poor firefish

[quiltingmom]

Well, I thought I was doing well.....I did a water change this morning and now my firefish is dead

. The first fish I have ever lost. I also have 2 clowns, a watchman goby, a couple of shrimp, several snails, a pincushion urchin, some hermits and coral in my 40 Gallon tank (about 3 months old). My parameters are 0 on Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates, PH is at 8.4, Salinity 1.024 and my temperature runs around 80-81 Degrees. Everybody else is fine except, of course, the poor firefish. He died within 1/2 hour of my water change.
The only thing I can come up with is this: I mixed the water (I only use distilled) yesterday afternoon for today's change. I was being lazy this morning and didn't heat up the water first. Now I'm afraid my poor fish paid the price; I feel terrible

. Could the stress from the cool water (once finished, the temp read 77.3 Degrees) be the cause? Everybody else seems to be okay. Regardless, I will never do that again! I just need to know if that could have been the reason the little guy died?
Thanks in advance for the input; I tried to provide as much info about my tank as I can.

 

[koon7]

I would say that "yes" a sudden 3 degree drop in temperature could have stunned him enough to do such a thing.

 

[mr.clownfish]

IMO i dont think a 3 degree drop would have done anything. ive had a heater malfunctions that increased and decreased the temp to around 75 and 89 degrees a few times and i didnt loose anything.
It was probably something else that killed your firefish. did you just get the fish?

 

[quiltingmom]

Originally Posted by Mr.clownfish
http:///forum/post/3152122
IMO i dont think a 3 degree drop would have done anything. ive had a heater malfunctions that increased and decreased the temp to around 75 and 89 degrees a few times and i didnt loose anything.
It was probably something else that killed your firefish. did you just get the fish?
Oh no, I've had him for about 2 weeks now and he was doing so well. A little skiddish but when I came home from work and it was feeding time he would be out waiting to be fed.
He was well this morning but as soon as I was done with the water change he started acting weird (swimming nose down and eventually his gills stopped moving and when I nudged him, he was definitely dead, floating belly up).
My other fish seem to be doing great, no problems whatsoever. I was also cleaning rocks with a tootbrush; I'm having brown and slime algae problems. Hopefully that will subside with my new protein skimmer and less feeding. I hooked one up over a week ago; I read it takes a week or so to start working properly. I will be much more careful while doing water changes, that's for sure.

 

[lietz06]

Well I'm sorry to hear about your firefish It might have been caused by you stiring stuff up in your tank while using the toothbrush! Hopefully someone else can chime in...but that's what I'd guess....or it was the temp drop, lol!

 

[quiltingmom]

Originally Posted by lietz06
http:///forum/post/3152379
Well I'm sorry to hear about your firefish It might have been caused by you stiring stuff up in your tank while using the toothbrush! Hopefully someone else can chime in...but that's what I'd guess....or it was the temp drop, lol!
I think it might have been a combination of all those things and he just couldn't handle it. I really don't want to use any chemicals to kill the algae so I am trying a few different, less invasive (or so I thought) things to battle the algae problem. My tank is barely 3 months old and I've already had that nasty brown algae bloom once. I hoped that was it but apparently not. Actually, after using the toothbrush some of my corals are doing a lot better than when they were practically covered with this stuff.
Anyway, I will get another firefish goby once the algae has subsided and just be more careful.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest; I really appreciate it you guys listening to me whine.

 

[matth2181]

i had brown algae problems as well, i got hermits and margarita snails... they keep it down no problem! as far as the firefish... thats interesting, i may have ben temperature shock but 3 degrees wouldnt do that IMO. stirring up algae off the rocks, maybe again but i wouldnt think so... i had coral beauty for two weeks and it ate as well and did well, but died suddenly... some times they have something that doesnt manifest until the first or second or third stressfull event, and you just get unlucky that way, but as long as everything else is okay, i would think it was just a "dud" fish. i got a six line once and it died in two days and the coral beauty died in two weeks, but all the while my other fish were fine... just the luck of the draw sometimes, which is why i think fish stores need to guarentee their fish at least for a week (none around me do). it would make them only take fish from people they are know are trapping and capturing fish in a humane and less stressfull way, instead of buying from dynamiters and syanide users.

 

[flower]

The temp drop did nothng to the fish...if the salt was not mixed well it might burn it's gills.
The nasty brown algae is normal...get hermit crabs, they love to eat it.
Maybe there was something on the toothbrush...you may never uncover what killed it.

 

[jth]

several says in advance for water changes b/c fluctionting salinity and decreased O2 due to chemical changes in the water which is why a power head helps mix and re-oxygenate the new H20.

 

[salami trigger]

I love Fire Fish...sorry for your loss.
IMO u only had him u said for 2 weeks...he may have had something and it now caught up with him.
My purple fire fish is awesome...so shy for first coups of weeks but now what a ham!
Get another..there great!

 

[chaseter]

Sorry for your loss
That said, you can have mine. All he does is hide all day and only comes out to eat. Him and the goby hang out in the cave and it makes me angry.

 

[quiltingmom]

Thanks to everyone for their advice and sympathy. It made me feel better. I have about 8 hermits in my tank as well as several snails and even an urchin. They do an ok job but I think even they are overwhelmed,

. They can only eat so much.
The toothbrush was new, I wouldn't use an old one. I always mix the water a day or 2 ahead, check salinity and stir it up good before adding to the tank. And even then I pour it in quart by quart so I don't disturb things too much.
I did another water change yesterday (20% this time) and so far it looks good. I'm going to keep the lights low and feed sparingly for a few more days. Hopefully it helps.
I did spend money on a phosphate test kit because I was certain that my phosphates are too high. I was surprised to find that they were actually 0.05mg/L which is great. Go figure!