possible poisoning in tank

Hi,

wanted to get some opinions on what might have happened to $140 worth of fish. I changed my 55 gal fresh water to salt and after setting it up and stablizing it I added the following, Volitan Lion, dwarf lion, lunare wrasse, blue ribbon eel, coral beauty, and a sailfin tang. The tang and coral were from my 29gal sw tank. Everything was very healthy and eating heartily up until last week. I came home and found my wrasse and dwarf lion dead. I had put a small crayfish in the tank a day or 2 earlier figuring the eel, wrasse or lions would have made a meal of him and it seems that the cray killed the dwarf lion. Now the wrasse was dead right next to the lion so I think that he picked on the dead carcase and was poisoned by thier venom, is this possible? My coral also died a few days later. Everything else in the tank is doing fine, I watched the eel eat a 2" damsel whole in about 15 seconds and the volitan is a pig. I added a rectangulus trigger after checking the water and it is doing ok. Any ideas on what might have killed the wrasse and coral beauty? They looked to be untouched/unscarred when found belly up on the bottom of the tank.

Thanks,

aic007

 

Adding that many fish to a new tank at the same time (stable or not) is bound to end in disaster. Even if you transferred all of the water, rock and sand from your 29 and waited until the 55 was fully cycled, there's no way that the bacteria in the new tank could keep up with a bioload like what you've described. Lionfish do no release their venom into the water so your other fish would have had to eat the lion fish's venemous spikes in order to have been poisoned by it.

 

[quote author=aic007 link=board=ASAP;num=1102326865;start=0#0 date=12/06/04 at 01:54:25] Volitan Lion, dwarf lion, lunare wrasse, blue ribbon eel, coral beauty, and a sailfin tang[/quote]

That is certainly unfortunate, not to mention expensive.

Not to be too direct, but that is way too much livestock for a 55 gallon in addition to the things amcaring poited out. The adult size of the sailfin and wrasse alone would exceedthe capacity of your tank.

 

I definately do not think it is not an overstock issue, I understand that most would say that the tank is small for all of these fish, but the fish themselves are not anywhere near adult size. The dwarf did look like it was picked clean, skin was gone from the body as well as around the fins.

 

[quote author=aic007 link=board=ASAP;num=1102326865;start=0#3 date=12/07/04 at 03:33:00]I definately do not think it is not an overstock issue, I understand that most would say that the tank is small for all of these fish, but the fish themselves are not anywhere near adult size. The dwarf did look like it was picked clean, skin was gone from the body as well as around the fins. [/quote]
I didn't mention anything about overstocking. I just pointed out that your new tank was not at all capable of producing bacteria fast enough to support all of those fish. If you had added the fish slowly, the bacteria would have had time to reproduce enough to keep up with all of the additional fish waste that was added to the system.

 

aic007, What was done to "satblize" your new tank?
What was the nirtrite,ammonia, and Nitrate readings when you added fish and then again when they started to die?

J

 

Sad that someone sold you all those fish at once. They should be fined.

 

All of these fish were not bought at once, they were introduced over a month and a half from first to last. The tang and coral were in my 29 gal for approx 1 year. I di not put all of the fish into the tank at one time. As far as the reading afterward they were pretty normal, don't remember execatly what they were, but definately no spikes. Everyone else in the the tank now looks good and all still have great appetites. The offending crayfish was fed to my mantis.

 

I have seen spikes come and go within hours so it's quite possible that your tank spiked and you didn't even know it. I'm not sure that a month and a half is a long enough time to spread out the fish additions considering that the fish that you added are huge waste producers and the feeding of the fish alone is enough to cause water quality issues. Let's try to rule out other possibilities though. I assume that your tank is grounded? That there's enough usable oxygen in the system for all of the fish that you added? No ph or temperature fluctuations? Were the new fish quarantined before you put them in the main tank?

 

unfortunately I don't have a quarantine tank, I usually take about a hour or so to acclimate the fish to the new water adding a little at a time to the bag with the new fish in it. The tank is grounded and there should be plenty of oxygen, the water movement from the sump return should provide ample fresh water. None of the fish seem stressed or sick or have any signs of being in bad shape. All are very active durring the day, my tang comes right to my hand when I go to put food in the tank durring feeding. from the way the dwarf was found I really think that it was he fish picking at the dwarf that killed them. it was really stripped, like the fish had been skinned even on the spines. Thanks for all who replied, Hopefully all of the other guys will be fine.