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Edmonton Eskimo

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I have a 55 gal that was reef but I have changed it to fish and a couple corals(xenia and glove polyps) Everything has been great until I brought a small picasso trigger home yesterday. There has been no aggression at all from the trigger but I did have my red wrasse die last night but he had no signs of aggression either. This morning I notice all my fish are gasping for air. I immediatley tested my water and noticed an ammonia spike. Nothing that I could see other than a small piece of xenia that was dead. I have reduced the ammonia with water changes but nothing has changed. Is there any parasite that could have been introduced? I don't want to lose everything what can I do?
 
Well...

First of all you STILL have a reef tank. If you have any corals it is considered a reef tank.


Next... several possibilities. Parasites might have come onto the trigger, or he mightve killed the wrasse (my guess).

For the ammonia, either you are putting fish in there to fast and adding the trigger over-did it, and the dead xenia helped with the ammonia too.

Get the dead coral out of there so it wont contribute to ammonia anymore. Then keep doing water changes to keep the ammonia down (I guess, depending how much ammonia you have)

My guess is the combo of adding the trigger and the dead xenia is what caused the ammonia. Then I am guessing the trigger killed the wrasse as well.
 
Well first off I am not a beginner at this. I have not been adding things too fast and I really don't think the trigger killed the wrasse as I watched the tank pretty much all night and when the wrasse died there had been no aggression from the trigger as he was still adapting to the tank and was hiding most of the time.
 
Quarintine the fish if they are still doing the same thing then its a parasite if they are not. Then it a problem with your main tank. If so I would suggest a major water change to rid it of the spike. But then again this could cause another spike in itself.
 
All other fish accounted for? Any inverts in the tank, like snails? Dead snails can foul a tank pretty quickly. This is the "chicken or the egg" scenerio. Did you remove the wrasse right after it died? IF so it is more likely that NH3 killed the wrasse instead of the dead fish producing NH3.
But you added a Picasso Trigger to a 55 reef and wonder where the ammonia spike came from.
While a 55gal is certainly too small for a trigger I doubt the simple addition of the fish would cause an NH3 spike.
 
Sure it could have if it harrassed the wrasse to death and picked the xenia

Not trying to be argumentative
 
If you would have read my previous post I stated that the trigger did NOT kill anything. My tank is not a reef as I moved the rest of my corals to my other tank. I appreciate help but I don't need advice when the posts aren't read properly. This trigger is very small and I am upgrading soon. Lando, i removed the wrasse before it was fully dead as I knew it was doomed. All snails are accounted for. I did manage to save most of the fish through water changes and quarantine.
 
Lando, i removed the wrasse before it was fully dead as I knew it was doomed
Hmmm...this leads me to believe that the H3 spike came before the death. Although I am not sure why. How are levels now? All fish doing okay?
 
Themn something is decomposing in your tank that you have not found....a parasite could account for fish deaths, but would not cause an ammonia spike. It is possible, of course, that more than one thing is at work here....something causing the ammonia and something else effecting fish health (I have a great story about a couple of metallic crayons destroying a reef once).

Just out of curiosity, did you get the trigger from PJ's?
 
Lando, my levels are all back to normal now and the remaining fish seem to be doing okay as they are eating and swimming around. Toirtis, I got the trigger from aquarium enthusiasts in devon.
 
How high of an ammonia spike did you have and did you also happen to check the pH?

Was any water from the LFS bag allowed into the tank?

Was the wrasse still out and about or down for the night?

I did manage to save most of the fish through water changes and quarantine.
Were all the fish removed to QT or just some?

Cheers
Steve
 
My test kit said it was .5 mg/l. I did check the ph and it was down about .2. I never allow lfs water into my tank! I don't know what you mean by the wrasse. I quarantined all of them except my tomato clown which survived this ordeal the best. He was the first one up and swimming again and go figure when you don't want a damsel to die it does :roll:
 
Not much else I can offer given the info. I would go on what the others have suggested but be wary of possible future problems and be very watchful.

As far as the wrasse, you did not mention the time of day so I was interested in knowing if the wrasse had buried itself for the night or not. They will often resurface when there is a severe water quality issue.

Cheers
Steve
 
Nothing that I could see other than a small piece of xenia that was dead
I misinterpreted the post RELAX Canada. Adding a Picasso with soft inverts is absolutely brilliant and asking for help on this is asking for the obvious anyway. Oh wait, wait, it's a fish tank no a reef tank no a fish tank. You could probably solve the problem by adding another trigger, like a queen trigger, they are great with picasso's and get along great with inverts. They aslo eat ammonia and it will drive down the spike. Solve your own problems if you know the answer. You are clearly well versed in the hobby...
I have a 55 gal that was reef but I have changed it to fish and a couple corals(xenia and glove polyps) Everything has been great until I brought a small picasso trigger home yesterday
The answer to your problem is in the quote above genius. :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Why don't you keep your smart ass comments to yourself. Who said anything about inverts? It's people like you that are of no help to anyone so how about you do everyone a favour and keep comments that help nothing to yourself USA
 
SALTYDAWGY, You know these kinds of responses are not appropriate here. Chill it. And for both of you. Cool it on the political incenuendos.
 
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