Sick Fish

[Sprout579]

I just recently bought a Fox Face and as it seems to be doing ok, eating up all the cyano he will change colors on a regular basis. He will be all yeallow, then turn kinda brownish in certain areas. He Also will get brown dots all over his body usually going away daily. Does anyone know what this could be? He also just today had littlw white spots in the middle of the brown spots.
Also my little clown fish was always the healthiest in my tank, but I went to lunch and found him struggling along the bottom of the tank, almost obviously dying. I don't get it what could have affected him so quickly. I took him out and put him in a quarantine tank. He is still alive vut very lethargic and just kinda flops on the bottom of the tank. Does anyone know what this could be?
I fed my fish this afternoon and my Carpenter Flasher dident come out so my guess is he may have died or is dying somewhere in my tank. All of this occured since last night. Not a good day for my fishes.
I tested my water levels and everything seems fine. Is there anything I can do or just ait it out and hope for the best?
P.S. All of my inverts and Corals seem to be fine...

[ChrisPrusha]

Mind if I ask what you tested, and what the readings are? Also, what are the specs on your tank and what exactly is in your tank? That may help to figure out what's going on there.

[Sprout579]

It is a 40g stretch hex tank with about 50lbs of live rock, 20lbs of live sand, 10g sump/fuge, aquaC remora skimmer, 9v UV steralizer, 150w MH, 130w actinic, 1clown(now dead), 1 foxface, 1 carpenter wrasse (my guess dead somewhere in my tank), 1 Royal Gramma, I engineer goby, 3 shrimp, 3 starfish, 1 closed brain coral, 2 stalks pulsing xenia, branching frog spawn, star polyps, blue mushroom, 1 ricordia (not looking so good for the past month, on the verge of death), and some other coral but not sure what it is. My Ammonia=0 Nitrate=0 PH=8.0 (added Kent buffer today) I just did my tests at lunch and will now test my Alk,Phos,and calcium. The salinity is 30ppm

[ChrisPrusha]

I am surprised your nitrate is 0, especially if you suspect your carpenter wrasse recently died. I would consider taking a sample of water to the LFS just to be sure. Also, I think your salinity is a bit low for inverts. It might explain why your ricordia looks sickly. If it was me, I would slowly take it up to 34 or 35 ppm. Your pH is a little low, but not too bad.

I am sorry for your losses...how are the other fish doing?

[Geoff]

what time did you test the pH? it changes over the course of a day. low in the morning to high just before lights off. a value of 8.0 is not to bad if the reading was done in the morning. if it was done later in the day, this could be a problem. have you checked your Ca and alk? you said you added buffer, but did not give values for you alk. not a good idea to add suppliments that you are not able to test for. you adding any other suppliments?

G~

[Sprout579]

not looking so good. the royal gramma looks ok, and the goby seems ok, but whatever is attacking them has killed the carpenter and my glown that cycled two of my tanks and has been around since the begininf(very sad) and the fox face doesent seem to be doing so good. and thats all my fish

[Sprout579]

reef plus, strontium, liquid calc, and phytoplankton, and I tested around 12:30 but I have morning lights come on at 11. I will be checking my values after I am done cooking dinner.

[Sprout579]

so really, I should keep my salinity at 34-35ppm???

[ChrisPrusha]

Keeping a salinity at that range may help perk up your ricordia, but that's it. Like Geoff said, stop dousing anything you can't test for. Again, if you have the opportunity, please have your water tested at the LFS. I suspect your nitrate may be higher that you believe it is.

[Sprout579]

ok my KH = 10.6dkH, Alk=3.77 Phos=.08 (bad) would putting a phosphate insert in the sump help?

[ChrisPrusha]

A phosphate sponge would help, yes. It certainly won't hurt.

[Kevin1000]

Foxfaces are very prone to color changes when stressed.

Stress can be the result of a number of factors ... overcrowding, water quality, and incompatibility are high on the list. Stress is one of the primary contributors to fish deaths since it lowers the immune system making the fish more susceptible to diseases. Each time you add a fish to a tank you are inducing additional stress into the tank ... especially in a tank as small as yours - each fish needs to re- establish a pecking order etc.

Keep an eye on your stocking levels ...not sure how large your fish are but 5 fish (including a foxface) in a 40 gallon tank loaded with LR would be considered overstocked by some.

Hope this helps.

[Sprout579]

Thanks everyone, I will be taking a trip to my LFS today to get a phosphate sponge to try and get my phosophates under control seeing as I just did a water change two days ago. What a crazy day though, whatever the problem is took the life of my Clown and Carpenter Wrasse so far in one day and I just hope that will be the end of the sensless deaths. I also will get a better Nitrate test kit as I am weary of the accuracy of the one I have. I will also be slowly raising my salinity to about 33-34 ppm to help out my mushroom corals. If anyone has any other advise I am all ears, I think my foxface may not make it, he was real pale and covered in brown spots last night, I can only hope for the best.

[Sprout579]

I will also be keeping a close eye on my ammonia levels because I can't find my Carpenter Wrasse, I am sure he is dead somewhere in my tank but not sure where and I hate to disrupt the whole reef to maybe find him, my guess he has died in one of the small crevices of the LR in which case I may never find him, I just hope my crabs and other inverts take care of the body leaving no trace of death in my tank