Benggai Cardinal Died, trying to understand why.

[Olmeg_The_Green]

Hey guys, new reefer here. SO last night one of our 2 Banggai Cardinals died. Here's the timeline,


4:30 - roommate arrives home and both cardinal fish are swimming normally

8:00 - I notice one cardinal is missing. Find it on bottom side of tank gasping rapidly

9:00 - fed tank and all fish including the sick one came and ate
Cardinal continues to mope around the bottom sand until 10:30 where it then starts to float upside down near the filter intake, but still breathing
11:15 - found dead
Numbers:
82F (because of ich treatment)
7.9ph
1.024 SG
0.3 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
20 nitrate (up from 2 nitrate the day before) suspect its because the roommate started feeding daily

We also lost a Royal Gramma Basslet last week after it developed ich and we moved it to a quarantine tank.

Otherwise, no clouding of the eyes, rigid gills, red spots. As for white spots we are rather unsure on Banggais since they have spots naturally.
No corals in tank yet.

 

[hds4216]

2 to 20 nitrate in one day is a pretty big increase. What test kit do you use?

Also, if one fish had confirmed ich, you should take all of your fish out of the tank, treat them, and leave the main tank empty for 76 days. Otherwise ich will always be in the system.

 

[Olmeg_The_Green]

2 to 20 nitrate in one day is a pretty big increase. What test kit do you use?

Also, if one fish had confirmed ich, you should take all of your fish out of the tank, treat them, and leave the main tank empty for 76 days. Otherwise ich will always be in the system.

API test kit, done twice just in case

 

[iamacat]

Ammonia should not be detectable

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sounds like an ammonia and/or nitrate spike and likely from the very thing you mentioned- Overfeeding. It should not have caused sudden death though.
In freshwater, raising to 82 deg work with ich but with SW, when temperature goes up, oxygen comes down (another possible cause).
Final issue is you had ich , the cardinals also did. All fish should have gone to quarantine and treated . Ich is generally never on just one fish in a community setting.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey guys, new reefer here. SO last night one of our 2 Banggai Cardinals died. Here's the timeline,


4:30 - roommate arrives home and both cardinal fish are swimming normally

8:00 - I notice one cardinal is missing. Find it on bottom side of tank gasping rapidly

9:00 - fed tank and all fish including the sick one came and ate
Cardinal continues to mope around the bottom sand until 10:30 where it then starts to float upside down near the filter intake, but still breathing
11:15 - found dead
Numbers:
82F (because of ich treatment)
7.9ph
1.024 SG
0.3 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
20 nitrate (up from 2 nitrate the day before) suspect its because the roommate started feeding daily

We also lost a Royal Gramma Basslet last week after it developed ich and we moved it to a quarantine tank.

Otherwise, no clouding of the eyes, rigid gills, red spots. As for white spots we are rather unsure on Banggais since they have spots naturally.
No corals in tank yet.

A couple of observations -

Raising the temperature of a tank does not help with Cryptocaryon, saltwater ich. That is a carryover from the old days freshwater ich treatments. If you raise the temperature and don't use any other treatment, all you do is speed up the disease process. 82 is actually right in the preferred temperature range for this parasite.

I don't see any ich trophonts on the cardinalfish (as you said, it is hard to see n them), but it is breathing way too fast. That can be from ammonia, high temperature or gill disease, or all three at once.

When I see somebody report 0.30 ammonia, that is an issue because many test kits are hard to read, and the level could be higher. However, your lower pH will tend to detoxify the ammonia a bit.

If you have confirmed ich in the tank, you will need to move all of the fish out and treat for copper. What other fish are in the tank? Do you have any medications on hand?

Jay