Fish dying, inverts ok

legendboy · #1 01-08-2011, 01:10 AM

Any idea what would cause damsels to die, with no apparent signs of problems? Pepperment shrimp (have had for over a year) and CBS are perfectly ok, as are snails.

whatcaneyedo · #2 01-08-2011, 01:40 AM

Quarantine your new additions.

legendboy · #3 01-08-2011, 02:26 AM

I assume you are refering to any additional fish I decide to add in the future?

What would be a reasonable amount of time to qt?

whatcaneyedo · #4 01-08-2011, 02:40 AM

Quarentine everything that you can. Parasites and problems can hitch a ride in on basically anything. A minimum of two weeks is what is recommended by Robert Fenner in his book The Conscientious Marine Aquarist

daniella3d · #5 01-08-2011, 02:44 AM

yep, only way to be safe, quarantine for 4 weeks to make sure you don't bring ich or worse, marine velvet! It can take as long as 4 weeks before marine velvet develop enough to kill all your fish and 2 weeks would not be enough as the parasite could be on a fish but in small quantity and the life cycle of ich or marine velvet is around 4 weeks.

I beleive that you probably introduced some disease, either internal parasites or bacterial, with the new addition of fish, so you should leave your tank empty of fish for 8 weeks now to make sure what ever is in the tank will die off without a host.

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Quarantine your new additions.

Black Phantom · #6 01-08-2011, 03:20 AM

Not knowing your system one can only guess. How is your water recirculated. What I mean by that is do you have a lot of surface agitation. You might have a build up of CO. The addition of extra fish might have pushed it over the limit and killed the weaker fish off.
Just a thought.

legendboy · #7 01-08-2011, 03:56 PM

I have a decent amount of surface agitation, no clue what is enough tho

Down to 1 fish today. Pretty much a guarantee my last yellow stripe damsel is doomed

reefwars · #8 01-08-2011, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by legendboy

I have a decent amount of surface agitation, no clue what is enough tho

Down to 1 fish today. Pretty much a guarantee my last yellow stripe damsel is doomed

how old is your tank??

im also going with oxygen are you running a skimmer??