View Full Version : Unexpected Fish Death??
kmdrysdale
03/31/2013, 11:19 AM
We bought a yellow tail blue damsel just over a week ago, had it in QT for a week and transferred it to our DT. It's our first fish and our QT was not cycled. From another thread it was recommended to move it to our DT and cycle the QT. It was in our DT for about 4 days. In both tanks he looked like everything was fine. He was eating, good color, no signs of ich. Since putting him in our DT he would always put himself to bed (go hide in the rocks) at lights out. This morning when we got up, he was stuck to the intake of our HOB skimmer. Any ideas what could have happened? Is there anything we should be doing to be sure there isn't anything bad in our DT? CUC all looks to be doing fine as well.
I acclimated him too. About 2 hours of adding 1/4 cup of water from DT every 7 minutes. Half way through I dumped out 3/4 of the water from the bucket and kept adding water from the DT. I've read that's a good way to acclimate fish. Did I do it right, or slow enough, or long enough?
From everything we can test, our water parameters are good here:
Temp: 76-78
SG: 1.025-6 (refractometer)
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5-10
whiteshark
03/31/2013, 12:07 PM
That's curious. Were there any marks on the fish? Might you have a hitchhiking assassin?
kmdrysdale
03/31/2013, 12:22 PM
I'm not sure how long he was stuck on the intake of the skimmer. At 10:30 he was tucked away in a rock. When we took him out he was just super pale. One side fin was missing, but maybe sucked into the skimmer as well. My big concern is that I did something wrong somewhere or that there will now be some unseen parasite that may kill any new fish coming into the tank.
whiteshark
03/31/2013, 12:54 PM
Well there are a plethora of things that could have happened. As long as your tank was fully cycled and there were no obvious signs of disease it's going to be hard to tell. How strong is the skimmer intake? While I really doubt it, could it have just wondered too close and got stuck?
I don't see any obvious things you did wrong. Some would say you should have QTd it longer. You could have left it in the QT and just did frequent WCs and use amquel. But if it was fine in the QT and fine in the DT it's odd that it would just turn up dead.
gone fishin
03/31/2013, 01:20 PM
It could be just poor timing and it was the fish's time to go. Sometimes we search for causes and there are none other than "old age".
KeepNitReel
03/31/2013, 01:57 PM
Sorry for your lost. This is no help now but may help in the future and probably not the cause of death. PetSmart sells these neat breeder boxes that double as an acclamation box also. Add an air pump and air hose, adjust the drip with the included valve. This is a much smoother acclimation than pouring water in every so often.
sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using Tapatalk 2
kmdrysdale
03/31/2013, 02:42 PM
Thanks for all the replies. We did plan on quarantining longer, but there was a misunderstanding and our QT was not cycled. We would do a water change at night and by morning it was almost .5ppm. It was advised to put him in our DT and cycle the QT. He was our first fish so we were told that we move him early.
Could it have been attacked by a hermit crab? I know he would hide in the rocks at night.
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