Lost my tang and a clown? no idea why

[Daniel475]

salinity was at 31 .. nitrite was .1 barley reading.. ph was fine.. no idea why.. they seem to get this little bit of film on them, then the next day there dropping like flies?? not to sure whats going on but everything was doing really well up untill this? any ideas?

[naesco]

What led up to the deaths?
Was the fish scratching or going to the surface for air?
What is the size of your tank?
When did you set it up? When did you add the fish?

[Daniel475]

no there werent doing anything like that they were being completley normal... its a 30 gallon.. the tank has been up and running for a 2 months the clowns have been in it for a month and a half they were fine.. the tang was added 2 weeks ago and seemed fine aswell.. other stuff in the tank is a clean up crew 6 hermits and 4 snails.. a cleaner shrimp.. not to sure what went wrong

[freddy]

Saltinity seems high,don't know if that would have caused their demise though,I keep my saltinity at 1.025.

[Daniel475]

31 is about 1.024 with what im using to measure, just would be nice to know what happened because that was an expensive accident

[blueyota]

what about water movement to produce oxygen in water overnight ... with lights off in a tank and not much surface movement with water.. oxygen leaves tank alot quicker ....

[RIPTANK]

Check your pH again. I'm bettin' it's your pH! Pick up a good pH test kit. Preferrably the Instant Ocean for about $15. Very accurate and easy to use! I had the exact same problem. My fish all dropped dead within 12 hours and were covered with a slime or mucus coating from complete stress and my LFS finally pinned it down to the pH.

Or better yet, take your water to your LFS and ask them to test the pH for you. If it is your pH then pick up some ReefPure pH buffer. Very good stuff and only about $12-$15. Be sure to mix it with some of your aquarium water first before putting it into the tank! Don't just throw a teaspoon of it directly into the tank or you'll burn your corals.

I was scratching my head 'cause my salinity/sg, temperature, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite were all reading good. Then finding my fish dropping like flies and covered in a white film of mucus. The cause of the mucus is from the fish over producing their slime coating to protect themselves from the acidity of your water. This quickly exhausts their little systems completely stressing them out and kills them. So chances are your pH is reading 7.9 or lower where it should be at 8.2-8.5.

I lost 2 blue spot jawfish, 1 percula clown, 1 yellow eye kole tang and a 6 line wrasse to dangerously low pH. All died from the same symptoms: Gasping for air, covered in a white mucus membrane and completely pale.

[Daniel475]

thanks for all the info.. im just going to let the tank mature for a month then try again.. shrimp is still alive so ill just feed him every now and then.. give it a month read some more and get the skimmer going as well.. because i hate losing fish

[Marlin65]

Just to trow this out there. Did your other clown live. It could be you ended up with Brookanella (clown fish decease) It kills fast and has that film like slime as well. You might want to wait 45+ days just in case. Your shrimp would not be affected.

[Daniel475]

Brookanella? what exactly causes it?? it could have been but it was also on my tang? and my other clown didn't make it which sucks..