I need help…

zedHead84 · Mar 25, 2023

I have lost three fish in the past two months. First two was a bicolor blennie and second was a purple filefish. The last one happened today and I was able to snap a couple of pics of him. It was a wheeler goby. When I looked at him I did not see any signs of aggression besides a chomp that happened as I pulled him out of the tank. The tank is a 32g Biocube and currently stocked with 2 mocha clowns, yellow banded possum wrasse and a starry blennie. All the fish I have had more than a year besides the starry blenny which I added two weeks ago. I just tested for ammonia which is at 0. My other parameters are:
NO3 30.9
PO4 .22
ALK 10
CAL 450
MAG 1380
PH 8.3
Sg1.025
Temp 77.7

Im just at a lost of what it could be. This last fish was eating fine and was feed this morning. Any ideas will help. Thanks.

Kathy Floyd · Mar 25, 2023

[HASH=55964]#fishmedic[/HASH]

vetteguy53081 · Mar 25, 2023

zedHead84 said:
I have lost three fish in the past two months. First two was a bicolor blennie and second was a purple filefish. The last one happened today and I was able to snap a couple of pics of him. It was a wheeler goby. When I looked at him I did not see any signs of aggression besides a chomp that happened as I pulled him out of the tank. The tank is a 32g Biocube and currently stocked with 2 mocha clowns, yellow banded possum wrasse and a starry blennie. All the fish I have had more than a year besides the starry blenny which I added two weeks ago. I just tested for ammonia which is at 0. My other parameters are:
NO3 30.9
PO4 .22
ALK 10
CAL 450
MAG 1380
PH 8.3
Sg1.025
Temp 77.7

Im just at a lost of what it could be. This last fish was eating fine and was feed this morning. Any ideas will help. Thanks.

View attachment 3081529 View attachment 3081530

If there is harassment and aggression, I suspect the clowns. The Wheeler appears to be a little thin and im curious as to what it was being fed. I do see the nitrate is elevated but not dangerous for fish and Phosphate is VERY elevated (you want .04 -.08).
Are you by chance using Tap water from the faucet or RODI water ?
What test kits are you using?
Any signs of heavy breathing, loss of apetite, clamped fins, scratching, lethargic behavior?

Hurricane Aquatics · Mar 25, 2023

He looks to have an injury to his spine. Almost looks like something clamped down on him. I agree with @vetteguy53081, the phosphates are very high.

zedHead84 · Mar 26, 2023

I’ve been feeding rods food once a day and feeding corals Red Sea AB+ every other day. I just started dosing Tropic Marin ElmiNP to try to bring down the nitrate and phosphate. I also added a gfo reactor with GFO. I have been using a 4 stage Rodi for the freshwater. I think the chomp was from when a fish grabbed it after it was dead. I haven’t noticed any aggression in the tank.

Hurricane Aquatics · Mar 26, 2023

zedHead84 said:
I’ve been feeding rods food once a day and feeding corals Red Sea AB+ every other day. I just started dosing Tropic Marin ElmiNP to try to bring down the nitrate and phosphate. I also added a gfo reactor with GFO. I have been using a 4 stage Rodi for the freshwater. I think the chomp was from when a fish grabbed it after it was dead. I haven’t noticed any aggression in the tank.

I would layoff the Red Sea AB+ and lay off the TM ElmiNP as well. If you have a GFO reactor, that will drop phosphates very nicely.

I also feed Rods food and it can raise Phosphates if you're overfeeding, which is very easy to do with that food.