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RussKubes
06/25/2014, 07:15 PM
I'm pretty new to keeping an aquarium and just experienced my first fish death. I think it has to do with the fact that my A/C broke yesterday; but I want to be sure in case I need to take action to protect the rest of my fish.

I added the Flame Angel on 6/11; from Blue Zoo Aquatics.

On the first three days, it would not eat mysis or brine shrimp. It would only peck at the rocks. On the fourth day I added garlic to the food and it ate plenty.

Since then, I had no issues getting him to eat; and only had to use the garlic once. I rotated between Hikari frozen brine, nysis, and angelfish food. He happily ate whatever I put in.

As previously stated, the A/C broke yesterday. I have a computer which measures the temp and automatically shuts off the lights once it reaches 83.5. Even after this point, the temps continued to rise before I got home, reaching a high of 84.7 degrees.

I brought the temperature down overnight, and when the lights came on this morning, I found the Angel to look slightly pale between his stripes - where it normally was red, it was more of an orange/yellow. He was also not swimming with nearly as much energy as usual. When I fed them, he ate normally. Then I went out for a few hours.

I came home and found him in the corner of the tank laying on his back (upside down) on the bottom - just breathing but not moving anything else. Not even his fins were moving. After about 5 minutes, the breathing seemed to stop. After a couple more minutes, he began to seize (very rapid twitching of all muscles) [symptom of whatever killed him or normal part of dying?]. He eventually landed in a cave under the most difficult rock to reach inside of the tank, and I believe he is now dead.

Aside from the paleness, I do not see anything else wrong with him. He does not have any spots. His eyes look fine. There is no visible damage. Fins are all 100% in tact.

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Tank Info
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The tank itself was started last September. FOWLR. 55 Gallon with about 70 lbs of Live Rock.

I'm about to do new water tests today to verify; most recent was last Thursday (6/19), and the tests were as follows [consistent readings]:
PH: 7.9 [this was measured early in the day, at night it is usually about 8.1]
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0.5 ppm
Phosphates: 0.04 ppm
Salinity: 1.023
Temp: 81.4 (right about where I keep it)

Other inhabitants include:
1 Coral Beauty Angel
1 Yellow Tang
1 Azure Damsel
1 Black Percular Clown
1 Red Scooter Dragonet
1 Peppermint, and 1 Cleaner Shrimp
5 Snails

All other inhabitants are doing well. No visible spots or issues. All are swimming as normal, with energy.

The Flame Angel was the last fish to be put in, and all fish get along. There was some initial bullying of the Flame Angel by the Yellow Tang (who dominates the tank). The Tang never nipped at him, he'd just use his rear fin to force water pressure at the Angel to scare him away when he got too close. After the first few days they found their own spots in the tank and didn't bother each other.

RussKubes
06/25/2014, 08:29 PM
Attached below are three images of the fish after extracted from the tank. Note that the white dot visible on the eye is just a reflection of light. His eyes were black with no cloudiness or spotting.

He smelled good. After about 10 minutes out of the tank, he started to smell fishy. I opened up his gills and did not see anything out of the ordinary.

I took the tank readings again today. All of them were the same as last Thursday, except the PH was at 8.07 (now that it's later in the day).

Any insight on why he might have died is greatly appreciated. For now I'm thinking it was just stress caused by the temperature swing yesterday, as well as possible overcrowding in the tank. Most of my fish are pretty small. The Yellow Tang is the biggest, about the size of a dollar bill folded in half.

http://i62.*******.com/25a7vkp.jpg
http://i62.*******.com/15qcly9.jpg
http://i58.*******.com/ja9ufm.jpg

HumbleFish
06/26/2014, 08:02 AM
IME; 85 degrees shouldn't kill a healthy fish. However, oxygen levels can drop significantly once temp rises. However, that doesn't explain why he died and all your other fish lived. Unless he was harboring a disease in his gills (i.e. flukes, ich) which also impeded his breathing.

Newsmyrna80
06/26/2014, 11:10 AM
Agree with Humblefish. I live in Florida and my AC went out last year on July 4 while I was gone. I immediately put ice filled bags in the tanks (the main and 4 QTs) and blew fans across the tank tops. I didn't lose anyone even though the tanks got up to 85.
More than likely he had parasites in his gills combined with the low oxygen. Hard to tell without doing a necropsy.

RussKubes
06/26/2014, 10:10 PM
Thanks both for the feedback. I considered cutting the fish open to look yesterday; but I would have no clue what to look for. I've never seen the insides of a healthy fish, nor am I completely familiar with their anatomy. I did not want to just play with his body.

I did drop him in fresh water after extracting him from the tank. I did not see anything come off or out of him. I also opened his gills, and the inside looked all a reddish/pink. There weren't any white spots or obvious organisms.

I will continue to monitor the other fish. Do you think it's worth getting an O2 Meter? Or do O2 testing kits work well enough? I don't have any Corals, so the only O2 sources would be surface disruption from the three power heads, the protein skimmer, and the photosynthesis from algae on the rocks.

Most of my fish like to stay in the bottom third of the tank. As soon as I turn the filters and powerheads off, (within seconds) they will all rise to the top-right corner of the tank immediately. Although, this is where I feed them, and feeding is generally the only time I turn off the filters and powerheads. So I think this is more of a learned habit, rather than rising for air.

The main take away I want to learn from this is, first of all, I don't want to lose any other fish. Secondly, I want to learn if it is something I did wrong, so I can avoid it in the future.

Newsmyrna80
06/27/2014, 06:52 PM
How did you acclimate him after you received him? I've read the O2 meters are not really worth getting. It's like everything in this hobby..some say yes, some say no.
I would keep an eye on the other fish in the event the flame did bring something in to the tank.

RussKubes
06/28/2014, 07:17 PM
I use a "Reef Gently AccliMate." I had him acclimate for about 1.5 hours.

The Coral Beauty Angel died today as well. Hard to say what killed him, the Pom Pom Crab, Cleaner Shrimp and Peppermint Shrimp were all eating at the corpse. I was away most of the day today and came home to find this.

I had both fish come in the same day from Blue Zoo Aquatics (just over two weeks ago). I brought the package in as soon as FedEx dropped it off, so they didn't get left out for long.

When I first got them, neither of them would eat for a few days. Also, the Flame Angel was swimming sideways in the bag when he came in. After acclimating, he began to perk up, so I didn't think too much of it. I could never describe the Coral Beauty as being energetic, very slow swimmer and usually just hid under rocks.

All of the other fish are purchased from the LFS and still seem to be doing well.

I feel terrible if I did something wrong to kill both of these fish. I'm wondering if they came in with something? Can shipping stress take it's toll two weeks later? Is there any medication I should put in just in case, to protect the other fish?

Edit:
In case it's important. Most of the other fish are about two months in tank. The Damsel and Peppermint shrimp are about 5 months in tank. It is just the two recent additions that died suddenly. I did have a small outbreak of Ich about two months ago when I added the Clown and Tang. I treated it back then and all fish survived and have been doing well. I know Angels are sensitive to copper; but I would imagine there shouldn't be any left. I do a 20% water change every two weeks. I also did a 20% every day during the treatment. This is two months before the Angels were in there.

albano
06/28/2014, 08:04 PM
IME, many people have problems with Flame angels...even if eating they many not survive longer than a few weeks

Newsmyrna80
06/29/2014, 05:54 PM
Since you had them a couple of weeks prior to death it wasn't the acclimation process. It could have been anything, stress, the way they were collected, etc. I've read some have treated angels with copper and they did fine so I don't think it would be residual copper. Since we don't know what it was there really isn't a med to put in for prevention.

snorvich
06/30/2014, 05:50 AM
Based on the mortality time line, it could be velvet. A higher temperature could exacerbate any respiration deficiency caused by parasites in the gills (since higher temperature means lower oxygen level in the water)