. He set up 2 other tanks the same week as mine and they are all running fine with lots of fish. Oh we'll. I'll keep trying a little at a time. Thanks for the advise..