Ok...what's going on? New fish loss(es)

Myka · #1 04-30-2008, 03:28 AM

Ok, so the last two fish I've put into my system (at different times) have both died at around the 36 hour mark. What gives? Am I acclimating too fast? Or maybe it's just a coincidence, and I've bought poor specimens...?

When I acclimate, I dump the fish with it's bag of water into a 2L jug. I start a drip, about 3 drops per second. When the jug fills up (about 20 mins), I empty out almost all the water, and let it drip until the jug fills about 3/4 again. The whole process takes about 30-40 mins. Then I scoop the fish out in a net, and plop him in the tank. It has always worked fine for me in the past oh...decade, but what do you guys do? Do you think it's too fast?

The fish I lost were a Jawfish about 6 weeks ago, and then just recently a True Perc. Any other ideas?

Pan · #2 04-30-2008, 04:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myka

Ok, so the last two fish I've put into my system (at different times) have both died at around the 36 hour mark. What gives? Am I acclimating too fast? Or maybe it's just a coincidence, and I've bought poor specimens...?

When I acclimate, I dump the fish with it's bag of water into a 2L jug. I start a drip, about 3 drops per second. When the jug fills up (about 20 mins), I empty out almost all the water, and let it drip until the jug fills about 3/4 again. The whole process takes about 30-40 mins. Then I scoop the fish out in a net, and plop him in the tank. It has always worked fine for me in the past oh...decade, but what do you guys do? Do you think it's too fast?

The fish I lost were a Jawfish about 6 weeks ago, and then just recently a True Perc. Any other ideas?

Most probably coincidence but when you say you empty out almost all the water and then drip till 3/4 how much water are your fish in? I think ithat could stress them a bit.

marie · #3 04-30-2008, 04:20 AM

I suspect it is just coincidence, did you buy the 2 fish from the same place?

I haven't drip acclimated a fish in years. Most of the fish i buy are shipped to me and usually spend about 18hrs in transit.
I figure the faster they are out of the fouled water in the bag the better so I just float the bag until the temp is equalized and dump the fish into the tank. Haven't lost a fish in the first week yet

24storm · #4 04-30-2008, 04:52 AM

I do the same thing. As soon as the water temp is the same i dump them in and i have had no loses.

Myka · #5 04-30-2008, 04:54 AM

Hmmm...must just be coincidence then. I dump the water out of the container so that there is only about 1" over the top of the fish. Maybe it stresses them out a bit, but I can't imagine it would kill them 36 hours later...?

Pan · #6 04-30-2008, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myka

Hmmm...must just be coincidence then. I dump the water out of the container so that there is only about 1" over the top of the fish. Maybe it stresses them out a bit, but I can't imagine it would kill them 36 hours later...?

Stress is weird with fish. I've been doing it awhile and there a lot of fish deaths i've seen (personally and others) that could only be traced back to stress (well not exactly). But if they are sick or immune system is weak, or cyanide caught etc. Stress seems to be able to kill them quickly in minutes or slowly in a week or so. They seem to never recover. Fish do just die, and without a microscope and a trained background we are often at a loss. It sucks, but it is one of those things. I'm sure almost everyone has an unexplained fish loss. I find moving a fish, depending on what kind ..say a potters angel..to a hospital tank or something has the potential to kill from stress. Look at the ich outbreak of a tang in a display tank, then move him to a smaller QT or Hospital tank and you will notice a big increase, with treatment obviously goes away but not always. Tangs are quite skittish that way. But humans are the same..there are people you can't scare if you wanted to, then the people that lose it whenyou say boo. A completely new environment sometimes three or 4 new places all in the span of a couple weeks i think has more of an effect than most people would like to admit. That being said if the other fish in the display are doing okay...watch them for any signs of anything, in case a pathogen was released into your display from the fish who died. If you see signs put them in a Hospital tank. Try and figure out what it could be, and treat. If they look fine i wouldn't worry about it., aside from it always sucks to lose fish ( i miss my potters angel, stupid tangs) there is not much you can do now

EDIT: WOW, Next Time I will Format it...maybe make a paragraph or two.

Myka · #7 04-30-2008, 02:02 PM

I think maybe you're right about the Jawfish. He was also in the bag to get to my place for about 30 hours.

Clownfish...they're weird. My Perc was supposed to be captive bred, but who knows. I find clownfish often get that clamped fin thing, and never return. I've seen that a lot when I've worked at various fish stores. I've always dubbed it Clownfish Disease. I've tried a few different methods of pre-treating clownfish, but haven't found anything that worked with any sort of conviction.