my fish are dying?

Sharkie

Sharkie

The Damsel Defender
ahh!! help! D:

last night one of my 4 chromis died. His eyes were caved in and his fins were stuck straight out from his body with his mouth all "O" stuck like. I thought maybe he died of old age (i bought a school of 4 from a guy who said he had them for 8 years)... today everything was fine when I fed them their mysis....

fast forward to now. just got home from a birthday party to 2 dead chromis, all my fish are gasping (including kona who keeps twitching his head) and sunny my very very first fish is on the verge of death... she keeps trying to swim but cant :( I don't know whats wrong! all the levels are 100% spot on...

the only thing i've noticed since I've gotten home is very large (6-8 inches) bristleworms who have been enjoying munching on my mushroom colonies (which have now been reduced to like... 5 mushrooms from like 40). I've been trying to pick them out (ya'll know I don't like bristles but i've been trying to give them the benefit of the doubt) but i noticed on the one chromis I have left he has what appears to be scratches on the top of his head... and his eyes are slowly sinking inward. We can't find the other chromis and the one dead one we just saw a HUGE bristle was trying to eat. needless to say i KILLED that mother eff.

ugh. I don't know what to do? anyone know the symptoms of my fish? do i have fireworms and not bristleworm?? these are more blue-ish in color

:( i don't want the rest of my fish to die... they are all acting funny :c
 
AMMONIA!!! test for it and im sure its high right now youll need to do a water change to get it lower.... do your levels and post back asap.
 
did you do a water change after the first dead chromis? and have you added anything new or noticed any other critters missing?
 
nope. my levels are all fine. not a spot of ammonia in the tank at all... levels read:

ammonia: 0
nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
pH: 8.3
Salnity: 023
temp: 77
phosephate: 0
calcium: 430

everything is right on target... idk what gives!

and sunny just died :(

have added anything new in 2 months and no recent water changes....
 
whhhaattt the hell haha hows what do you have for water flow/oxygenation?
the only thing that seems off is that maybe the salinity and temp are a hair too low but not even enough to cause problems... maybe try raising to .025 and 79-81? i have no idea otherwise i was expecting you to have an ammonia spike hah
 
my tank has always been at .023 and the temps always stayed 77/78. don't wanna raise those too much because of my inverts and corals.... been that way for a year and a half now so I know those arent the problems.

I've got a HOB filter and 2 korilia 4's for my flow. waterflow is crazy in there... my clowns like to go in the "eac" and swim against the currents as they get pushed from one into the other.

idk what the problem is... fish disease? anything like opposite of popeye that anyone knows of? all my fishes eyes are sunken in when they die
 
i really dont know... is it only the chromis being affected? i remember noting a weird defect among chromis where they would get dazed and swim back and forth in straight lines bumping into things and smacking into the glass like they were dazed or something.. later that morning he died and when i returned to the lfs i purchased him from i noticed that there were many dead chromis with the same rigor mortis as you described [eyes mouth and fins] and some were doing the swimming behaviors that mine did before he died... anyway are any other fish acting strange or just the chromis?
 
Salinity and temp are fine. Don't mess with anything that's not the problem.

How old are your test kits? If they are over a year old, they should be replaced. You could be getting bogus readings due to bad test kits.

The eyes sinking in is normal when fish die. It's not indicative of any disease or condition, it just happens to dead and dying fish. The bristleworms are not causing this either...

Try checking for stray voltage.

Identifying, Locating and Curing Stray Voltage in a Saltwater Aquarium
 
no stray voltage, that was what i checked first lol.

the test kits I got 2 months before I left so I knew that there would be no problems for my mom and sister who were taking care of it while i was gone. they were doing everything right and my sisters tank has flourished. I just don't understand what the problem is.... old age? *shrugs* :dunno:
 
I suppose it could be old age, but that wouldn't explain all of them getting sick and dying at the same time. I would buy a new ammonia test kit just to be sure. It could have been bad from the beginning.
 
alright new ammonia kit and still no signs of the stuff.... even took in water and its fine there too....

no cleaning products coulda been around bc i'm the only one that cleans around the tank :p plus there is a full lid on the top....
 
Really weird and sad for you :(

I hope you have no vindictive roomies in there. Nothing in your routine has changed? nothing even minor, like food? Did you buy a new packet of food that might be bad? Are there any corals in there that might've died and released toxins?
 
Quote- (i bought a school of 4 from a guy who said he had them for 8 years.

I'll bet those fish had some kind of disease that killing your fish.
We had the same thing happen from a new wholesaler we tryed at the LFS.All the "new" fish looked fine in the bags.Within minutes of being placed in the tanks,fish were dying.Not just the new fish,but fish we'd had in the store for several weeks.And we use the same procedures there as most everybody on this uses at home.
 
Yote, they have been there for 4 months and came from our LFS from a guy who had them that long htat works there :l do you think they could've had problems?
 

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