Dead fish everywhere!!!

[sampsonndelila]

I caught my 6 inch fox face last night and transferred him to my QT tank. I did the drip method. I acclimated the water for almost an hour.

When I put him in the smaller tank and he laid on the bottom. Grasping for air. He was a strange color. I remember from transfers before he was kind of a drama Queen.

This morning the tank was murky the fox face buried himself under a large rock in the tank, My two clowns were dead, my mandarin goby, and my pseduchromis (sp) were all dead. Is there any way the fox face had a heart attack and released his poison.

I had a file fish two starfish and a BTA survive the event. I am pretty upset. Should I have known better?

[moe]

ouch I really feel ur pain, same sort of stuff happen to me this past weekend with a anemone and just poison everything except my clowns. Really sorry for ur lost.

[clone]

what it sound like is, when that fish was burring itself,it released a nitrate pocket,and nuked your whole tank.

[sampsonndelila]

I didn't even know that could happen.

[Bill S]

Explain a little about your "smaller tank".

It sounds a little weird... Also possible that the smaller tank was low on O2 to begin with, and you drop a 6" fish into it, that was freaking out to begin with, and O2 levels got too low. That along with disturbing a sand bed?

[sampsonndelila]

It sounds probable. The only air I have in that tank is the water from the return pump making some bubbles, it has always been enough till now. the small tank is a 29 gal bio cube. 1 inch sand bed and 30 lbs of rock or so.

[ACE]

Did all of those fish live in your QT tank?

[ErikH]

+1 for oxygen starvation. I had four tank crashes before I realized that my tanks footprint did not allow for proper air exchange at the surface of the water ONCE my mag5 return pump kicked off and would not restart without a hammer hit. Not one person could ever explain why the deaths occurred, especially when my levels were 0 where they needed to be and PH etc was all in check. I lost alot of fish that day and since then have been very aware of how fragile fish are.

[sampsonndelila]

Did all of those fish live in your QT tank?

Yes, I used their tank as an intro tank. I put everything in there when I first get them to make sure they are not sick before I introduce them to my big tank.

[Squiers007]

So you placed all of those fish in there all at once? or you had them in there one at a time as you bought them?

[sampsonndelila]

So you placed all of those fish in there all at once? or you had them in there one at a time as you bought them?
No, not all at once, slowly over time.

[ACE]

IMHO, a QT should not have any livestock in it except the animal in quarantine. That way if that new arrival, or otherwise sickly fish or invert does not affect your healthy livestock. it can even be as simple as a small tank with a sponge filter.

[sampsonndelila]

I just had a few trouble maker starfish and two battered clowns in there my goby was having trouble with the flow in the large tank I think he just didn't look happy in there. I took down the whole QT tank tonight. It was commonly referred to as the swamp by my wife; it has a small problem with algae. Oh well. Live and learn.