New here - new expert advice

[lmevers]

Hi there from South Florida. I have a nano cube 12 gallons that has been up a few months. I have been successful in keeping my corals alive but now all of a sudden my fish are dying off. It started with a small blue hippo tang (yes, now I know it was not a good pick for a small system, thank you LFS!) that got some white spots that would come and go. He ended up dying after getting sucked into the filter...had been doing great before that. Now in the last two days I lost my two oldest fish, a true p. clown yesterday and just now a red scooter blenny. The only other fish I have is an orange/white goby which is a bit larger than the other gobies had been and a yellow watchman goby. I don't see any spots on either of them. The clown had some white stuff on it but had a huge appetite and had been trying to force himself on a bubble tip anemone that I had acquired. I did see him trying to cuddle up (probably scratch) with the coco worm and he tried to get in with my small frogspawn coral, too.

Other circumstances: The BTA does NOT like to be front and center and I have not yet seen it open all the way up. Usually I see it shriveled in the back stuck up underneath OR just in the backside of my live rock. He has not eaten anything other than the liquid coral food I give the other coral. He will hold onto the krill for awhile and then lets it go. He opens up regularly but I have not yet seen all his bubbles open. He just usually has part of them open.

I have a flaming scallop that pretty much keeps to itself, a sand sifting star, some blue leg hermits, two decorator crabs and various snails.

The corals: trumpet or candy cane coral, flowerpot,small frogspawn, grogorian (spelling), brown xenia, various mushrooms/polyps and one toadstool. I have a coco worm and a regular feather duster.

I am beginning to wonder if I have a killer in my tank. About two months ago I bought a small sebae anenome that didn't make it and also a small sand sifting goby of some sort that worked real hard the first night I had it but has disappeared since then. I have looked all around the tank, in the filters, etc., and no sign of him at all. My nitrates are tested regularly and have no problems with that either, so not sure where his remains could be. Since then everything had been rather stable until losing the clown yesterdayand the red blenny today.

I have done the the following tests and all came up within normal range:

Salinity, calcium, phosphate, ph, nitrates, alkalinity.

Tomorrow I will take a water sample into the pet store for further tests but wondered if anyone can see anything that may be obvious to you?

Thanks all....looking forward to hearing your words of wisdom. It's so sad to lose fish and see all the levels fine and not have any clue what is going on.

[panza]

sounds like ich to me...... your gonna wanna QT your remaining fish for about a month or two so the ich can die off... look at this forum its when ich went threw my tank lots of info on it.. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...lp-107568.html

[melosu58]

When you get some hard numbers on your water test results post them so we can see what they are.

[lmevers]

OK...thanks, I will do that. I wondered about ich but the spots on the blue tang came and went and there were no spots on the clown or blenny when I pulled them out of the water.

Don't have a QT tank, but it looks as if I will be getting one tomorrow....

Will let you know the numbers, thanks for the replies.

[melosu58]

Good and here is some good links on QT and ich.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

CRYPTOCARYON IRRITANS

Read these and they will help you out as far as understanding the QT and the parasite.

[panza]

did you notice any like diving to the ground or rubbing against things... because ich to them feels like mosquito bite it just itches and itches...

[austinsdad]

Don't feel too good about the ick not appearing now. They drop off and multiply - then come back with even greater vengeance so I understand. That's the cycle.

That's why having the tank without fish for some cures the tank since the ick has no fish to live on and grow.

[lmevers]

Thanks all...for the reading material and the advice/comments/suggestions. Will read up on this, establish a QT tank (hopefully in time for the remaining two fish) and cross my fingers. If I get the QT tank going, what do I do with the crabs, snails, scallop and anemone? Do they go there, too? I know I can't treat the tank with some of the medications out there because of all the coral.

[panza]

nope theyll be fine... all inverts aren't effected by ich


btw welcome to da site

[Kurt_Nelson]

The inverts (crabs, snails, etc) will do fine in the main tank while you're treating the fish in the QT. Ich needs fish to survive and can't do it with inverts only. So as long as you leave your main tank fishless for 6-8 weeks, the ich should die off in your main.

[lmevers]

Thanks for the welcome all.

OK so if I QT the remaining fish for six weeks or so, I guess it will be that long before I can introduce any new fish as well?

[panza]

thats correct unfornately. but when you put the QT tank up try really hard for the QT to almost have the exact ph and salinity as your main tank.

[lmevers]

I will...

Thanks. Have a lot to do tomorrow and now buying a QT tank and setting it up is on the list, too!! Don't know how to make the ph, etc., exactly the same, but will surely try my best!

Will keep you posted.

Thanks again!

Goodnight. Sweet dreams.

[OniTweak]

Surprised nobody brought this up but you had all of the following in a 12g tank.

1 Tang
2 Watchmen Goby
1 Clown
1 Scooter blenny

You probably stressed out most of your inhabitants with that.

Curious also as to what type of lighting you are running and how long the tank has been established.

[panza]

yeah your definetly over crowding the tank but be sure to have those water parameters tomorrow! so wait what are your remaining fish?

[lmevers]

I have only a diamond goby and a watchman goby left. This morning the anenome looks like it is literally "hanging on by a thread" and not sure it will survive...sigh!

We are looking into the QT tank today to figure out what we need to get. I'm amazed the corals can thrive so beautifully while the fish drop off one by one.

Will keep you all posted...thanks again!

[ThatGuy619]

have you tested for ammonia? how old is the tank

[OniTweak]

What type of lighting do you have.

[lmevers]

Hi all....sorry it took so long to get back with you. You would think with me being out of work I would have all the time in the world, eh? Not so!

OK, well water in 12 gallon nano tank was tested again and all was fine. Virtually no nitrites/nitrates, very little ammonia, ph within normal parameters, same for calcium/phosphates/alkalinity. Salinity was .024.

My daughter had a 3 gallon tank she used for ghost shrimp but no longer uses it so I set that up as a QT tank for the orange/white goby and yellow watchman. I just put a couple of pvc elbows, etc. in it to give them somewhere to hide and got ich medicine from LFS and have treated them for the last 3 days. They seem so sad/lonely in there. The yellow watchman has not gotten his deep yellow back yet and they are acting skiddish, but I think it is just because they are confused as to where they are.

Catching the little buggers was close to impossible so my son and I had to take all the live rock/corals out of the tank to do so. Some of the Xenia came off the live rock but it was SO overgrown, it's probably not a bad idea. It is still rather wilted but hopefully it will come back. The bubble and flowerpot is still pouting, but showing signs they will be OK as are the mushrooms and frogspawn. The feather duster is back showing it's head feathers but not the coco worm, yet. The toadstool doing great.

What is not so great? The anemone didn't make it. I thought he probably died last night but my son said it's looked like that before and to leave it. It had NEVER truly opened up all the way and always hid in the dark. Should have followed my instinct last night because he looked chewed up (which was not the case, but was already falling apart I think). This morning....what a mess! And the odor that came from it was disgusting. Poor little thing. I now totally give up on any kind of anenome....I just love the open/closing of those creatures but will get more frogspawn someday. The scallop is looking iffy, too.

I'm sad that having to pull the rocks/corals out may have stressed those two creatures to death but since I could never get the anenome to eat other than the liquid food, he probably was doomed.

OK experts...what do you say? Suggestions/comments/scoldings?

Thanks all....

Laurie Mae

[austinsdad]

You say "virtually no nitrite"?

ANY nitrite is not good. MUST be zero for an established tank.