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I just bought a pair of true percs, about 1.5 inches long, 3 days ago. and today when i woke up my female perc was dead!!! i dont no wat happened! All of my other fish are fine. my salinity is 1.024, nitrate-20, nitrite-0, ammonia-0, alkalinity 280, and ph, 8.2, and my temp is 83F. i have a 75 gallon tank with 55 lbs of live rock, 80 lbs of live sand, about 45 hermit crabs, 5 pepermint shrimp, 1 cbs, 2 fire gobies, 1 banggai cardinal, and now 1 male true perc, 35 snails, sum small clusters of polyps, 1 flower pot, and 1 green mushroom. i have a 25 gallon sump, with a skimmer, all 4 types of filteration, it is a gravity filet, and i added 2 power heads. Can ne1 tell me why my female perc died? tx.
i also have 5 emerald crabs.the female was also agressive toward the gobies, could they have killed her???
Last edited by kevinrs at 06-Feb-2005 16:34

Last edited by kevinrs at 06-Feb-2005 16:35

Hey kevinrs,

I'm really sorry to hear about your clownfish.. With it being such a new purchase to your tank, I'd be willing to bet that there's a good probability that it's death could be stress related.. Especially if the fish wasn't really showing any outward signs of disease.. First with shipment stress then to the final home acclimation, these fish go thru alot to finally make it to our tanks.. Sometimes it's just more than they can take.. Even with the new owner doing everything correct, there's always a possibility that you're going to lose that fish..

What was your acclimation process?? Did you see whether or not the fish was eating once placed into your tank?? Any irregular color patches, grainy looking spots, strange swimming patterns??

I don't believe that your fire fish could have been the culprits in this clownfish's death.. Generally, they are incredibly peaceful and prefer to dart into the rockwork when confronted rather than fight back.. However, I do wonder how things were going with your coral banded shrimp.. I have read many stories of them becoming aggressive with fish stock..

HTH, and Welcome to Fish Profiles..

Last edited by Oleta at 07-Feb-2005 13:54

How did you acclimate your fish? How long did it take? I'm willing to bet it's stress as stated above. Did you look the fish over real close before you bought it to make sure it was not injured or sick? It's also a good idea to see it eat before you buy it. some fish simply do not do well when placed in a tank.



Dan

i floated the bag for 20 mins. then i drip acclimated the fish. I did notice tho, that the fish did not eat.

If that's the case, then it may have been doomed before you even brought it home. It does not seem like you did anything wrong.



Dan

Stress
Internal Parasites
Constipation

Those are three good reasons for a fish to not be eating in your aquarium.. If the fish looked outwardly healthy, I'd probably lay my money on the stress factor..

I hope that your remaining clownfish does better for you..

How about the way it was caught (i.e., cyanide)? Or wouldn't it go that quickly?

i no for sure it wasnt constipation, it had a strand of crap hanging off it, and i no for a fact it was net caught.

Cory Di ~ Depending on the fish's exposure, it can die immediately or linger a while before finally letting go of it's ghost.. I believe that it's estimated that almost half of the cyanide collected fish die immediately upon introduction of the poison..

One symptom of cyanide poisoning is that fish will refuse to eat, but there are a few other things that you can look for that kevinrs didn't really mention having trouble with..

One would be that the fish behaves as if it were disorientated in the water.. Mainly irregular and unstable swimming patterns through the water column.. Sort of like the fish equivalent of a human barfly..

Another symptom would be gasping.. As cyanide goes to work, in humans and fish, it restricts the absorbtion of oxygen.. Since it wasn't mentioned, and would be very noticeable, I assumed that it wasn't an issue..

I've also read that exposure to cyanide during collection processes can result in the fish displaying brighter than usual color patterns.. However, I think that one would be hard to determine if you weren't aware of the degree of coloration the fish was displaying prior to capture..





Last edited by Oleta at 08-Feb-2005 01:07

That's good descriptive info. How sad they do that. I'm so glad that organizations like MAC poo-poos the practice. I've seen the results of a MAC certified store at Pruess Pets in Lansing Michigan. It has rubbed off onto their freshwater fish and despite the 2.5 hour ride, that's where I get my fish. I don't mind paying more money either. They even quarantine all the freshwater fish coming in, in the back room - such a rarity to see today. Not one sick, dead or dying fish in any freshwater tanks and the SW tanks are just as good. Until I went there, I had never seen a SW store that didn't break my heart looking at the fish covered in crypto, emaciated, torn fins and you name it - often worse than anything I've seen in FW tanks. To say it was clean and healthy, would be an understatement.

Kevin, I hope the other fish is still doing ok, is he?