HELP!! Banjii cardinal died!!

[kingparsy]

ok, here goes, i have had my tank up and running very successfully for about 5 months now, did the cycle, tested water on a regular basis, did my water changes, i have a pic of my 55 g tank on here also. I had 1 brittle star,4 turbosnails, 10 pyramid snails,2 emerald crabs, 4 blue leg hermits, one scarlet leg hermit, 1 coral banded shrimp, 4 bumblebee snails as my cleanup crew, thought this was ok. Water leverls have always been right where they should, i do my water changes(15 Gal) about once every 6 weeks. heres what i had as my money fish,, 2 banjii cardinals, 1 scooter blenny,2 percula clowns, 1 yellow seabae, and one candylupus anemone i think its called........1 week ive lost all my fish,,i had a nitrate spike a week ago when i was out of town and thought that might have caused it,,did a water change, got my leverls right, and at this time, i lost my 2 clowns and blenny.....water levels right on again,,,,next day, one cardinal dies,,,,,today(a week later) my other one dies with a bloody appearance on his right side, not damage from anything,,but like bloody dots. i noticed then yesterday but wanted to wait to see if i could find out what to do ,,but now its too late,,,,what the heck happened??


heres the specs on my tank,,,,,55gal, 40 lb of live rock, seaclone skimmer, whisper 60 biofilter, ,,,regular come -with -tank lighting, and moonlighting, all on a timer...

i had never lost one fish till now,,,

like i said

 

[steve-s]

10 pyramid snails

You sure they're not Astrea's or Trochus?

i had a nitrate spike a week ago when i was out of town and thought that might have caused it,,did a water change, got my leverls right, and at this time, i lost my 2 clowns and blenny.....water levels right on again,,,,next day, one cardinal dies,,,,,

So nothing died until after the water change?
Could you post the test results of your tank parameters/chemistry and the newly mixed SW? Do you know the pH of the tank prior to the water change?

today(a week later) my other one dies with a bloody appearance on his right side, not damage from anything,,but like bloody dots. i noticed then yesterday but wanted to wait to see if i could find out what to do ,,but now its too late,,,,what the heck happened??

Red blotch's will be either a bacterial or pH related. Considering the fatalities occured after the water changes, it's most likely chemical in nature.

Do you always use the same brand of salt?

Cheers
Steve

 

[kingparsy]

my ph has always been ok, and i lost the 2 clowns and blennie beofre the change, and the 2 cardinals after.....i always get ro water from my lfs for my water changes

 

[steve-s]

Could you actually post the chem numbers and how high did the nitrate spike? What was the last fish added and how long ago? Do you QT?

Did you lose any inverts?

Kinda need a bit more "detailed" info.

Cheers
Steve

 

[kingparsy]

nitrate was up around 40-60, and i lost some turbo snails, but my shrimp, crabs, anemones are all fine,,,,the last thing i added was the seabae and that was about a week before the disaster.....and no, i have no qt tank, but thinking about getting one now

 

[steve-s]

Still not very much info to go on. At the very least I would continue with water changes and allow the tank to remain fallow for at least 6-8 weeks from the passing of the last fish. This will permit any parasite that may have possibley caused the problem to die off naturally.

When you decide to add the next fish, be sure you QT each new addition for at least 4 weeks and do not add more than one a month to allow the biological filter time to catch up in the tween time.

Cheers
Steve

 

[kingparsy]

any advice on the qt tank?

 

[steve-s]

It's relatively easy to set up. There's a good article >>here<<

Cheers
Steve