What does a cyanide death look like?

[blorkiemom]

I've searched several sites and looked through my books, and while there's plenty of info on the dangers of cyanide collection I can't find any info on what it does to fish after the fact.

I bought 3 small chromis Thursday evening and put them in a 6-month-old QT tank that had been housing 2 happy clowns until the day before. The chromis had come into the LFS earlier that day. I acclimated them over an hour; they ate well Friday evening and appeared fine. This morning, one is on his side dying (when he tries to swim he just goes in crazy loops) and another has a large red area appearing from his dorsal fin to the middle of his body. The tank (20 gallon) tests 0 for ammonia and nitriates and under 5 for nitrates.

Could this be cyanide? Or maybe an acclimation problem?

 

[fishfreek]

Crazy loops is sign of swim blatter damage. You cant find any info on what cyanide damage looks like because its not aparent. There are no outward signs that a fish was cyanide caught other than potentally being lethargic and having more vibrant than normal colors.

 

[blorkiemom]

Thanks, Fishfreek. Two of the three died; number three appears to be okay but I'll just wait and see. I hope I didn't do anything wrong--I'm very disappointed and sad about it.

 

[quarryshark]

I had a few heni's that died a while back from (what I suspect) to be cyanide. They refused to eat and the corpses looked to be extremely malnourished.
These fish acted completely different from the healthy heni's I have now. This is a hyperactive fish and these fish were anything but.

 

[RocketSeason]

i didn't think chromis were Wild caught.

 

[sevise]

While forming my school of 7 chromis I lost a total of 3. My tank was well cycled and the conditions inside the tank were the same throughout. There were no signs of ich or any other disease. They would all eat and swim fine then die over night.

I initially bought 3, the first dies after 3 days the second after 5. The third is still alive.
I pulled the corpses from the tank right away and neither time there was a spike. The survivor lived alone for 2 weeks.

Second wave I bought 3, one died after 4 days. Again I pulled him out right away and no spike. The 3 survivors lived alone for another 2 weeks.

The final 4 all lived. While talking with the owner of the LFS he siad they losose about 10 per 100 within a fews days of arrival. The conditions at the LFS are pretty good. The only signs of disease or death I've ever seen was 1 dead green chromis. My guess is these fish are pretty highly stressed when there caught and transported. Since there so cheap they're not as cared for as a more expensive specimen.

Also if you bought yours the same day as they arrived at your LFS consider they were captured, transported, acclimated, caught, transported, and acclimated agaiun in a short time. Thats alot of stress.

 

[clowninround]

it's funny you should mention that. I bought 8 chromis and 6 survived. Though
I suspected disease since a few of them looked pretty unhealthy and just for safe measures I treated them and they stopped dieing...the 6 are doing great and have grown a lot in my tank. My friend bought 6 and 3 survived. One of them committed sucide on the carpet though .

 

[foma2000]

i know that this topic is saposed to be about cyanide, but ive never had any truble with dying chromis. i bought 10 at once and put them right into my main tank (i didn't have a qt up and running yet) and only one died but it was because the wave machine nocked him up out of the water. other then that their all stil alive and growing fast