Fish are dying slowly one by one

[125gSW]

Not sure why or how my fish are starting to disappear one by one.

So far have 3 fish have "disappeared"

all of this started after i did 25-30% water changes for the past 2-3 weeks. I'm positive it's not the salt, my WC procedure is simply adding the RODI, adding salt for 1.026 salinity and having a pump and heater running, usually i let it run for 24-48 hours before i do the actual change. I also siphon the sand but this past time I didnt clean the glass so is it possible the diatoms are damaging?

As for water parameters:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20-30ish
pH: 8.0-8.1 ish

This is a fish only converting to a reef.

I havent added anything new to the tank but I do plan on adding more dry/base rock

Anyone have any idea what could be causing my fish to go missing? sucks to see fish not show up for feeding time

First fish that went missing was the Wrasse

second was the firefish

and now the other firefish

everyone else is eating just fine and swimming just fine and look in great health.


EDIT:

Livestock list:

2 Clown fish
2 B/G Chromis
2 Cardinal Fish
2 Jawfish
1 YWG
1 Pistol shrimp (paired with YWG)
2 Cleaner Shrimp
2-3 Nassarius snails


Equipment List:

Sump
Protein Skimmer
Chemi Pure


in a 125 gal tank

 

[dimo]

Missing as in they disappeared? Did you check the surrounding floor to make sure they didn’t jump?

 

[125gSW]

Missing as in they disappeared? Did you check the surrounding floor to make sure they didn’t jump?

Missing as in I cant find them anywhere nor their body. I have a lid on top and a full canopy, theyre not in the sump or any of the piping or the overflow area

 

[Jr'sReef]

Do you have anemone? Do you hear clicking noises at night?

 

[125gSW]

Do you have anemone? Do you hear clicking noises at night?

No anemone, and the only clicking i hear are from my pistol shrimp but I heavily doubt it's the pistol shrimp considering its scared of everything. I started the tank off with Dry/Base rock and only used couple pieces of live rock to seed it.

Could it simply be because I stripped beneficial bacteria out from water changes?

 

[mahindra.dev]

You don’t have to add more fish.

For me my tang became aggressive, to a point where I lost Fire fish first, Then the goby jumped as well but into the overflow and then hawk fish. I was lucky I could save both the goby and hawk.

Point being the tang became aggressive during feeding time. I feed my fish 2 Times a day and 3 Times during weekend. But my tank is a 45G. So tang was getting bigger and was stressing fish during feeding. So sure enough every time my cover was off I had jumpers. I had to give my tang away to a bigger tank.

So check if any of ur fish are aggressive now.

 

[125gSW]

You don’t have to add more fish.

For me my tang became aggressive, to a point where I lost Fire fish first, Then the goby jumped as well but into the overflow and then hawk fish. I was lucky I could save both the goby and hawk.

Point being the tang became aggressive during feeding time. I feed my fish 2 Times a day and 3 Times during weekend. But my tank is a 45G. So tang was getting bigger and was stressing fish during feeding. So sure enough every time my cover was off I had jumpers. I had to give my tang away to a bigger tank.

So check if any of ur fish are aggressive now.

No bullies like that crrently, I looked for that too during feeding but it was just normal competition for food nothing crazy, my tank is currently very very roomy. Which leads me to believe something is wrong with my water or there's a invasive critter I have no idea about. Idk if i should try adding beneficial bacteria to see what happens

 

[mahindra.dev]

No bullies like that crrently, I looked for that too during feeding but it was just normal competition for food nothing crazy, my tank is currently very very roomy. Which leads me to believe something is wrong with my water or there's a invasive critter I have no idea about. Idk if i should try adding beneficial bacteria to see what happens

I just looked at your fish list. Yeah none seem to be the aggressive type and you have 125g.

But the fish you lost, all are jumpers? Are you sure none are surfers? For me before th diamond goby I lost a Randall’s shrimp but didn’t find him for 2 weeks till I was doing some maintenance and he was between cabinet and floor. I could not even recognize. Sorry to hear about all this and I’m not helping. But your water is fine. I’d say don’t do anything on water chemistry. Wait for sometime!!

 

[125gSW]

I just looked at your fish list. Yeah none seem to be the aggressive type and you have 125g.

But the fish you lost, all are jumpers? Are you sure none are surfers? For me before th diamond goby I lost a Randall’s shrimp but didn’t find him for 2 weeks till I was doing some maintenance and he was between cabinet and floor. I could not even recognize. Sorry to hear about all this and I’m not helping. But your water is fine. I’d say don’t do anything on water chemistry. Wait for sometime!!

It's ok! This is the tough part of the hobby and that was the first thing I did, I looked desperately everywhere but I have a glass canopy ontop covering everything.

I have a scheduled Water change for sunday, im contemplating if I should go through with it or not, or if I should throw in some bacteria

 

[125gSW]

So my plan is to siphon a bit more try to get more detritus, clear up any spot of diatoms, and add more live bacteria during the water change. After all that add in Cerith snails and probably a couple of blue hermits for clean up and then hope & pray no one else goes I'm not sure how long i should wait before adding my first coral or more fish

 

[james983]

How old is your tank? Diatoms will not kill your fish but an Ammonia spike will. Sometimes finding dead fish in a tank is difficult, but if your sure they haven’t jumped and are not in the overflows or sump they must be in the tank. If you had a large cleanup crew I could understand not finding a dead fish, particularly small ones.

 

[125gSW]

How old is your tank? Diatoms will not kill your fish but an Ammonia spike will. Sometimes finding dead fish in a tank is difficult, but if your sure they haven’t jumped and are not in the overflows or sump they must be in the tank. If you had a large cleanup crew I could understand not finding a dead fish, particularly small ones.

Will be 1 year in couple of weeks. I will test for ammonia again today but everything keeps coming up clear, and im worried about shifting my rocks to find everything and dismantling my aquascape lol but your logic is right, I might as well try to find the bodies

 

[tank o tang]

Have a wrasse that I chalked up as dead a while ago and just the other night I saw him swimming around and couldn't believe it.

 

[125gSW]

Have a wrasse that I chalked up as dead a while ago and just the other night I saw him swimming around and couldn't believe it.

how long did he disappear? I hope the same thing happens to me lol

 

[THX1138CY]

I've found missing fish from my display in my skimmer inlet which is in my sump, I'd look harder.

 

[vegamedic]

double check your heaters/tank temp with a different thermometer. same thing happened to me and i found out my tank was running at 72 degrees instead of 76. BRS sells "true" temp probes, I used the thermapen I brew with

 

[mike werner]

How old is your tank? Diatoms will not kill your fish but an Ammonia spike will. Sometimes finding dead fish in a tank is difficult, but if your sure they haven’t jumped and are not in the overflows or sump they must be in the tank. If you had a large cleanup crew I could understand not finding a dead fish, particularly small ones.

I agree with james for the most part.fish are fish and die then vanish for no known reason at all.most small fish that vanish are sometimes quickly consumed by the clean up crew.
I've lost one fish in one tank and then one in another tank two days later.was it something I was doing?probably not sense it was only one fish in two different tanks.
don't drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out.it may be just a coinkidink. do what you have been doing sense the beginning.we all lose fish and it makes us sad but it's just part of this cool hobby.JMO from my years of experience.