Dying fish ?

[Kopitar]

Hey guys


About a month and a half ago i setup a new tank
77 gallon with dry/live rocks . I did my cycle with a yellow tail damsel for approx 3 weeks and everything was fine. Then decided to add 2 clownfish bout 10 days ago they were both very happy and eating well.

Today i noticed i didnt find my damsel for about 5-6 hours so im assuming he's dead and both my clownfish can barely swim anymore they are just hanging there and getting pushed from powerhead to powerhead i can tell ther sick/dying. Right away i took my water parameter
Sal: 1.026
Ph 8.0
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Forgot to take nitrate
My last water change was 10% a week ago
And im guessing the ammonia is at 0.25 cause earlier i had a hermit crab kill my red scarlet to steal his shell so he was left dead till the emerald crab ate him hours later + the possibly dead damsel who has gone missing.
What could be wrong with my clownfish ?? I desperatly want to keep them alive
Should i go ahead with a water change right away ?
What is oxygen ? I read that in other threads ? Do the powerheads i have prevent oxygen ?

Anything would help thanks,

 

[Khij159753]

Do the clowns have white dandruff lookin stuff on them? I'm guessing you didn't get a good enough cycle because a hermit shouldn't create that much ammonia even in a non cycled tank. The damsel is rotting and causing ammonia IMO and the clowns probably have ick.

 

[Kopitar]

Sorry im a noob


No white dandruff but they are turning whitish a bit
Do you mean ich by ick ?

How can it not cycle if damsel was in for 2-3 weeks + live rock ?

Can i do anything to save them ?

 

[Barakis]

Do the clowns have white dandruff lookin stuff on them? I'm guessing you didn't get a good enough cycle because a hermit shouldn't create that much ammonia even in a non cycled tank. The damsel is rotting and causing ammonia IMO and the clowns probably have ick.

That's a lot of assumption...

All apart from the clown bit I agree with. You need to do a nitrate reading. Low nitrate is good but no nitrate says bad cycle. Did you test after adding the clowns?

If they have white spots, yes it may be ich, but sounds more like poisoning.

If your power heads are breaking the water surface then oxygen is good, they shouldnt stop it. If your worried move the heads closer to the top of the water or point them up/down.

 

[Kopitar]

Woudnt of they died right away after adding them 10 days ago if my cycle wasnt done properly ?

And whats my best bet to try to save them a big water change ?

 

[Kopitar]

One of my clownfish is just goin crazy goes from side to side full speed till he hits the glass no clue what happened they were acting great for 10 days

In case they both die how do i re-cycle my tank all over again without getting my CUC to all die also ?

 

[Khij159753]

There really isn't a way.... But what does make it of your CUC would be very hardy CUC haha. Just throw a few shrimp in a net and let them rot in your tank till ammonia reads 0 nitrites read 0 and nitrates are there. Just gotta make sure ammonia reaches 4 at some point.

 

[Barakis]

When I was new I crashed a cycle moving house, took the poor buggers weeks to go. It depends. 0.25 amm is not as deadly as it sounds if its dealt with. Imagine cutting your finger and not covering it. It's only a cut, but eventually you will lose a lot of blood.


Big water change, say 50% or 2x25%. You could try using a conditioner that removes amm, but in my experience they don't really work.

As far as your cycle, I don't know a massive amount about salt water. But I dont think 1 damsel is enough bio load to create the BB to support adding 2 clowns, which might have caused issues. Where the inverts added before/after the damsel/clowns?

 

[Khij159753]

I'd try a big water change. Make sure to watch them eat. Clowns are known to act weird the first couple weeks. As long as they're eating and don't look sick they have a good chance. Just keep a look on those ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels.

 

[Barakis]

If they don't survive. Shrimp is a good idea as above. Check your ammonia levels as often as you can (daily?) Every time it reaches amm4 then do a big WC to bring it back. Keep doing over and over until your nitrites appear, followed by nitrates. By the time your trates rise your amm should drop to 0. This should give you a fairly heavy bio.

If your worried you can always do the above in another tank/container with another filter. Once complete add the cucled media into the biggger tank/filter. Be sure to add in some (none live) rocks as BB grows on surfaces.

 

[Kopitar]

Inverts were added originaly when i thought my cycle was over with my 2 raw shrimp...
And then a week later when amonia got to 0.25 i though i messed up my cycle so added the damsel to double make sure it would get done
Damsel + CUC all survived 3-4 weeks so after ammonia nitrite was 0 and nitrate around 5 i added 2 clownfish wich was 10 days ago
Meanwhile 1 waterchange and today kaboom....

 

[Kopitar]

And sorry for noob question but what is BB ?


Thanks

 

[Khij159753]

Beneficial bacteria. The stuff that turns ammonia into nitrite into nitrate into Gas

 

[Barakis]

You probably went fishy a bit too soon, like I said I don't know salty as well as fresh, but doing fishless cycle you still need to do water changes whilst the bacteria develops, just don't clean the filter media or ornaments at all.

Aquarium water is a massive balance to start, 1 day too soon and you could loose it.

I don't know enough to say wether a damsel is suitable/hard enough for cycling, but it may have been dying from the start. It's death may be the only cause of the ammonia, your cycle may be fine.

To answer questions here we need to make a certain ammount of assumptions. So do your water change then check all your levels again. Including nitrate (check it before too if you havnt started water change yet). Post results, and it may be that you just need to cross your fingers or replace fish.


If you havnt already, check the forum for cycling help to see if damsels are hard enough, or what fish are good for cycling.

 

[Khij159753]

Damsels are the ones to use for cycling. But only if you do water changes through the cycle. It's best to do fish less. It also makes it a stronger cycle. IMO 1 damsel isn't strong enough to produce enough ammonia
In a tank that size

 

[Barakis]

Damsels are the ones to use for cycling. But only if you do water changes through the cycle. It's best to do fish less. It also makes it a stronger cycle. IMO 1 damsel isn't strong enough to produce enough ammonia
In a tank that size

Agreed. Definately a bigger bio load for the cycle needed.

 

[Kopitar]

So for a 77 gallon whats the proper ammount of damsel/or chromis to have to cycle properly if u take the fish-cycle route ?

 

[Kopitar]

And i didnt do any water changes during cycle since i thought u had to do none till done cycling

 

[Khij159753]

If you do none your fish will die. But if you do som you will have a WEAKER bio load. The best way really is a fish less cycle. I'm not sure on how many but probably somewhere around 3 or 4 fish?