Resolved 2 fish and 1 invert dead, the rest are breathing very heavily. Please healp.

Last night everything was good. I turned the light off and went to bed. In the morning I went to work and didn't check on them, but I just came back, and my lemonpeel dwarf angel, an bicolor baslett and a shrimp were dead. The other fish are breathing very heavily. I'll post my reading in a minute. Just wanted to know if anybody knows what to do right now to keep the rest alive. Please help.
Also, my coral banded shrimp dropped his two long arms. I don't know what's going on.

Sorry about not posting the parameters yet, I'm freaking out. I'll test right now.

Any suggestions while I do that?

- Magnus.

Edit: First wrong thing I found is my salinity is at 1.027. I left the lids opened but I don't think so much water had evaporated. Could that be causing this tragedy?

 

Turn off the lights to help your fish relax

Really you'll have to wait for the test results. While waiting for some of the results to change their colors, I'd begin making some saltwater and heating it up. My fingers are crossed for you.

 

Water temp?

 

Anemones?

 

I will agree with turning off the lights to reduce the stress on the fish. First thought with breathing heavy is lack of oxygenation. What is your flow like?

 

My thought is since it's a newer tank with plenty of livestock that it might be ammonia. Ammonia can interfere with how the oxygen is absorbed into the blood by the gills.

 

I wouldn't think it would cause that much of an issue. I run my tank on the high side of the salinity level. How much did it go up for you and how fast? Why do you normally keep lids on a tank. I'd advise against lids since they hamper the gas exchange that needs to occur at the surface of the water. That's how oxygen gets into your tank.

 

Yet another reason that I am thinking oxygenation. slocal - how did you know this was a new tank? I don't remember seeing that in his original post.

 

Whenever I see a newer member with a question, I run a search on their posts to gleam a bit more info.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/white-trash-80726.html

55g tank running since December.

Live stock:

1 Lemonpeel Angel
1 Bicolor Baslett?
2 Tomato clown fish
1 Cleaner shrimp
1 Coral banded shrimp
5 blue leg crabs
5 red leg crabs
4 snails.

 

Very cool!! k+.

Never thought about doing that. Learn something new everyday.