Help! Sudden unexplained deaths in tank, worried about GSP's

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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AZL
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Wed Mar 27, 2019 4:46 pm
Location (country): United Kingdom

Help! Sudden unexplained deaths in tank, worried about GSP's

Post by AZL »

Hi I hope someone can help. My chalk goby passed yesterday and my lawnmower blenny today. I loved those little guys, absolutely devastated. Both were behaving normally and looking well until they went and both were eating well. No visible marks, nothing to indicate pathogens. I've had the blenny a little under 2 months and the goby just under a month so would have thought any diseases would have passed incubation period by now. Also nothing like that going on at the LFS, a friend works there. I also have the two green spotted puffers that were the original tank inhabitants, they have been here over 2 months now. Although they look fine and are behaving in character I'm really worried as the others were until they went.

Ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate present but very low, maybe 2 at most. I don't have a full reef kit as I only have mushroom that hitch hiked and a toadstool I added a week ago or so. I use natural seawater and the water was tested fully at the LFS over a week ago after the last water change, it's due one tomorrow. I'm guessing phosphates are high as I have algae and loads of pineapple sponges, a friend said that may have killed them but everything online say it wouldn't. I suppose the seawater could contain chlorine but it's the same stuff that's always been in there, only a small water change a fortnight ago and a fortnight before that. I've put in Prime just in case. I couldn't bear to lose my puffers, any advice or ideas most welcome, thank you!
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Help! Sudden unexplained deaths in tank, worried about GSP's

Post by Pufferpunk »

You say you're using natural sea water, like from the ocean? Many pathogens in there.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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