Courtney's Red Sea Reefer 350

[Courtney]

Well once again bad New as got home from work today to find my flame scooter blenny dead again was fine yesterday and was always pecking at the rocks eating pods I assume and constantly moving about the tank.

Did a test and everything fine apart from ph which is a little low but nothing to worry about but I'm going to do a water change to be safe.

 

[Courtney]

Can't deal with this anymore as found my red spot blenny dead this morning was swimming when I fed them early when I got up then 20 minutes later dead in the sand I mean 3 fish dead in 3 days.

Water parameters good all eating temp is ok nothing being chased no visual effects parasites or signs of infection. I really don't know what to do as it is becoming heart breaking right now as if this continues I won't have anything left by next week.

Any help or something I could check that I might have missed would be really helpful right now.

 

[Nobbygas]

Apologies if I write anything too obvious. I don't want it to appear as though I'm teaching my Granny to suck eggs.
Sorry to hear about the losses. I really do know how you feel.
If there are no outward signs (ie white spots, red marks, damaged fins) then the problem could be an internal parasite. Medic and Ruby Reef Rally only work for parasites outside the body.
If the fish appear to be gasping for air, is your water surface movement sufficient to enable gas exchange?
Have you noticed any fish having long stringy poop hanging out of them? This can be an indication of an internal parasite.
You could run an Ammonia test, just to see if there is any? Something (?) may have caused a mini re-cycle causing an Ammonia or Nitrite spike?

Based on my experience, I would at least start dosing Medic. I know we think we feed our fish well, but upgrade their feeding. Every day I mixed frozen with some Ground Ginger Powder and also some Fauna Marin Ultra Soft Protect food.

 

[Courtney]

No not at all and yeah I tested yesterday and everything was fine according to my API test kit ph was a little low at 8 but nothing to worry about. I saw none of them gasping for air and I do have good water movement on the surface water.

No long stringy poop either so not sure as the white spot never returned as I was always checking the fish each day and never saw any.

By medic do you mean polyp lab medic?

My feeding has gone up to twice a day with with different vitamins and garlic added to there for both flake pellet and frozen.

 

[Nobbygas]

Yep, the Polyplab Medic.

Have a look at products like Fauna Marin Ultra Soft Protect fish food. Apparently you should only feed this for twenty days at a time or the fish will get too fat !

"Special soft granule food for marine ornamental reef fishes. Supports the immune system and enhances the animals conditions in general. Perfect after import or or other stressful situations.
Contains:
Omega-3 (DHA, EPA), Omega-6 fatty acids, Alliin, Alkylphthalide, Flavonoide, Silybin, Cynarin, Alkylamid, Pinocembrin, Galangin, Thymol, Carvacrol und Cymol, crude protein 57 %, crude fats 25 %, crude ash 11 %, crude fibre 1,2 %
Additives: Vitamin D3 3600 IE/kg EC approved antioxidants".

In the UK you may be able to get Vita Chem, which is also highly regarded.

 

[Nobbygas]

Oh, and a lot of people swear by putting Ground Ginger Powder in the food. You can buy a pot at Tesco's (or other large supermarkets!) for about 30p on the Spice Rack bit. I did this. It cannot do any harm.

 

[Pat24601]

I’m not remotely a fish disease expert. I’ve only ever dealt with fish disease once and that’s recently with Marine Ich.

That said, Prazipro ( http://a.co/c1lmUZv ) is a common QT treatment people use pro-actively. Meaning they treat all incoming fish with it even if they look healthy because it treats some common problems and is very safe. It’s for flukes and worms, which I have no idea if it could even remotely be your problem. But, with my freshwater tank, my LFS once recommended I use it when I was having random deaths I couldn’t explain. So, if you are getting desperate to try random things, it might be an option.

 

[SPR]

Sorry to hear this Courtney.

Ive just re read the last few pages and it looks like all of the fish you have lost are all new additions to your system ? And your 'old fish' are they all ok ?

The Saddleback Anthias are rated as 'Difficult' to keep and also they can be hard to acclimatise and can suffer stress during shipping. They can also easily bullied by larger fish. So this may not be anything to do with your system. I have experience with a similar very passive Purple Anthias which were rated as 'difficult'. I watched them for a few weeks and they were so passive that I don't believe they were getting enough food, and then they just disappeared.

On the others, and assuming there from the same place were I think your working, maybe look into how long the shop had them before you purchased them and just do a bit of research and see what you can find out ?

This may not be your fault so don't beat yourself up to much, and just let us know what you find out ?

 

[Courtney]

Thanks for all the input. Yeah the ones that have died were all the new additions to the take and all from where I work. I know that we get marine shipments every Tuesday and I always pay close attention to the fish when they come in and that there acclimated properly and then later in the day they get a small feed with some food with vitamins in.

Yeah I read they the fish I had were difficult to care for but made sure I have a variety of food to eat and as far as I could tell they was both eating and weren't being chased or picked on from anything else. All my original fish are healthy and doing well but I think for now I'm going to stop getting fish until I can sort this out and I have no more deaths for a couple of weeks.

Although we had out marine delivery in today and my corals that I had in order finally arrived so excited about that. I'm also going to start dipping my corals in NT Labs coral dip to be sure there not carrying anything harmful from now on as well.

But again thank you for all the help and I for and suggestions and I will keep you all updated on how things are going and hopefully some pictures of the new corals tomorrow.

 

[Courtney]

Got all my corals dipped and acclimated and they have all opened up already so got a few pics.

Green Bubble Coral

Comb Coral

Galaxy Coral

 

[Nobbygas]

I do love Galaxia.....and the Comb Coral looks really interesting.

I've dipped every single frag/coral I've put in my tank, yet I have seen Apatasia (and got rid of it), Asterina Starfish (and got rid of them), and now Bristle Worms. OK, the worms are not bad, but I didn't have a single one to start with ! They've all come into the tank via a frag/coral, even after dipping.

 

[Courtney]

More bad news again. Found out that my API test kit was giving me false readings as I have Nitrite in my tank as I found out when I took a sample of water into work and there JBL test kit gave me a reading. So I picked up one of there salt water test kit sets.

Now on top of that I found my Midas Blenny dead this morning in the sand and I think my tank has white spot again due to the stress of it all. I'm dosing various live bacterias to help remove the nitrite to reduce stress as well as doing regular water changes. Might pick up some anti bacterial medication and parazone from work today to treat the white spot and what ever else might be in the tank.

So not a great week for me although I have my light for my refugium now so will be setting that up soon.

 

[Pat24601]

Man, you might be having as many problems as me.

 

[Courtney]

Yeah man has been one of those weeks just problem after problem but hopefully it will get better as I'm doing water changes and dosing some live bacteria but I'm not going to dose any medicine just yet as I will see how the tank goes for a day or two as I don't want to dose if I don't have to.

 

[Courtney]

Well it would seem like my thread is turning into a horror story as again more bad news as I found my convict tang dead in a cave this morning. Don't have a clue as to what is going on with the fish in my tank as there doesn't seem to be any signs of infection or parasites that I can see, no bullying or chasing and water quality is good apart from my nitrite which is coming down but is sitting at 0.1ppm currently.

I don't think it is a water quality issue as my corals and cuc are all doing well. I'm at a loss as to what to do as it is a real downer at the minuet.

 

[Nobbygas]

If you have Nitrite, then by definition, you must have (or had) Ammonia. It sounds like you have suffered a mini-cycle for some reason.
If there was an Ammonia spike, that could/would have damaged the fish. If this did happen, then you would most certainly then had a Nitrite spike. Once again, this would/could damage the fish, so there would have been a double-whammy.
All I can suggest is that you complete a large water change (50%?), and put an air-stone in the tank for a while.

 

[Courtney]

Yeah I don't know what triggered it off then but I know with adding some bacteria and other bits I have the nitrite down to 0.1ppm but I'm going to do some water changes but smaller ones over the next couple of days. I'm going to pick up some anti bacterial and parazone medication and start a course of that as my cleaner wrasse isn't looking to good and this will help any other fish that is a bit ill. So hope all of this sorts my tank out as I can't keep loosing fish as it is heart breaking and not to mention expensive.

 

[Courtney]

Well after dosing some anti-bac medication my cleaner wrasse is looking much better but will keep you updated on his health.

Also picked up 3 new corals and some new additives to try out.

The new additives are Biokit Reef by Prodibio.

The new corals are a Acan, Frogspawn and a Oz Trachyphyllia Brain Coral.

Acan

Frogspawn

Oz Trachyphyllia Brain Coral

 

[Courtney]

Yesterday picked up a large
Sun Coral which looks awesome really happy with it along with all my recent coral purchases. My Reef is really starting to come alive [emoji16]

 

[Courtney]

Picked up a little Tiger Shrimp today in hope of it pairing up with my Randell's Goby. Got the shrimp to go into the cave where my goby is and has already started moving the sand about building his den and my goby had moved to the cave next door haha so hope they get on but will keep you updated.