Lost my sixline wrasse

[Teeb]

I came home today and my wrasse was floating. I don't have any aggressive fish in the tank and there were no signs of an attack on him. The only changes that were made was a couple of zoa's and a GSP were added to the tank yesterday. I picked them up from a well care for and established tank. I've only had him for about 3 wks and he was my favorite in the tank. I check my tank last night and specs were decent.

Ph: 8.2
SG: 1.020
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Ammonia: 0.50 ppm

My other fish seem to be fine. The wrasse did have quite a large belly on him, but was a good eater. Any ideas? If my other fish are in danger, I want to pull them out.

[dmweise]

Hmm, everything seems fine. The Ammonia is a bit high but it shouldn't have killed the fish. Did he seem at all bloated around the anal fin? I've had a few fish drop within a month of getting them because of internal parasites.

Were all of his scales flat and not sticking outwards?

[Teeb]

Scales all flat, but his stomach was very big.

[ballardjr2000]

Everything i read (searched bloated sixline wrasse) suggested parisites.

[Teeb]

Well it makes feel a little better that I didn't cause it, but man he had a great personality, I hope my next one is just as cool.

I was just looking at some of the pictures and she did appear to be pregnant or bloated. I'll get my next one from a different source.

[Bill S]

Oh, I give up. I can't let my self-imposed silence on MAAST get in the way of this one... Seriously, isn't there someone else on MAAST that's been around for a while that can answer this? WAKE UP, FOLKS!

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Everything "isn't just fine" if your Ammonia is .50 - or ANYTHING detectable, it's too high. 0.50 will kill a 6 line.

In addition, your Nitrites should also be undetectable. They are also lethal in small concentrations. Nitrates - to a point - are way, way less toxic.

As I recall from a prior post, the tank is about 11 or 12 weeks? Sounds like it is still cycling, to me. I'd take it easy for a while, until those levels drop to zero.

[JimD]

I was looking at this, Im not so sure on this one.... Ammonia and nitrates are pretty high, not familiar with wrasse bloat...

[recoiljpr]

I agree with bstreep and jimd, .5 ammonia levels will kill a lot of fish. Either your tank has not finished cycling or you have some other major issue going on with your tank (something big died and is rotting, etc). At a ph of 8.0 and a temp of 77 degrees, concentrations of .4 ppm are lethal to a lot of fish. Considering your ph and temp are probably higher then that, that drops the levels even more (at a ph of 8.5 and a temp of 77 lethal doeses start at .1 ppm!)

Do your self a favor and don't add anything for a while, corals, fish, inverts, etc. I will assume you have been testing and saw your nitrites at 0 and your Ammonia at 0 at the end of your cycle? Or, has your tank ever registered 0 on both nitrites and Ammonia? Have you also looked to see any dead animals (missing snails, bunch of hermits, etc). It doesn't take a lot of dead things in a small biocbue 8 to throw the levels out of whack.

How quickly were you adding livestock to the tank? What is your total livestock count as of now?

Also, you should seriously consider upping your SG (1.020) is pretty low IMO. I keep my SG around 1.025. If you do up it, do it slowly, only a little bit each day till it gets up to somewhere between the 1.023 to 1.025 level.

Please understand i'm not trying to put you down, or insult you with my questions and comments. Just some friendly advice. This hobby is so darn complicated, it's next to impossible to do it by yourself without help from others.

[Teeb]

The tank is about 12 wks old and did have 0 across the board before I added anything to it (after some trial and error). I'll check it again tonight and see what's going on. I'm not offended in any way, I am still new and bound to make mistakes. That's why I posted this was to get advice. Fish and coral seem happy this morning and everything is accounted for except for my emerald crab, but it's rare I see him in the morning anyways.


I did add 3 fish last week. What's in there now:

1 Green Clown Goby
1 Citirinis Clown Goby
1 Green Chromis
1 Emerald Crab
1 Pom Pom Crab
1 Turbo Snail
2 Astraea Snails

I was planning on upping the salinity gradually over the next couple of weeks.

[recoiljpr]

I did add 3 fish last week.

That is your promblem IMO. Adding 3 fish in a one week span on a 8 gallon nano will cause that spike. Your tank only has so much bacteria to process the waste from the livestock. Whenever a fish breathes or expells waste, it adds ammonia to the water. By adding 3 fish in one week you didn't give your biological filter enough time to be able to process the new load. In the future only add 1 thing at a time. Then after 1 week, test your parameters again before adding anything else.



What's in there now:
1 Green Clown Goby
1 Citirinis Clown Goby
1 Green Chromis
1 Emerald Crab
1 Pom Pom Crab
1 Turbo Snail
2 Astraea Snails


Plus the 6 line wrasse? That seems like a very high bioload to me. Hopefully someone else can give their opinion on it? That also would not help the situation if you were at the upper limits already for your tanks bioload carrying capacity.



I was planning on upping the salinity gradually over the next couple of weeks.

Good plan. I would also do a couple of water changes immediately to get your ammonia and nitrites down.

Just a bit of advice, slow and steady will always win the race. I know it's easy to get excited and find all of these cool corals and creatures to keep in your tank. It's hard to not go to the LFS and find something cool and just add it. But, when you do that you get a situation like just happened to you. It's better for your wallet, your love of the hobby and most importantly the life of the animals, to always go slow.

[Dee]

I would think that what is in there would be plenty of bioload without adding more. I have a 14g on my desk at work with a damsel, clown, watchman goby and a sixline. Any time I've tried to add one more fish, they always die. The ones in the tank have been there for at least a year or more since I first set it up. So I think mine is telling me it's happy the way it is.

If you try again and fail, I wouldn't give it another shot IMO.

Dee