Peredhils fish are dying

I lost my blenny last week - reason unknown.

Around the same time, my 6line started acting weird. Hiding and really skittish (out of character for him).

This morning, the crabs are eating the 6line.

WHat gives? Why'd they all die? (rhetorical).


The only thing I can figure are the bloodworms are killing them. It was right after I started feeding these to my mandarin (and therefore to everything else) that these fish started dying. It's my only guess.

Params all checked out, inverts are fine... so annoying.

 

this leaves me with 2 clowns and a mandarin.

the mandarin... stupid fish. I can see a ton of amphiphods all night and i can see swarms of copepods when I put my light to the tank at night.

but this fish ONLY hunts during the day. At night, it goes pale and stays in the same spot. And it's starving. I fear I will lose this fish soon too. Though this loss, at least I would know the reason. It doesn't know how to hunt.

Leaving me with 2 clowns I don't want.


Never could get anyone to take them... these clowns... they are on the border of going in the potty. Just changing my entire fish stock.

And this is after I had to redo my entire aqua scape bc of stupid GSP.

I'm fairly close to just throwing in the towel and throwing this stuff out entirely.

oh well. whining peredhil.

 

Are they fresh bloodworms? If frozen, what brand? For instance, Hikari frozen foods go through a 3 step sterilization process but most other brands don't.

Do you have a voltmeter where you can test for stray voltage?

 

Well, obviously something changed outside of the bloodworms... Something's changed you just need to think.. How often are you changing water?

 

i am really just venting here... (nobody at home cares the same way I do)

nothing has changed. really. things don't change in my tank. i don't do much to it at all these days. ATO, autodosing, etc. it is fairly hands off. I don't do water changes generally, but due to an ATO error of mine, I last did one, I guess it was a month or two ago... 15% This doesn't seem likely to me to be related :-/

the most recent thing I have done is experiment with new foods. I have started using cyclo-pleeze, rotifers, and blood worms. the first 2 I didn't notice any difference and then a couple weeks later I added blood worms and started spot feeding the mandarin.

The second or third time I did this, the blenny and the wrasse (not the clowns) started sneaking in and taking the worms that were dangling from the baster thing for the mandarin. and then within days the blenny was just dead. not acting weird at all. just dead. fat and nice colors. so i was like, ok, whatever. Fed the blenny to the corals.

Then the next time I fed the mandarin, the wrasse (again) was taking them. I didn't really mind, I had plenty.

Within a day it was acting weird (hiding mostly). But I searched on 3reef and read about wrasses doing that sometimes so I just figured whatever. Two days later, it's dead and half eaten by the crabs. (I'll be cutting it up later for the corals).

These are the blood worms. I do maybe a 1/4 cube (probably less) per feeding.



I'm going to replace the blenny - he had a critical algae eating job on the PH, etc. I'm already starting to notice his absence.

Now, if you've happened to follow my threads. I did have a major upheavel in my tank yesterday and the wrasse was dead this morning. Fair enough. But it was acting weird before this. I don't think it's related - other than perhaps pushing the wrasse over the edge.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-rock/nuking-really-my-best-response-76804.html

 

oh, i last tested params Friday (in prep for sat's upheavel)

ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/phosphate = 0

ca 450
dKH 13
mg 1400

pH 8.3

sg 1.026

all readings extremely stable.

 

No water changes??? I personally don't care what test kits say I do water changes on my tank, the ones I maintain, the ones at the shop and recommend everyone do.

Do you need to heed my advice? Of course not but what really can go wrong from W/Cs? On top of that, I have seen very few w/c-less systems do well for long regardless of what test kits say. On top of that of the few tanks I have seen that essentially take care of themselves... they eventually go down.

This hobby is not an easy hobby. It takes time, money and EFFORT.
Just a thought.

Good luck

 

please continue the thought into the area of how fish need their water changed.

cause... i'm not thinking they do and i believe you're chasing a red herring (or suggesting I do). besides that I already mentioned the water was changed recently...

water doesn't get "old". Is their some element in the water the fish need that may be depleted? I'm thinking no.

I'd appreciate if you didn't get wrapped around that axle. It doesn't fit into the chain of events as the explanation.

(I think it would fit more if I was talking about coral health - but I'm not.)

 

I agree with Pered on water changes. I never do them myself, last one was a couple months ago, I see no ill effects. I don't see the point if you dose trace elements, 2 part, etc., water params are stable, and you skim / filter properly.

Do you run Carbon? There may be chemicals introduced that the carbon could remove.

 

I just realized that this mornin, Zach. My carbon is two weeks overdue on change. Needless to say, I have already changed it.

I am wondering if that really could be it though... perhaps I suppose. I am not ruling anything out (including the WC), just not too sure on anything really sounding like a real good reason here.

I am still suspecting the blood worms bc of the timeline.

I can not find anything on "bad batches" or anything of this product - so it is probably not a highly likely reason.