Did the sponge do it?????

[jawarden]

Damn, I have a dead fish. I hate killing fish. Hate.

 

It's a three week old nano, and I thought all was well, until yesterday my false perc started the "I'm about to die" swimming technique. Sure enough, this morning he was gone.

 

I started the 7gallon nano three weeks ago, using generous scoops of live sand and plenty of live rock from my three year old FOWLR 29 gallon, and another 3 pounds of fresh LR. No corals have been added yet. Ammo went to 2ppm, then was gone after three days. A short cycle; great! I added a cleanup crew to munch on the LR, and last week added the false perc. The perc was very happy (eating well, playing) until yesterday, and is now gone. One of the snails may be dead too, but they're so slow it's hard to tell. I tested the (distilled) aquarium water for everything I know. Here are the stats, taken just now:

 

Temp 81

salinity 1.024

trates 12.5

ammo 0

kh 8

ca 420

ph between 7.7 and 8.0

phosphate 0.5

copper 0

 

It all looks pretty good to me, at least for the fish. You can see the tank and fish in the image below.

 

Two things I am considering: the bucketquarium I am using for the premixed water - some contamination there? Next is the sponge. After the problem (that's right, after, duh) I noticed the bag the sponge came in says "not for aquarium use". Could this be it? Can a fresh sponge knock off the fish? Damn.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Jeff

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

What kind of sponge is it? If it wasn't made for aquarium use, then it's the likely culprit. Dish sponges usually have some antibacterial chemicals in them, or things of that nature...

[Crakeur]

I think they put the "not for aquarium use" on there even tho they are ok. The southdown bags say not for aquarium use and look how wrong that is.

[adinsxq]

some dish sponges have antibacterials in them.

[jawarden]

I did a 95% water change last night to try and eliminate whatever was in there. I woke up this morning and did a 75% water change to get the rest. Not sure what else I can do at this point but wait, and watch the nitrates and ammo for signs of death. The snails look pretty good this morning, doing their normal snaily things, and the crabs are hiding out under the rocks, probably ####ed about the big water changes. I'll kee an eye on things for a while before replacing the fish.

[tinyreef]

i dunno if you skipped nitrites or just didn't note it but that may be the issue. was the fish gasping? if so it could be nitrites since you said the ammonia was zero.

 

cycling takes two weeks, minimum ime. even if you use a bacteria culture to jump start i would wait the two week minimum. it gives your system a chance to settle in, force you to learn patience, and gives you a period of time for re-arranging the aquascape.

 

put off adding anything else until you finish the cycle or two weeks. also, i wouldn't add too much at a time either.

 

another possibility would be cyanide poisoning but that's 'unnecessary' for a false perc. the ugly true story version of nemo. :*( disney always prettys it up for the kids.