Help me please...

[MandarinFish]

My cleaner wrasse has been swimming on it's side for a while, then it is fine for a day. Then it looks sick again.

The LFS suggested giving it brine shrimp.

So I got an ounce of brine shrimp for my 135 tank, poured them into a net, then put VitaChem on them to give them nutritional value.

I put the brine shrimp in my tank, and all my fish started feasting.

This morning, my yellow tang was laying on her side. My sailfin tang looked bleached and was laying on his side. It looked like he stopped breathing.

My Australian Harequin Tusk is *dead*.

F&ck.

I'm completely bummed. My tangs may not make it (although they look better now than they did earlier).

I almost hate this hobby.

I am filled with frustration, sorrow, and anger. Some people don't care about their fish dying except for the cost. My fish don't just represent a financial loss to me, they are my beloved pets.

After investing thousand$ and thousand$, I am totally sickened by the disaster in my tank and the loss of my precious fish.

Please help me.

What made my fish sick? VitaChem? Too many brine shrimp? Were the brine shrimp diseased?

I need to understand this. Thanks in advance.

 

[Anonymous]

Man, sorry to hear about that. it sounds like they were sick, or the brine had a disease. Do you have corals in the tank?

 

[naesco]

Sorry to hear.
The cleaner wrasse would have died anyway as they do not survive in our tanks.
Stick an air diffuser in the tank now as you may have a low oxygen problem. Carbon filtration as well.
What are your water parameters?
Any sign of ich or anything?

 

[danmhippo]

It sounded more like the water is poisoned, well not exactly the term, but something is not right in the water. What's the current temp, ph, alk? Did you noticed any big swings of either of above? What is the make up water? Tap or RODI? Test for ammonia and nitrite too while you are at it. Is there any massive die-off's? How about gas exchange, any powerhead repositioned or taken off? Any changes in maintenance recently?

 

[MandarinFish]

Well, my wrasse has recovered. It must have been caught early in it's life, as it has taken to flake food as well as nori. It hasn't been gimping.

My chemistry and temp are all in line.

I am certain this is related to the brine shrimp, as basically all my fish were fine (except 1 cleaner wrasse), then I gave them an oz. of brine shrimp covered in VitaCHem.

The next morning the tusk was dead, the tangs were nearly dead.

Now the tangs have metabolized whatever it was and are back to perfect health.

It's not a degenerative disease. It's not chemistry. No major changes made recently.

The culprit:
1) too much brine shrimp? Will tangs and a tusk eat brineshrimp until it kills them?

2) VitaChem - not a good version of Selcon? (least likely, IMO)

3) the brineshrimp had a disease (perhaps also unlikely, as the tusk was dead in 8 hours, the tangs close - but then made a 100% recovery... I mean my sailfin was horribly discolored, laying on it's side and not breathing; now it it totally looking and acting healthy)

What do you think?

 

[danmhippo]

Vitachem doesn't really comes close to selcon. It mostly lacks the HUFA content.

 

[Anonymous]

Based on the latest post, I think it is an O2 problem. I don't know how many/much you put in there, but if it was near lights out the plant life started respiring using O2, bacteria had a quick little bloom to eat the brine and vita-chem, the O2 level dropped and you wound up with some fish that couldn't breath. After the water returne to a normal level they started to recover. One possibility.

 

[JeremyR]

Could be low O2, tangs seem especially sensitive to that.. but I've never seen it in a system that has a decent skimmer.

 

[naesco]

Just in case I would chuck the possible bad stuff if I were you. It is not worth the risk.

 

[slojmn1]

I would have to wonder about low O2 as well. Put an air pump with an air diffuser on it and run some bubbles, especially at night, and see if everything returns to normal at night. Night time is when this kind of stuff happens. Plants start releasing CO2 at night as lighting is off and O2 naturally drops. I would also huck the brine and Vita CHem if your are really worried about disease or soemthing being wrong with it. Try Selcon, great stuff. I always soak my food in Selcon and ZOE and feed a variety of yummies. I pretty much stay away from brine shrimp though, unless I have a new addition who needs to be weaned from it. Seems like Cleaner Wrasses are a crap shoot, they really should stay in the ocean. Lucky yours actually eats different foods, hopefully it is getting the nutrition it needs from those foods. Kind of like eating donuts all the time, tastes great, I'll eat them in heart beat but my health will suffer

 

[Anonymous]

Did you add an entire ounce of brine?
If so, I am on the 02 problem bandwagon.

So sorry you had to deal with this.

RR

 

[Anonymous]

I feel your pain. I once had a 12" Australian Harlequin tusk (they're my favorite fish, btw). He lived happily in my tank for a couple months, then for no reason decided to jump one night. He was just as colorful as ever when I found him dried up on the carpet in the morning.



-John

 

[MandarinFish]

Well, my Sailfin tang recovered completely. My wrasse no longer gimps around.

I was on the verge of quitting the hobby when it looked like everything was either dead or dying.

I will be certain not to add that many brineshrimp again. IF I ever use them again, which I am now heavily disinclined to, it will be very few and only during the day.

Crying shame (literally) that I lost my tusk. Too bad the brineshrimp are off the list for me now... my corals were having a field day! Yellow polyps and bubble coral were grabbing tons of them...

I appreciate not only the feedback, but also the sympathy. You're the best. Thanks.

 

[rayjay]

First of all, if the brine were live brine, what ever you wish to enrichen them with should be fed to them so that they ingest the product, not pour the product over the brine in a net.
I'm not so sure that you added too many as I normaly feed a little over 1/2 ounce of brine to my 90g tank at one time. (I use Selco, from Brine Shrimp Direct, to gut load my brine)
Find out if any other purchasers of the brine shrimp experienced problems in order to at least narrow the problem down to internal or external causes.