Fish died Instantly out of now where why?

[CC-Star]

My Bangaii Cardinal that I got for my bday 7 days ago died instantly before my eyes today I was so heartbroken for the wee thing....I hated not being able to help it live. In order for me to buy any other fish I need to know what happened so I can prevent it and never watch that sad scene again. So if anyone has an idea I would be so ever grateful.

Some Background information that might help:-55 gallon tank
-Red Sea Prizim Protein Skimmer
-Eheim Classic Canister Filter
-228 Powerhead
-Heater
-lighting: flourcent
-25lbs of live rock
-2 Damsels (for a year)
-Chocolate Chip Star Fish (1 month)
-10 Hermit Crabs (1month)
-HAD a Bangaii Cardinal (died today after 7 days)
-ph 8.2
-Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonium checked out alright
-Food Nutrafin max - Spirulina Algae Flake Food

Symptoms:
The day we put him in he just stayed in one spot for the next couple days just moving not to far back and forth. He did not eat very much at all or if anything. I thought I seen him swallow one piece but maybe not. The Damsels just left him alone, never bothered him. Once we turned off the light at night he would swim around the tank, still dont think i ever seen the damsels bothering him. Then the last couple days most of the time during hte day light he would stay at another spot...move with no lights on, still not really seeing him get food even if it floats by unlike my damsels that nearly jump out of the water for it. Anyhow yesterday I thought I would watch him as he is just so cute and beautiful, and he swam around a bit to the front then just rested his bottom fins on the bottom (almost like sitting)..i thought that is odd...then he started to almost look like he was falling/leaning to lay on his side, and opened his mouth every couple of seconds not barely but really big. I started to freak out called the useless fish store...they had no idea. So i tried to take him out and put him in my quarintine tank..and put copper they said in it (even though I saw no visible things wrong w. him, no colour discolouration, buggling, etc). But as my husband was getting the tank...he just then fell over and layed on his side and stayed there....then every like 3-5secons he would breath really hard (open)...then he tried to swim, almost look like convulsions...By the time Bry caught him and put him in the tank..he was gone... This was all in the matter of 10 minutes....he was healthy one minute gone the next its devasting.


Does anyone have a clue??? I so need to know as I can not watch another fish die like this...it was just plain horrible, so painful...please help me so I can fix it and make sure it doesnt happen again. Do not understand how my other things in the tank have just acted so fine and normal...and this one just ...oh poor lil Jo JO...

 

[holry7778]

Sounds like stress to me. It is kind f like that okay one minute dead the next. The best thing to do to help ensure that is doesn't happen again is to take everything really slow. I often take well of an hour to acclaimate a fish from teh bag to the tank. From everythign I have read it to use a QT tank for 6-8 weeks too. I guess this help the fish relax and also helps keep any diseases from entering your show tank. Give it a go again and just take things slowly. All fish like smooth transitions, even when trying to cure them.

 

[CC-Star]

Thanks Ya i just read "Signs to look out for: the stress colors of a banggai cardinal are very obvious, the body which is normally silver turns dark almost brownish, the white spotting disappears, and the whole animal takes on a "closed posture" (fins down and tucked in)." and he was exactly stressed out that is for sure...i hope that is what caused him to to go crazy and lay down and breath funny. And not something else.....that and only feeding him flake food, not live food.
Fish store told me flake was fine, and that the cause of death was the damsels....meanwhile...he wasnt eating, he was NEVER being bothered by the damsels.....

I could quartine him...but I only have a 10 gallon tank that doesnt really have a good filter/protein skimmer/etc......just a heater and an Aqua Clear Mini filter, and not sure if there is much of a point as that being a QT, being so small and ill equiped might tramatize him more than my big tank....So i guess only thing I could do is:
-let him/her acclimatize for an hour
-get live brine
...I hope it was just bc he starved...not bc of something else...i would of figured he would just fade away not violently die due to starvation. But i guess he wasnt crazy active either....i dunno does he need a mate....I just want to do it right next time....

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/f_marini_020799.html

 

[holry7778]

It was just stress getting the better of him. And not the Damsel if you say they didn't bother him.

As to doing it right next time, I can only suggest a lot of research before purchase help beyond all means. Books, Internet, here...where ever you can eat it up.

I have never kept the cardinals so I'm not sure of their needs but I always seem to see them in others tanks in multiples.

PS: Cheer up, you seem like your on the right track, and are interested in learning from your situation. Keep it up and you'll do well.

 

[Anonymous]

Quarantine, always quarantine. He didn't die because you didn't quarantine him, but it's possible that a fish dies from a transmittable disease (more likely than just possible). Quarantine prevents the rest of your specimens from being exposed.

Banggai cards are one of the few I'd house separately, unless in a very large system or you're breeding them.

 

[CC-Star]

Thanks for the suggestions/help....

Well thanks for the tips...searched up on other threads of "Quarantine and Set-up" etc....so next step will be to get my 10 gallon tank, aquaclear mini filter, heater, PVC pipe, small powerhead....was going to use live rock and sand..but makes sense if i need to treat them at some point that I should not use that..(reflection not bother them of the bottom??)
So in doing this I will use water from the other tank to get it rolling, and then just add water (from main tank) when it depletes and then do water changes....does this make sense?? And in doing this should I always maintain this tank even though I do not get fish that often....just so its always ready to go if i need to treat them for some odd reason? I will also get Copper so its readily available.

Well now that you have set me in the right direction hopefully during this step will prevent what happend to my poor Jo Jo. So I would of been able to feed him the right stuff, check out his habits, etc to see if he is healthy and so he could adjust to the water settings.

Really suxs if I can not have him in my tank...i was really looking forward to having this guy as an addtion in my tank....I figured maybe a pair would be more company. Hmmmmm if not I do not know what else to add to my tank....my two damsels although pretty, need more than that to liven up my fish-rock only aquarium.

 

[CC-Star]

Quick question....what type of Filter could I use for my QT?? Can a AquaClear filter do ...or something more?? I dont want to spend all that money for a tank that mostly is going to be running w. nothing in it...

 

[supergiantrobot]

I just read a great article on quarantines. Hope this helps you...

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/

After reading it, I'll likely stop stocking and start building the quarantine.

 

[Anonymous]

What kind of damsels do you have?

 

[CC-Star]

A Blue Damsel and a yellow tailed why?

 

[Anonymous]

As I've learned here on RDO, not all damsels are tenacious little devils. Blue damsels, however, are very territorial. As such, they may have contributed to the stress of your cardinal. I suggest that you continue with plans for a quarantine...they are a very good idea, and I think your present equipment will be adequate. However, I'm not sure a quaratine tank would have saved you cardinal.

Are you attached to these damsels? If you are, that's just fine. If you are not, you may want to consider taking them back to the LFS. The fact that you have the damsels will most likely limit your choices for new fish, as they are scrappy and usually not seen in a "peaceful tank" setup. It's just an idea.

Good luck, and please keep us posted!

 

[CC-Star]

Thanks....ya i was watching them carefully w. lights on and off and they seemed to not bother each other at all ....but then again it does not mean the cardinal was intimindated. I would love to take them back but at the same time they have been soooooo good to me as they seem to survive this long. And I barely check my levels (then again it seems when i do they are always around the same), where as other fish are not as hardy nor forgiving. So i am in that bind....if only all fish where as forgiving and flexible as the damsels.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry if this was already mentioned, I just sorta skimmed through real quick but I was curious.. - Do you know whether this fish was captive bred or wild caught??

I think I've read somewhere here that Bangaiis are still cyanide-caught quite often..

Just speculatin'....

 

[SnowManSnow]

I'm with some of the other guys... sounds like he was severely stressed. Could have been salinity, temp, or even drastic lighting differences than what he was use to.

Salinity is the big one, in my opinion. Differences in salinity can cause big problems if your water is a higher or lower SG, ok guys... lets not get into the SG astrophysics thing here...than the LFS's. Remember learning about cell respiration in High School? Salinity affects your tank occupants the same way. Cellular respiration will move from greater concentration to lesser concentration, in order to reach equalibrium (im a horrid speller). This can cause an organism to either dehydrate (for instance if your salinity is less) or... and sounding much more alarming, to kind of explode (if its the other way around). Thankfully fish adapt nicely in most circumstances, so this can be avoided with a farily slow acclimation process...

Sorry to bore you.. but at least we all have somthing to think about...and hopefully I didn't skew the truth to unrecognizable angles.

Have a WONDERFUL DAY!

Good luck with your next cardinal... and dont implode the guy.

B.

 

[SnowManSnow]

BTW I have 2 yellow tails. They are known as some of the most peaceful damsels. Great little fellows.

 

[Anonymous]

BTW I have 2 yellow tails. They are known as some of the most peaceful damsels. Great little fellows.

I was completely unable to keep my yellowtail with other species of damselfish. They would heckle eachother constantly. I kept the yellowtail though, and he does fine with my goby.

 

[SnowManSnow]

I actually have a domino in there with the 2 yellow tails.. of the 3 the domino is by far the more aggressive... may just be my fish though.. seems i always get into somthing peculiar.

B.

 

[CC-Star]

Hmmmmm my Salinity seems to me bang on....

As for my Damsels (Blue and Yellow Tail) they used to fight but now for the past year they have not ...they seem to get a long just fine. I was surprised the fish store said them and the cardinal would be fine together...and well everytime i was watching them (lights on and off) they just left each other alone. I guess I could just stay away from getting antoehr cardinal...but I am so stuck on which way to go with my tank. As in not sure what fish to get or to get rid of.

These are fish we love:
-Clowns
-Tangs
-Butterfly's
-Cardinals
-Damsels
-SeaHorses

 

[Anonymous]

LFS aren't always the best source of advice, imo. The people at RDO have no agenda (they aren't trying to sell you anything)...they simply love the hobby and will give you straight-up advice. So if you're not sure about something, check here!

 

[CC-Star]

Thanks ya I absolutly luv this forum....