Chromis's Dying

Gtownguy487

New Member
Have had 4 Chromis die in last 30 hrs 2 in QT and 2 in bag on way home, Please help the 2 in QT were purchase 2 days ago and the 2 on way home were today.

1. How old is this aquarium? Aquarium has been running for a year

2. If less than six months old, what is ammonia level? Older then 6 months

3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured? 1.025 refractometer

4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium? Today about 3 hrs ago

5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How? It is in quarantine now, not been treated with anything yet

6. If you are using a copper based medication, which one? How often do you measure level? When? Nothing yet, no medication added

7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer? Not using

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color? I bought to batches of Chromis, in most recent batch, 2 of them died in the bag on the way home.. (The tank i got them from at LFS there were several dead on bottom and I wanted to try to save them so i got a deal on them worth trying) They were breathing rapidly and i saw a few with missing scales.. Some of them were a bit darker then the others... The batch before the ones i got today have been in QT for about 2 days.. I've lost 2 of them.. 1 yesterday and 1 this morning. Looking at those it seems there might be a lesion where i can see a red line on its body maybe a cut or just a vein..

9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish? I try to keep the lights off but when I turn them on the fish are swimming together all around.. When i turn the lights off they usually split off where 2 will go to one corner and 4 in other and so forth.. In the bag they stayed on the very bottom..

10. Is the fish eating? What? Yes most of them seem to be eating.. Tried to feed them brine but they dont seem too interested however with Mysis shrimp they eat it up very good.. I try to mix Garlic guard with their food to make them have more of appetite

~

I hope i gave enough details on the questions asked.. Any help would be much appreciative..

What I have currently on hand is..

I have:

1) a cooler with a heater and fresh RO/DI water at 78 degrees ready for freshwater dip if needed

2) Organi-Cure - Fast relief for Ick and protozoan parasites, (ingred. Tri-chelated copper & formalin)

3) AmQuel Plus (water conditioner) by Kordon

4) AmQuel Plus (ammonia detoxifier) by Kordon

5) KanaPlex by Seachem

6) Metronidazole by Seachem

7) ParaGuard by Seachem

8) Coppersafe by Mardel

9) Maracyn-Oxy by Mardel

If pictures are needed, I possibly can get.. I have kept the fish frozen incase more info or pictures are needed~

Thanks in advance!

Im up to 6 deaths in last 48 hours any help would be greatly appreciated
I decided to do a freshwater dip for 15 minutes after the 6th one died.. and i changed about 50% of the QT water out with my reef tank water
Dont know what I should do next..
 

leebca

Well-Known Member
The information you have provided is not enough to do a good review of your system. However, this may not be necessary. I don't know how long of time those fish were in the bag -- that is how long does it take to 'get them home.' Assuming a reasonable trip of less than 2 hours, I'd say the problem is with the fish.

Chromis is one of those fishes that are not very 'important' to the system. They are found in the wild in great numbers and thus do not have much of a value. Add to this that they are not also in high demand. The catcher, holder, exporter, importer, wholesaler, and then the LFS are not that into making a big effort to handle them properly. The mortality on these fishes can be greater than 70%. The catcher gets about $.05 each and the LFS pays about $.25 to $.50 each for them.

Where did you acquire these fish? How long did the source have these fish?
 

Msigler

Member
If two died on the way home and 2 shortly after you got home I would say that they were ready to kick the bucket before you got them. Did you ask the pet store employee to feed them before you purchased them? I normally buy online but in the past I would always ask to see the fish be fed. It's a good indicator of the health of the fish. Aside from that chromis are hit or miss on hardiness. I bought 4 about two years ago and like you two of them died shortly after. My six line was the cause of that though. Of the two that survived one lasted a year and one is currently still getting his swim on. They don't handle being bullied very well but the one I have left seems to be a champ.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Have had 4 Chromis die in last 30 hrs 2 in QT and 2 in bag on way home,... (The tank i got them from at LFS there were several dead on bottom and I wanted to try to save them so i got a deal on them worth trying) They were breathing rapidly and i saw a few with missing scales.. Some of them were a bit darker then the others... The batch before the ones i got today have been in QT for about 2 days...

I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but what do you expect?

You got dieing fish out of an obviously very sick tank. I can't be 100% sure about this, but it sounds like you originally put this fish into your display tank. This would be a major mistake, because you put an existing established tank at risk.

At this point, you could try and medicate the remaing chromis in a quarantine tank. If I were going to try that, I'd use a copper based medication, and assume that I had a parasitic disease of some sort. However, it's reqally tough to tell. This could easily be a bacteria infection or even just poor water quality at the LFS. My gut reaction would be to destroy these extremely poor quality fish and start over with something decent.
 

DesertOrchid

Active Member
Sorry to hear about your fish loss. Chromis are beautiful little fish. They do tend to stress really easy but most of all.... just my 2 cents....NEVER buy fish from a tank that has sick, dying or dead fish. I know it is a temptation since dishonest LFS will pass them off for a song to some unsuspecting good hearted person. But in the end you spend more money, time and heartache on fish that will generally die soon or not thrive. Buy from only reputable lfs or online. You won't regret not dealing with the heartache and your livestock will benefit from it. DaveK has good advice about the copper meds but as he says it is difficult to tell the cause of the problem. Could be just poor handling prior to your purchase. Best of luck and hope they survive.
 

mcentire1123

Nano-Reefer
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leebca

Well-Known Member
We seem to be sending a mixed message to this new poster. One says, 'Welcome' and others are trying to help and others are accusing the guy of doing wrong. Let's be easier on the posters. Gather more information, and even if the poster has made one or more errors, help not accuse. We've all been there, making mistakes. Still, I'm not sure what if any mistakes have been make yet, until I learn more. :)
 
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