Knowse's post (A Really really bad day!)

[Len]

Our server is having hiccups. I'm not sure if the system deleted the post, but I can't seem to find it anymore, so I decided to copy and paste from my cache. Sorry about that folks We are looking into the problem.

[fish related and other unrelated rant]
<edit: long winded too>

Ok, so it's 8:45 am, and I'm in a freaking hurry because my kid pops a bracket on his new braces and I really don't have time to but I stop to gaze at the tank, before grabbing the bracket and heading back to the school to scarf up the kid to take him to the orthodontist's office. And just what do you think I saw in that brief 5 min. period of hecticness? Almost all of my fish are dead!!!

At first I noticed this fleshy lookin' stuff stuck on some zoa rocks, then I see my clarkii (Nick's second fish) stuck to a large colony of zoas, then I see my large golden chromis (it's name was Yellow and was Nick's 1st. fish) stuck to a power head, then I see the med. golden chormis being consumed by some paly's butt first and my sm. golden chromis is nowhere to be seen! I notice that dawg (an engineer goby) is still alive and looking somewhat normal. Then I hear a funny sound from a power head, sooo's I unplug it and remove the afore mentioned dead fish.

We get to the orthodontists and of course have to wait. And I just had to tell said kid his fish were dead, so you know he's upset about that. And the orthodontist just had to put bite-blockers on the kid, so he can't really chew well AND that just upset the kid enough that I let him stay home for the rest of the day!!!!

Now that I'm back home, I see that the skimmers had gone crazy and one blew it's top and skimmate bubbles ran down the side of the cup but not into the sump water. Dawg is hanging under the rocks, he looks kinda off, but I can't really say he looks bad. Now I noticed that my madusa worm is nowhere to be seen. I cleaned the funny sounding powerhead and found the backbone of the sm. chormis stuck in it.

[/fish related and other unrelated rant]

So now I have figure out what killed my fish and wonder why it didn't also killed the engineer and at least make the corals and polyps pissed off looking? Going to run some tests to see if anything is out of whack.

Yellow was our very first fish, we got him Aug. 15 2003, then followed by the clarkii a few weeks later. This is just really bumming me out! Sorry!!! . . .
_________________
Boobie Rhinosprinkles

 

[Anonymous]

Well!!!
Len, you gave me something to laugh about :lol: Don't sweat loosing the thread, I just needed to vent a little! Save the bandwidth!

 

[Len]

It seems fixed now, but that was the absolute strangest error I've seen yet. We're investigating. And I'm deleting all the multi-doubleposts 8O

 

[Anonymous]

I think the bb hiccuped!

 

[dadstank]

how does the story end??????

totally left me hanging.
is there a "rest of the topic"?

 

[Anonymous]

my bet is that your Medusa Worm is the culprit - Medusa worms secrete a toxin when they die, much like a Sea Apple. I had gotten some M. worms as filler on a shipment, and one met the wrong end of a power head, and in a matter or 2.5 hours, all the livestock(8 fish and a fleet of snails, shrimps, and crabs) was completely dead or dying

 

[Anonymous]

Guy and I both had been of the thought that it was the medusa worm that killed the fish.

I was sllightly wrong on the age of Yellow, he was the fish that cycled the tank, so we had him 6 weeks earlier that I remembered. The date given was the date that we got the clarkii.

I guess I should give some tank specs.
29g drilled with 11g in sump.
30lbs lr in tank
50lbs lr in sump
20lbs ls
2 skimmers
2 ph in tank (intakes are screened)
Water params have always been in check, except for phos. which is always high. amm, rites and rates are and have been nill for well over a year and a half. pH and temp are/have been good to go, alk and cal are a struggle to keep up, so I dose with b-ionic every 3rd day.

Livestock before die off.
clarkii
3 golden chormis
engineer goby
4 bta's
assortment of lps and zoa polyps
black banded brittle
black emerald crab
2 hermits in tank
6 hermits in sump
3 nerite snails in tank
crap load of stomatella snails in sump
crap load of asterina stars in tank and sump

After fish die off
engineer goby
all snails and hermits accounted for
bta's, lps & zoas all accounted for

I tested the water yesertday and everything is in line. I didn't have any aged water for a water change, so made up a new batch which will be used today, just for precautionary measures. The tank was overstocked and I had wanted to remove a couple fish, but not this way! The tank looks really strange, I was so used to having lots of (fish) movement. Now it just looks bare and empty.

I get to rethink the whole stocking thing. Which is funny because I had just been talking to a guy at the lfs the day before this happened and had said one of those "If I could do it all again" things 8O In the mean time, I'll get the phosphates under control along with all the problems that causes. Get the tank cleared and cleaned up and then decide which way to go as far as fish are concerned.

On a bright note, I'm going to a frag swap in Nashville on the 14th and have a bunch of new frags on the way! 8)

[edit] I forgot to mention that I consoled myself yesterday w/3lbs of chocolate![/edit]

 

[Anonymous]

Crap 8O
I'm tired of editing that post :? The emarld crab and banded brittle are counted and present also.

 

[Anonymous]

That sucks about your fish Sally, at least the corals/inverts are pretty much fine.

BTW, do you know Charles aka Easttn?

 

[Anonymous]

No, I had plans to hunt him down next weekend :wink: If you talk to him before then, tell him to stop by the KY table and say hi!

 

[Anonymous]

um, the KY (brand?) table at a frag swap? (sorry, slippery subject)

I'll be emailling him today, so he'll know to hunt you down. For ease of finding each other, I'll have him drop off your stuff with Randy at our Reef Nutrition table.

 

[Anonymous]

My stuff???? Now you've got me, I thought we were just supposed to hook up so we could talk about you :wink: