Need help fast...

bradneal · 10-22-2003, 11:54 AM

Okay, this is a long story that I will attempt to keep brief...

Back in the late 60's, my best friend and I (we were in 8th grade I think) got into fresh water aquaria and pursued it actively until I go married in my early 20's. At that point I got out of it and he continued the hobby and eventually became an advanced reef aquarist.

Fast-forward to now...

My friend suddenly died 3-weeks ago of an aortic aneurism. After the funeral, his wife asked me to consider taking his setup as she was not able to care for things properly. Not that I was, but I told her I was willing to give it everything I had to continue my dear friends legacy. Well, the Saturday before last, we moved his 55 gallon reef aquarium into my office and only lost one fish, and since then all has been well until most recently.

A couple of days ago, I noticed the Flame Angel was looking kinda pale. The next day I actually saw some white or light colored blotchiness, I assumed it was a form of ich brought on by the stress of the move. Well now I can't locate him in the tank and assume that he died and is behind the live rock. My question is this; do I disturb the rock and coral in order to find him so I can get him out, or do you just leave him in there to deteriorate naturally?

All the water chemistry is normal, temperature is fine, and the other livestock appear normal and healthy. One more thing, I kept all the original water that I could, probably about 75%, in order to keep things as consistent as I could for the new environment.

I am doing as much crash reading as I can to get up to speed, but I am sure I will have tons of questions as the weeks go by.

Thanks,
Brad

mpls_gazer · 10-22-2003, 12:03 PM

Best of Luck.

Don't know anything about fish diseases however.

MPLS_Gazer

Jeremy1973 · 10-22-2003, 12:08 PM

First off, WELCOME to TRT!

Secondly, I am sorry to hear about your friend!

Thirdly, what kind of clean up crew do you have? (hermit crabs, shrimp, etc) If you have a lot, then chances are, they have made short work of the fish.

It was good of you to save most of the water, it helped keep everything stable. If you have easy access to the back of the tank, look for the fish, and if you can see him and get him out, then do so. Otherwise, watch your ammonia levels carefully. If you see an increase, do a water change to help minimize the cycle. How big of a fish was this angel?

Again, sorry about your friend.

ReefDave · 10-22-2003, 12:13 PM

bradneal,
Well I will first tell you the best thing you can do is list all of your equipment, and all of your water parameters.....ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, AKH, Temp(s), SG. I would at least list those readings. How big is this tank? Do you have a sump/fuge?

Ok enough with the answering a question with a question. Disturbing the rock work can cause more stress than the fish decaying inside it sometimes. Especially if the other fish are already stressed from one move. I understand angels can stress easy, and it sounds like some sort of fish disease brought on by the stress of a move. That said, I would watch my Amonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate readings as closely as possible in the next few days, and if they don't get out of wack I wouldn't bother trying to find the fish. If you have a good group of nassarious snails, and a few bristle worms, you probably wouldn't find the fish anway...you would be amazed at how fast nass snails, bristle worms, and brittle stars can consume a dead fish. How big was the angel?

Sorry for all the questions.
Dave

R1Bill · 10-22-2003, 12:17 PM

sorry about your friend.

the fish is probably upset due to a water related issue. check temperature, salinity, pH, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. a big water change will usually help. i wouldn't try to catch the fish.

when you make salt water, make sure you use ro, di or distilled water. after mixing it, it needs to sit for a few days (unless you have a big emergency), the pH, salinity and temperature should match the tank and i would use the same salt type unless the change is 5% or less. i would also add carbon to your filter until you figure out the problem.

bill

Alice · 10-22-2003, 12:19 PM

Welcome to The Reef Tank! We're glad to have you here though I wish the circumstance were on a happier note. My sympathies regarding your friend.

Are you testing the water with your friend's old test kits? The reason I ask is because most of us buy test kits when the tanks are new, time goes by, the tests get old and inaccurate (but we never throw them away, for some reason!) and we only buy new kits when something goes awry.

Even with a short move and keeping a good portion of the existing water, you could still have had some die off from sponges, etc. on the rock in the tank and now you have an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spike, a mini-cycle, in other words. The timing is about right. If you haven't added any new fish to the tank, the angel wasn't showing signs of ich and wasn't injured during the move, my guess is he was showing signs of ammonia burn.

That's just a guess though and if you've tested with new kits or had the LFS test your water, I apologize for the lengthy dissertation.

Jeremy's right on about removing the fish.

Alice

techniner · 10-22-2003, 12:34 PM

Sorry to hear about your friend man.. and I think is very honerable of you to continue his legacy.. It must mean alot to you and his wife.. and he smiling down on you I am sure...

I wonder what kinda tanks they got up there.....

Anyhow... I Could not reach this starfish that had died in my tanka acouple of weeks back.. and I was afraid to move all the rocks and stress everything So I left it..

I had at the time 30 margaritas and 20 turbo snail... and assortment of crabs ... they wiped out that star fish in less then 1 day...

No spike nothing.. just GONE...

Casey · 10-22-2003, 12:50 PM

Welcome to TRT Brad sorry about your friend

bradneal · 10-22-2003, 01:09 PM

Thanks for the quick response, the welcome, and the condolences. He and I have been close since our childhood and it's really strange imagining him not here.

Anyway, I have 3 cleaner shrimp, several crabs in shells ranging from 1/2" to 1 1/4 " in diameter, 1- Clarky clown, 2-Maroon clowns, a Green Mandarin, live rock, Sea Anemone, various mushrooms and coral

All water parameters are normal with the exception of the ph, which was pretty low yesterday, so I started bringing it back up last night. Today it's at 8.0. Gravity is up a little, in the 1.025 range. And water temp is at 78.

Filters are 2- H.O.T. Magnum canisters and a protein skimmer.
55 gal All Glass
No sump

Thanks again,
Brad

bradneal · 10-22-2003, 01:24 PM

Quote:

and he smiling down on you I am sure...

Unless I kill all of his fish - Then he's liable to haunt me for life!

Quote:

I wonder what kinda tanks they got up there.....

No sure, but I'll bet there full of angel fish.

techniner · 10-22-2003, 01:28 PM

How about critters ? ANd are you 100% that angel is not hiding real well ?

Jeremy1973 · 10-22-2003, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bradneal
No sure, but I'll bet there full of angel fish.

So true! heh heh

With the clean-up crew you mentioned, chances are, they made quick work of your fish. Just keep an eye on your parameters. And have some ready to go saltwater standing by in case you need to do a water change.

uryy4me · 10-22-2003, 01:36 PM

I wonder if during the move if the canister(s) filter "fouled"...were they either transported w/ water in them and/or had filter media possibly go bad?...if nothing else you may want to refresh carbon if this has not been done already.

bradneal · 10-22-2003, 02:42 PM

No, I'm not sure that he's not just hiding - that would be great. But I'm not holding my breath. He was pretty visible until Tuesday morning, and I haven't seen him since.

I have about 15 gal's of new salt water ready to go if I need it.

As for the filters; I left them full of their water during the move, and they were only off for about 3 hours before returning them to the tank. I have since refreshed and cleaned one of them. I thought I would do the other in about a week.